Singtel debuts low-code platform to ease AI deployment

Singtel has launched a low-code platform designed to help businesses develop, test and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) applications without needing extensive programming skills.

Dubbed AI Studio, the platform is part of the telco’s push to become an AI-first company under its ST28 strategy, aiming to lower the barrier for enterprises to adopt AI safely and at scale.

Available through Singtel’s CUBΣ network-as-a-service offering, it allows organisations to create AI agents and digital twins, switch between different large language models (LLMs), and access built-in tools for security and performance monitoring through a single portal.

Speaking at the launch event today, Lee Kwang Yong, Singtel Singapore’s vice-president of enterprise products, noted that the low-code platform addresses the evolving needs of businesses grappling with the complexities of AI deployments.

“We see customers telling us they want to experiment with AI agents, but they want to know how to put those agents together securely. We also hear trends of customers looking at on-premise deployment of AI infrastructure due to reasons of latency, governance and cyber security concerns,” said Lee.

To address these demands, Singtel is focused on creating AI-ready networks with secure, low-latency connectivity; providing robust AI infrastructure, including on-premise options through partners like Cisco; and embedding security at every layer.

Lee revealed that Singtel has been using AI internally to triage network incidents, slashing the number of incidents from 45,000 to around 14,000. Through automation, this was further reduced to around 500 incidents that required manual interventions.

In cyber security, the use of AI had enabled Singtel’s security operations centre (SOC) to focus on addressing just 1% of relevant security incidents. “This allows our SOC to focus on the real incidents and filter out the noise, which in the past we weren’t able to do,” said Lee.

The latest expansion in Singtel’s CUBΣ portfolio comes as businesses across the Asia-Pacific region grapple with how to harness AI while managing risks.

Deepika Giri, associate vice-president and head of AI research at analyst firm IDC, highlighted at the event that enterprises are increasingly favouring controlled environments for their AI deployments.

“Despite the widespread popularity of GenAI [generative AI] solutions such as ChatGPT, a striking 65% of Asia-Pacific organisations actually prefer private versions of GenAI models,” Giri said. “This trend is driving the strong need for private AI deployments.”

These deployments are increasingly taking place on hybrid infrastructure designed to optimise performance, reduce cost and latency, uphold compliance and tailored for diverse AI workloads. “Hybrid AI is no longer an option, but a strategic enabler for empowering enterprises to deploy AI workloads flexibly and ubiquitously,” she said.

With AI Studio and its CUBΣ portfolio, Singtel not only hopes to provide an infrastructure foundation for AI, but also to create an ecosystem where partners and customers can securely access their own network data via application programming interfaces (APIs), integrate it with corporate applications, and co-develop AI applications.

“Our vision is for service providers, customers and partners to come together to drive a community of humans and agents in a very different world of AI,” Lee said.