Singapore Advances Towards Building an AI Fluent Accountancy Profession

Close to 15,000 professionals join national AI capability effort within two months as employers build practical AI workforce capabilities

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 28 August 2026 – Singapore's ambition to build an accountancy profession fluent in artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining strong momentum, with more than 15,000 accountants and finance professionals enrolled in the ISCA AI Fluency Programme just two months after the launch. The strong early participation marks an important milestone in a broader national effort to build practical AI capabilities across the accountancy profession.

ISCA AI Fluency Programme is Singapore's national AI learning initiative for the accountancy profession, aimed at building practical AI capabilities across the profession. It aims to equip 60,000 accountancy and corporate finance professionals over the next three years, representing approximately half of Singapore's accountancy profession. It also develops professionals who combine professional judgement and technical expertise with practical AI capabilities that can be applied effectively and responsibly at work.

From AI awareness to workplace capability

As organisations invest in AI platforms and enterprise solutions, successful AI adoption depends not only on technology, but also on whether people have the skills and confidence to apply AI responsibly and effectively in their daily work.

The programme is designed to bridge this gap by helping professionals become AI fluent as it is built around more than 180 practical accounting and finance AI use cases spanning six professional roles, including audit, finance, tax, internal audit, governance and board reporting. It also contains over 600 practical learning activities, enabling professionals to explore how AI can be applied directly to their everyday work.

Participants learn how AI can be applied to practical workplace tasks, including financial analysis and reporting, preparing board and management materials, supporting audit planning and testing, and accelerating tax research and internal audit planning.

Strong early momentum across the profession

Participants include professionals at different career stages and in different workplace settings: from students preparing to enter the workforce and small firm practitioners to senior business leaders. To date, over 250 learners have earned their AI Fluency digital badge. Almost 80 learners have completed the full 30-hours of structured online learning, equivalent to around 10 days of instructor-led practical workshops and have been recognised as AI Champions. Early learner feedback has also been positive, with the programme receiving an average rating of 4.85 out of 5.

The strong early take-up reflects growing interest in building practical AI capabilities and recognition of their increasing relevance to accountants and finance professionals.

Employers are investing in AI capable workforces

The programme is also seeing encouraging support from employers, as organisations explore how AI learning can translate into practical workplace applications. Professionals from organisations including EY, Deloitte, DBS, SP Group and the Accountant-General's Department (AGD), among others, are also participating in the programme, reflecting the breadth of interest and the growing relevance of AI fluency across the profession as Singapore's workforce adapts to an increasingly AI-enabled economy.

The AGD has enrolled more than 400 officers in the AI Fluency programme, with plans to progressively extend the programme to some 4,000 public sector finance and internal audit officers across the Whole-of-Government.

The programme is also beginning to demonstrate measurable workplace impact. At Accredify, AI workflows have been developed to reduce time spent on selected finance and contract processing activities by an estimated 50 to 80 per cent, demonstrating how practical AI capability can translate into tangible business outcomes.

A profession united by lifelong learning

AI Fluency is bringing together professionals across generations. Among the programme's earliest AI Champions is ISCA Distinguished Lifetime Member Mr Boon Swan Foo, who has completed the full 30-hour programme. His completion demonstrates a commitment to lifelong learning.

Mr Boon said: "Throughout my career, I have seen our profession evolve with every major technological shift. AI is simply the next chapter. What impressed me about the programme is that it is not about replacing professional judgement. It is about strengthening it. Continuous learning has always been the hallmark of a trusted professional and AI Fluency is becoming an essential part of that journey."

Expanding AI capabilities across the region

Building on the encouraging response in Singapore, ISCA is preparing Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese versions of the AI Fluency programme to support wider regional adoption. Discussions are also underway with professional accountancy organisations, accounting firms and corporates across ASEAN, with the ambition of sharing Singapore's AI capability model more broadly across the region.

Within Singapore, ISCA is working towards its goal of upskilling 60,000 accountancy and corporate finance professionals over three years, while deepening adoption across organisations and supporting more learners in completing their AI Fluency journey.

The programme will also continue to evolve with new AI tools, emerging accountancy use cases and industry developments to ensure professionals remain current in an increasingly AI-enabled workplace.

Mr Lee Boon Teck, President of ISCA, said: "AI will not replace professional judgement. Its greatest value will come from professionals who can combine AI capabilities with their expertise and judgement to deliver better outcomes for clients, employers and society. The strong response to AI Fluency programme demonstrates that our profession is ready to embrace this next chapter as we work towards our ambition of building an AI-fluent accountancy profession in Singapore."
Hashtag: #ISCA #CharteredAccountants #AIFluency #AIBilingualism #DifferenceMakers #Accounting #Accountancy

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Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA)

The Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) is the national accountancy body of Singapore. Established in 1963, ISCA administers the Singapore Chartered Accountant Qualification programme and is the designated entity by the Singapore Ministry of Finance to confer the Chartered Accountant of Singapore [CA (Singapore)] designation.

ISCA supports over 46,000 members across industries in Singapore and globally, with members in more than 40 countries. With a growing international presence, ISCA has 12 overseas chapters, 7 offices across 10 countries and a network of over 150 strategic partners, strengthening professional connections and opportunities across borders. ISCA is also a member of Chartered Accountants Worldwide, a global network representing more than 1.8 million Chartered Accountants and students across over 190 countries.

ISCA advances professional development and lifelong learning through ISCA Academy, its training arm and drives community impact through ISCA Cares, its charity arm.

For more information, visit www.isca.org.sg.

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ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA – Media OutReach Newswire – 28 August 2026 – The team of the Pokrovsky Carbon Polygon has announced its readiness to transfer its carbon monitoring and carbon farming technologies to Mongolian partners following its participation in UNCCD COP17, the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on August 17–28, 2026.

Carbon polygons are a pilot initiative of the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education. These specialized testing sites are located in non-urbanized areas and are designed to develop and test technologies for measuring, monitoring and verifying greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration.

Located in Russia's Kaluga Region, the Pokrovsky Carbon Polygon is unique for the diversity of ecosystems within its territory, including forest, meadow and aquatic ecosystems. Its key focus is the development of measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems for rangeland, desert and meadow ecosystems.

The polygon's main areas of work include measuring the carbon-sequestration capacity of soils under plantations of perennial grasses and developing a digital twin of the territory. The system combines a highly accurate, georeferenced terrain model with mathematical models based on satellite, UAV, LiDAR, multispectral and hyperspectral data, as well as ground-based measurements of soil composition, soil carbon accumulation, soil respiration and CO₂ fluxes. These models already enable forecasts of carbon sequestration across different agroecosystems.

The technologies developed at Pokrovsky are particularly relevant to Mongolia, where natural rangelands occupy around 70% of the country's territory and underpin livestock production, rural employment and food security. At the same time, rangeland degradation is widespread, with poorly managed grazing contributing to declining vegetation, soil stability, forage quality and drought resilience.

However, many Mongolian rangelands retain significant recovery potential. The 2015 national assessment found that more than half of the country's rangelands could recover or move toward recovery within ten years if grazing management improved. These findings are reflected in the joint study by IIASA, UNCCD and the BRICS Competition Centre, Feasibility Study on the Prospects for Carbon Farming Solutions in Greater Central Asia, presented at COP17 on August 22.

Alexey Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Competition Centre and Head of the Pokrovsky Carbon Polygon project, said:

"The growing relevance of carbon farming stems from the fact that it is one of the few ways to reduce environmental impact without the need to curtail economic activity and, consequently, without creating socio-economic risks. Within the next few years, carbon projects, including those in Mongolia, will be able to trade on Chinese exchanges, and we need to be prepared for this. The technologies being developed at Pokrovsky are already in high demand among our colleagues in Kazakhstan, and we see significant potential for expanding cooperation with countries across the so-called Asian Drylands Belt."

He added:

"The underutilized, aggravated endowments of Mongolia's rangelands can be transformed into a valuable asset as a high-capacity carbon sink through functional carbon farming practices."

The Pokrovsky Carbon Polygon sees the transfer of its technologies to Mongolia as a potential starting point for long-term cooperation in carbon monitoring, rangeland restoration and carbon farming across the Asian Drylands Belt.

Hashtag: #PokrovskyCarbonPolygon

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Pokrovsky Carbon Polygon Ready to Transfer Technologies to Mongolia