JUST under a third of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore expect artificial intelligence (AI) to eventually replace or take over jobs in their companies, according to the findings of a new survey by insurance provider QBE Singapore.

About the same proportion (30 per cent) of respondents also cited AI as a threat to their business activities, said QBE in a release on Tuesday (Apr 23).

Yet, nearly half of the companies polled (49 per cent) noted that AI has had and/or will have a particularly positive impact on their productivity, in areas such as automated response, routine manual tasks, as well as finance, accounting and audit functions.

Shun Quan Goh, head of underwriting for retail and SME at QBE Singapore, noted that while AI could be a “great enabler” of better productivity, SMEs should not “lose sight of the risks as they embrace this technology and all the benefits that can come with it.”

The survey – conducted between December 2023 and January 2024 and involving 605 SMEs – also looked at their awareness levels of cyber risks.

About half (47 per cent) said they were “fully informed” regarding possible cyber risks, down from 57 per cent the year before. 

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The number of executives who said they were “somewhat aware” of cyber risks went up to 48 per cent, from 40 per cent a year ago. QBE said this suggested an “acknowledgment of new risks” that they may not yet know of.

The top three risks cited by the respondents include malware (43 per cent), data breaches (43 per cent), and phishing and smishing (39 per cent).

The survey also found that the proportion of SMEs that do not have any processes or protection against cyber risks rose to 19 per cent, from 9 per cent the previous year.

“This number shows how vulnerable SMEs may be to cyber risks, and underscores the need for companies to educate, upskill and protect themselves in this area,” said Goh.