> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.ai.gov.sg/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Leading AI Engineering in Government - URL: https://blog.ai.gov.sg/leading-ai-engineering-in-government/ - Published: 2026-10-09T01:05:29.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T01:58:26.000Z - Description: Reflections on building reusable capabilities, empowering teams and staying relevant in a fast-moving field - Author: Tan Tai Kia - Tags: The People Hi, I am Tai Kia, Engineering Director for GovTech’s AI Programme. Across government, AI is opening new ways to serve citizens, businesses and public officers better. Central engineering teams and engineers embedded in agencies are pursuing these opportunities with intent, and we are beginning to see tangible impact. In my role, I am responsible for key architectural calls and resourcing trade-offs, balancing developments for the central platform in GovTech, and what needs to be built by engineers embedded at agencies. Get this right, we will have a set of core reusable components , achieving economies of scale, centralised governance and built in best practices. Get this wrong, and we risk a fragmented sprawl of agents, each with its own identity, model, logging and models that is ungovernable; or an overly rigid central platform that becomes a bottleneck for agency teams. On top of that, my team and I make assessments on what we buy and leverage externally, and what we build internally. Building everything ourselves is not tenable, and we want to be able to cherry-pick from the constantly developing industry offerings. At the same time we would not want to be locked-in by a few providers. And where it involves a core capability, we strive to invest in having our sovereign deployments. Beyond the central AI platforms, I take care of agility teams, forward-deployed into agencies to work on high impact data and AI use cases. Agility teams are the ‘tip of the spear’. They turn AI from potential into power, applying and contextualising the capabilities in central platforms and bring impact through to agency use cases. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/f5/caf570e4-5b80-4fc2-b4c8-0c544c2ce19f/content/images/2026/10/1.-GTO-Photo-1.webp) AI Programme Launch Event ## Instilling a Sense of Purpose I count instilling a sense of purpose and mission in the teams that I lead as the most important thing to get right. I have seen the same pattern more than once: when the mission is vague or unconvincing, teams begin to contest smaller things—scope, headcount, recognition. Often, the teams that are fighting each other are not difficult people. But in the absence of something meaningful , other things take precedence. As the author Max Lucado puts in his book The Eye of the Storm - “When those \[fishermen\] who are called to fish don’t fish, they fight. When energy intended to be used outside is used inside, the result is explosive.” Instilling a sense of purpose doesn’t necessarily happen just in townhalls and all-hands sessions, but also in smaller group sessions and every day interaction. A very wise person once shared with me that 1-on-1 chats don’t happen only in arranged sessions. Every interaction with a person, even if it is short chat on the corridor gives me a chance to convey what I believe or stand for. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/f5/caf570e4-5b80-4fc2-b4c8-0c544c2ce19f/content/images/2026/10/3.-Launch-of-AI-Programme.jpg) Discussing outcomes of engagement When everyone is aligned on the purpose, it is easier for teams and individuals to say ‘Yes’ confidently, and say ‘No’ gracefully. They need not defer to senior leadership for every single decision. Teams become more self-organising, more confident in what they do, and generally move faster. Thankfully, this has been easy for me as the public service has a compelling mission. In my humble opinion, there are only a handful things in the world that can feel more meaningful than serving the public good. ## Putting People Where They Can Thrive My favourite conversations are those I ask people what they enjoy working on, what they aspire to become and where they believe they can grow. I also share candidly what I see as their strengths and development areas. This helps me understand an individual’s strengths when crafting their scope within the programme, so that, as far as possible, their strengths are fully utilised while having a space to grow in the trajectory they aspire. The overlap between organisational needs and individual aspirations is rarely perfect. I would rather acknowledge the gap than pretend it does not exist. But when we get decisions on people deployment right, teams tend to become self-organising. Leadership can set direction and constraints, and trust the people closest to the problem, who are best placed and rightly skilled to find the best solution. GovTech has also evolved its people structures to support different forms of technical leadership. Individual contributors can progress alongside engineering managers; deep technical specialists should not have to become people managers to advance. Building platforms and applications and building teams are distinct crafts. Both are demanding, and each deserves a career ladder of its own. ## Sharpening the Saw One of the most challenging parts of my role is to stay current enough to remain useful. AI is progressing at an unprecedented pace, which makes that challenge even more acute. I learnt from a mentor that you will be the same person as you are yesterday, one part from the books you read, the people you meet, and one from the experiences you have. This has guided me on how I learn and keep myself updated. The books we read: “Books” include courses, videos, tutorials and technical blogs and articles. Structured learning gives us mental frameworks on which to hang experience. Just-in-time exploration helps us solve the immediate problem in front of us. Both matter. The people we meet: Partners and peers from the same industry are great people to learn from. But for me, I often learn most from my own team. They are talented, generous with what they know and willing to debate ideas openly. Surrounding ourselves with people like that is one of the fastest ways to grow! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/f5/caf570e4-5b80-4fc2-b4c8-0c544c2ce19f/content/images/2026/10/2.Workshop-1.JPG) Discovery workshop to know each other better The experiences we have: Moving to a new environment or taking on a new role can accelerate learning dramatically. My largest leaps in understanding AI came after I joined the AI Programme. GovTech is almost a miniature technology industry, with opportunities across many disciplines. There is immense support from leadership for internal mobility too. That creates room for engineers to take on new scopes and build new skills without leaving the organisation. ## Come Build With Us To close, GovTech is a wonderful place to make a meaningful difference through technology for the public good. We care deeply not only about the impact we deliver, but also about helping our people learn, grow and thrive. If this sounds like the kind of work and community you would like to be part of, we would love for you to explore our opportunities at [https://www.tech.gov.sg/careers/](https://www.tech.gov.sg/careers/?ref=blog.ai.gov.sg).