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71-percent of Asian organisations remain stuck in AI’s ‘builder’ stage, STT GDC study finds
Singapore's constraints have shifted from early adoption to keeping up - infrastructure that is already stretched thin, too few specialists with hands-on AI operations experience, and pressure to justify every dollar of investment.
New research from ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), conducted with Ecosystm, shows that nearly 90-percent of organisations across nine Asian markets have started their AI journeys, but 71-percent are still stuck in the ‘builder’ stage, where early pilots fail to reach production and deliver a return on investment. Just 17-percent have reached what the study calls ‘future ready’ status, meaning they have the infrastructure, data governance and operational know-how to put AI to consistent commercial use.
In response, STT GDC today launched an AI Innovation Centre in Singapore alongside SuperX AI Technology, aimed at closing the gaps the study identifies.
Chris Street, Group Chief Revenue Officer at STT GDC, said the hard part is no longer getting started: “Across Asia, organisations are moving quickly from experimentation to implementation, but many are discovering that AI success now depends less on training models and more on foundations. Without scalable infrastructure and operational readiness in place, it becomes difficult to convert early AI ambition into consistent business value.”
Singapore sits ahead of the regional pack, with 40-percent of organisations at the ‘integrator’ stage, but only 3-percent have made it to ‘leader’. The country’s constraints have shifted from early adoption to keeping up – infrastructure that is already stretched thin, too few specialists with hands-on AI operations experience, and pressure to justify every dollar of investment.
The Nvidia GB 300 rack
The AI Innovation Centre, housed at STT GDC’s Singapore’s facility in Tai Seng, is the proposed answer to that problem. It pairs STT GDC’s data centre infrastructure with SuperX’s AI hardware and software, cuts the typical setup friction, and offers a 14-day free trial so enterprises can test performance and cost before committing.
Mingcheng Lim, Country Head, Singapore at STT GDC, said, “The foundation of any successful AI strategy is dependable, scalable infrastructure. By combining our operational excellence with SuperX’s advanced orchestration capabilities, we are providing a strategic blueprint for organisations to move past the pilot phase. This centre is more than just a testing ground; it is a launchpad for enterprises to achieve measurable return on investment and long-term AI leadership.”
Kenny Sng, CTO of SuperX AI Technology, added: “Our goal is to provide immediate AI capability. Many enterprises struggle with the cost and complexity of setting up dedicated AI environments. The AI Innovation Centre reduces that friction, enabling teams to deploy models from a built-in catalogue or third-party marketplaces in days, not months. We are bridging the gap between infrastructure and real-world AI outcomes.”
Yet infrastructure alone may not be enough.
A widely cited MIT study found that 95-percent of AI initiatives fail at the pilot stage, and infrastructure is rarely where the problem starts. Organisations that cannot define use cases with a credible return on investment will find that better servers do not solve the problem. For Asia’s AI ambitions to translate into results, the region may need to address that gap just as urgently as the infrastructure one.
