Epitome Global Report: How Asia's Workforce Is Resetting for the AI Era in 2026
New workforce data reveals 56% of Asian workers lack advanced decision-making skills as AI adoption outpaces capability development.
SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE, February 12, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- New data shows 56% of workers rate themselves at basic level in decision-making despite AI-driven workplace complexity; capability emerges as key constraint over headcount or technology access
Three years after ChatGPT's release, Asia's workforce is undergoing a fundamental reset as AI adoption intersects with deeper shifts in how skills are valued and deployed, according to new workforce intelligence data from Epitome Global.
Drawing from skills assessments of over 200 participants across Singapore and Malaysia between 2023-2025, the findings reveal a widening gap between evolving workplace expectations and actual workforce capabilities in an AI-driven economy.
Critical Workforce Data Signals
Three key signals emerged from Epitome Global's multi-year assessments:
- Decision-making remains a critical gap, with approximately 56% of workers rating themselves at a basic level, even as roles grow more complex and AI-assisted
- Digital comfort masks deeper skill gaps: while over 70% report advanced digital literacy, far fewer feel confident in higher-order reasoning or computational thinking
- Contextual learning works: generic training programs typically see completion rates in the teens or low 20s, but when learning is tied to specific roles or transitions, completion rates rise to around 90%
"The challenge for 2026 is less about AI access and more about workforce readiness," noted the report. "As AI becomes embedded in everyday work, capability is emerging as the critical constraint, as opposed to headcount or technology."
Five Critical Trends Reshaping Asia's Workforce in 2026
1. Disengagement and Skills Decay Emerge as Key Risks
Epitome Global's assessments reveal concerning capability gaps:
- Around 56% of participants rate themselves at a basic level in decision-making
- About 42% rate themselves as basic in computational thinking, with only approximately 30% feeling advanced
- Only around 1 in 5 workers consistently display behaviours associated with "AI-ready" talent, such as persistence, curiosity, and reflective learning
2. Rapid AI Adoption Reveals Management and Integration Gaps
Despite rapid AI adoption across Singapore in 2025, most organisations remain at early implementation stages: 65% are still focused on basic use cases, while 43% cite skills shortages as the primary constraint on scaling AI effectively, according to a recent AWS study.
AI literacy is increasingly treated as a baseline skill rather than a differentiator, reinforcing demand for T-shaped talent profiles that combine broad organisational understanding with deep domain expertise.
3. Asian Workers Shift from Outsourcing to Global Competition
In 2025, parts of Asia moved further up the talent value chain. The Philippines accelerated its shift from traditional BPO work towards higher-value digital roles. Vietnam strengthened its position in engineering and product development. India moved deeper into AI engineering and data science.
However, capability data suggest readiness remains uneven. Even in Singapore and Malaysia, advanced confidence in decision-making and cross-disciplinary thinking remains limited, with fewer than one-third of participants reporting advanced capabilities.
4. Fire-and-Hire Cycles Intensify as Capability Drives Workforce Decisions
By 2025, a workforce reset was visible across Asia, marked by simultaneous reductions in some roles and growth in others requiring new skills. Microsoft's announcement of cuts affecting around 6,000 roles globally in 2025 exemplifies this pattern—not a broad pullback in hiring, but a reallocation of talent towards different capability needs.
Epitome Global's data shows fewer than 35% of workers rate themselves as advanced in cross-disciplinary thinking, a capability increasingly relevant as roles blend technology, business, and people leadership.
5. Senior Employability Becomes Strategic Priority
With Asia ageing faster than many Western economies, senior employability gained greater attention in 2025. Governments increased their focus on mature worker participation, including Singapore's NTUC and e2i expanding upskilling initiatives for mid-career and senior professionals.
Across programs supporting mid-career and senior workers, Epitome Global consistently observes higher levels of perseverance, structured work habits, and sustained engagement with learning pathways. Organisations are increasingly exploring how senior professionals can contribute as carriers of institutional knowledge, reviewers of AI-assisted outputs, and cross-functional mentors.
Looking Ahead: Capability Clarity as Competitive Advantage
"As organisations move into 2026, differences in outcomes are likely to be shaped less by the number of AI tools deployed and more by how clearly organisations understand and develop their workforce capabilities," the report concludes.
Evidence from across the region suggests that capability clarity—a clear view of what people can do today, where gaps exist, and how roles can evolve—is becoming a practical requirement rather than a conceptual one.
Organisations that align technology investment with capability-based workforce planning will be better positioned to navigate the next phase of AI-enabled growth in Asia.
About Epitome Global
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Singapore, Epitome Global is a workforce intelligence and skills analytics company that helps organisations understand, develop, and deploy talent in an AI-enabled economy. Combining data analytics, artificial intelligence, and sector-specific expertise, Epitome Global supports public and private sector organisations in workforce planning, skills assessment, and targeted upskilling.
With around 1.3 million user profiles captured to date, Epitome Global leverages human capital analytics to power dashboards and workforce decision-making for enterprises and government agencies globally.
For more information, visit https://epitome.global/
Adrian Tan
Epitome Global Pte Ltd
+65 9852 3746
adrian.tan@epitome.global
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