Singapore’s agreement systems score high on trust, but lower on AI integration

Renowned for its diversity, the Asia Pacific region is home to a wide range of cultures and market conditions. People do business differently in different areas. And, according to new research from Deloitte and Docusign, the region is home to a diverse array of agreement management practices.

The global research surveyed 1,400 business leaders across 14 countries to find out how organisations currently manage the end-to-end agreement lifecycle; and whether the solutions, processes, and workflows they use are creating value. Of those surveyed, 21% hailed from the Asia Pacific region, specifically, Singapore, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

The resulting report, Optimising Agreement Management, reveals a clear divergence in how Asia Pacific markets are approaching agreement transformation. While Singapore leads the region when it comes to trust and governance, markets like Australia, New Zealand, and Japan are pulling ahead in AI-enabled capabilities such as contract analytics and enterprise integration. 

What does this mean for organisations in Singapore? 

First, let’s look at the nation’s strengths. It’s clear from the report that, in adopting agreement management systems, Singaporean businesses have laid a very strong regulatory foundation. There’s a clear focus on digital governance, with over 89% of leaders reporting confidence in their systems’ ability to maintain integrity and highlight local regulatory requirements. 

This base layer of trust in their agreement systems bodes well for those that want to embrace the latest in automation and AI. Why? Adopting AI can pose a raft of tricky governance questions, from ensuring transparency to ensuring data privacy and protection. With strong governance already in place, organisations in Singapore are better placed to hit the ground running with the adoption of new AI systems. 

And it means they can not only catch up to their regional peers (remember, leaders in ANZ and Japan are 21% more likely than those in Singapore to report using advanced automation in enterprise agreement systems), but potentially overtake them. 

Doing so will deliver unprecedented opportunities to realise business value. Specifically, the use of AI and automation in agreement workflows can help to:

1. Remove friction across the organisation. In the contract creation phase, automation and AI can help build or pre-fill contracts much faster; and can also accelerate contract reviews and redlining. 

2. Drive value through proactive insights. Automation and AI can help organisations understand and act on obligations and opportunities within contracts. This can be a strategic differentiator in uncertain economic environments—according to the research, leaders with more advanced systems outperform their strategic goals 27% more often than those with less mature systems.

3. Increase efficiencies through enterprise integration. By automating previously manual processes, organisations can significantly reduce the risk of error, while freeing up employees’ time to drive new value.

To sum up, with Singapore’s strong regulatory foundation, there’s a huge opportunity to accelerate AI adoption and automation in the years ahead. It’s an exciting time; and those that act now will only get further out in front. 

To learn more about how the APAC region compares to the rest of the world when it comes to agreement management, read the full report, Optimising Agreement Management.