Soon after the launch of ChatGPT, NUS leaders realised that staff would start exploring AI tools on their own, but issues would arise over data security, privacy and the responsible use of sensitive University information. “To harness the benefits of generative AI while mitigating these risks, the University made a strategic decision to develop a secure, institution-managed platform where staff could use AI safely and confidently,” said Mr Irving Neil Kwok, Head of Enterprise Services at NUS Information Technology.
Today, the AI-Know platform is used by over 65 per cent of the NUS staff population. AI-Know has made such an impact that the NUS IT team won a Digital Achievers (Team) award at the Singapore Computer Society’s Tech Leader Awards 2025.
AI-Know is the gateway to a suite of diverse AI tools like AI-Minute (which generates meeting minutes and has saved an estimated 9,480 man-hours annually), AI-Create (on which staff have created over 3,000 personal or department AI agents on their own, even without knowledge of coding) and the most popular, AI-Chat (on which staff have generated over 200,000 conversations in the past 12 months).
The biggest challenge, said Mr Kwok, was in staff readiness. The NUS IT department worked with other departments to ramp up AI literacy through outreach and training sessions. It also partnered with the NUS Agility Office to run AI ideation workshops and help participating departments embed AI into their workflows.
Beyond using AI-Know, all executive NUS staff are required to complete two basic courses in data literacy and AI. Over 4,300 staff have completed the basic level, and more than 500 have completed the intermediate and advanced levels. Said Mr Kwok, “Ultimately, existing roles will evolve rather than disappear, giving rise to new hybrid roles where AI and data literacy become core skillsets for the future workforce.”
