GovTech partners Google Cloud to trial agentic AI usage in public sector

[SINGAPORE]  The Government Technology Agency (GovTech) will collaborate with Google Cloud on a sandbox to experiment with agentic artificial intelligence (AI) and test agentic solutions for public use cases, said Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo on Thursday (Aug 28).

Speaking at Google Cloud’s AI Asia event, she added that Google will give the agencies under her ministry early access to the tech giant’s Project Mariner Computer Use API, which is an agentic AI tool that can reason, plan and manage tasks.

“From the sandbox, we hope to better understand how to interact with agentic AI and build confidence to capture its value for the public good,” she said at the event held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

Google Cloud also announced the general availability of Gemini on Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped and the preview of Gemini on Google Distributed Cloud connected.

This allows organisations to use the latest Gemini models while keeping sensitive information under their control, in their own data centre, added Google Cloud.

According to its website, an air-gapped environment means that no connectivity to Google Cloud or the public Internet is required to manage the infrastructure, services, application programming interfaces (APIs) or tooling, and that it is built to remain “disconnected in perpetuity”.

Unlike conventional large language models (LLMs), Gemini on Google Cloud Distributed air-gapped allows organisations to use the Gemini LLM without an Internet connection.

Several of Singapore’s public-sector agencies, including the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies, Home Team Science and Technology Agency and GovTech, will be the first in Asia and among the first worldwide to get access to Gemini on Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped.

It was also announced that GovTech will make Google Agentspace available to a select group of public officers.

“Agentspace allows an organisation’s employees to utilise agentic intranet search, custom AI agent creation tools, and Google-built agents to easily retrieve information across common work applications and automate complex tasks,” the press statement added.

But the use of AI in the public sector is not entirely new. Teo revealed that approximately one-third of Singapore’s 150,000 public officers now regularly use the government’s AI chatbot, Pair, to enhance their productivity, writing and research.

“Public officers are also learning how to build their own AI bots, of which there are now about 18,000 bots,” she added. These bots help with work processes such as responding to public queries, research data analysis and policy reviews.

Expansion to AI Cloud Takeoff

Google Cloud also announced an expansion to its AI Cloud Takeoff programme.

Launched in June this year, the AI Cloud Takeoff programme is a partnership between Google Cloud and Digital Industry Singapore (DISG). It provided selected companies up to S$500,000 in financial incentives, including cloud credits and partner consultancy support.

DISG is a joint office between the Economic Development Board, Enterprise Singapore and Infocomm Media Development Authority.

In addition to providing financial benefits, the expanded programme will see “Google Cloud and its partners enabling international companies to establish a data boundary for their AI-driven offerings to meet Singapore’s data compliance requirements”.

According to Google Cloud’s website, a data boundary refers to the customer choosing the region where their data is stored and managed.

From there, companies can boost their competitiveness and unlock new revenue opportunities by extending their offerings to regulated markets in the Americas, Europe or the Middle East, the statement added.