ABBYY Survey Finds Singapore Leads World in Shadow AI Use Amid GenAI Disillusionment
Singapore ranks highest among countries like the UK, US and France for Shadow AI
New survey results from ABBYY’s State of Intelligent Automation: GenAI Disillusionment report pinpoints the challenges business leaders are facing as they implement generative AI (GenAI) technology – leading to the need to use other AI tools to improve outputs.
Based on the survey by Opinium Research, commissioned by ABBYY, Singapore leaders cite technical hurdles, governance and cost concerns, and misuse/hallucinations as the top risks. Four in ten (40%) of Singaporean business leaders say training GenAI models was harder than expected and the same number found it difficult to integrate into their business processes. In addition, 30% said it was too expensive, 28% did not have proper governance, and a quarter (25%) had problems with hallucinations – when incorrect information is provided.
Many business leaders said they were able to address the challenges by introducing other technologies, with 41% using AI agents, over a third (42%) turning to process intelligence, 47% using Document AI, and 34% introducing retrieval augmented generation (RAG).
Once complemented with process and document AI, nearly all Singaporean businesses (99%) reported stronger trust, accuracy, and cost savings. This satisfaction saw a better consistency of outputs (53%), better integration into existing workflows (52%), greater cost efficiency and savings (49%), increased user trust (47%) and more accurate and reliable results (46%).
Businesses are spending money on GenAI tools that promise more than they can provide. In some cases, they don’t even need it. Before moving forward with leveraging GenAI tools or agentic AI, companies need to first evaluate their current processes and create a visibility map of their workflow with data analytics tools such as process intelligence. We’ve helped customers like a global fast-food chain improve the extraction of data from thousands of lease agreements by 82% by using document AI to improve GenAI outputs. When training models prove more difficult than expected, pre-trained, purpose-built AI turns out to be the right solution.
Maxime Vermeir, Senior Director of AI at ABBYY
The survey showed over a fifth of respondents are experiencing “Shadow AI”, with 26% of Singaporean business leaders saying that GenAI is only being used in the company because employees bring it for personal productivity, rather than as part of management-driven initiatives. This means shadow AI is higher in Singapore than other countries such as the US (22%), UK (12%) France (19%), Germany (21%) and Australia (17%).
The research also looked at the reasons behind introducing GenAI, with nearly half (47%) of Singaporean business leaders admitting that a driving factor for investment was that employees were already using it on a BYOS basis. This was higher than other regions such as the US (43%), UK (39%) and France (32%).
More than half (56%) say staff use it to “make them look smarter and more professional”, while 63% say it helps reduce workload and supports creativity. Generally, staff are optimistic about GenAI, with 92% of leaders saying they enjoy positive results. Given a wish list of improvements to GenAI, 18% of Singaporean workers requested GenAI would admit when it didn’t know the answer – this was higher than workers in the UK (15%) and Germany (13%).
GenAI is creating remarkable opportunities to reimagine how work gets done, which is rightfully generating a great deal of excitement. However, shadow AI, when individuals use commonly available tools like ChatGPT, Grok, or Perplexity without oversight at work, potentially raises serious data privacy and compliance concerns. The corporate benefits of GenAI’s potential are truly unlocked when leaders drive secure, strategic adoption with risk management as a priority.
Ulf Persson, CEO at ABBYY
Singapore businesses are shifting from hype to pragmatic investment—with 99% of respondents project to increase their budgets and the majority (21%) projected to increase funding by 6-10%. Additionally, 11% of respondents plan to increase their budget by 50% or more, signifying a more mature approach to GenAI adoption.
Access the full State of Intelligent Automation: GenAI Disillusionment and AI Wishlist report at https://www.abbyy.com/resources/report/state-of-intelligent-automation-genai-2025/ for more information.
Methodology
Opinium research of 1,200 senior managers or above in companies of 100+ employees in the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore. Research undertaken between 20th of June and 8th of July 2025.
This press announcement is a global summarization of the survey results. Please use the links below for country-specific announcements:
About ABBYY
ABBYY helps organizations optimize processes, accelerate decisions, and drive better outcomes with Process AI and Document AI. More than 10,000 enterprises, including many Fortune 500 companies, rely on ABBYY’s 35 years of innovation to turn business data into actionable insights that improve the way we work and live. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, and offices in 13 countries, ABBYY leads the way for smarter agentic automation. For more information, visit www.abbyy.com/company and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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