IMDA-accredited Confluent accelerates Smart Nation vision with real-time data streaming

In today’s world, data is king, but knowing how to use it – the ability to turn raw data into actionable insights – is a must for organisations to make informed decisions. Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative is built on the very idea. Data, when utilised effectively, plays a crucial role in transforming the very Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) solutions that allow exemplary public services in Singapore.

While the Smart Nation 2.0 plan launched in October 2024 reinforces the need to enhance security, resilience and digital inclusion within Singapore’s data infrastructure, it also identified AI as the next frontier of technological advancement set to elevate society. GenAI innovations are already deepening public service impact. One such example in Singapore is the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech)’s Virtual Intelligent Citizen Assistant (VICA), a chatbot solution that helps government agencies to improve interactions and provide users with more personalised, relevant answers. The Municipal Services Office used VICA to then develop the OneService Kaki Chatbot. This chatbot enables citizens to provide feedback on community needs like road maintenance or malfunctioning streetlamps, simply via messaging through WhatsApp or Telegram.

Real-time data steaming — The key to unlocking the success of GenAI solutions

While nearly seven in 10 (69%) IT leaders in Singapore believe that investments in GenAI will trend up in the next two years, data-related challenges have impacted AI adoption – slowed down by businesses’ inability to seamlessly integrate new data sources (69%), fragmented ownership of data (68%), and insufficient skills and expertise in AI/Machine Learning (ML) management (65%)¹.

IMDA-accredited Confluent is the engine behind the success of GenAI solutions like VICA. GenAI solutions depend heavily on real-time data streaming to improve the quality and accuracy of their outputs. Confluent’s data streaming technologies turn fragmented data messes into valuable, actionable insights by enabling live data processing, connecting, and governance. For example, Confluent Cloud and Confluent Platform for Apache Flink® enable organisations to eliminate data silos and develop real-time applications and pipelines². Confluent also helps government agencies who, laden with decades of legacy data and infrastructure, are struggling to get data that is up to speed, across multiple departments, data pipelines, as well as modern and legacy environments.

This then creates a seamless system that sets data in motion, providing government agencies with high quality, real-time data GenAI applications that drive more responsive and effective citizen experiences. Real-time data products generated through platforms like Confluent’s are secure, trustworthy, and reusable, ensuring consistent data usage across the organisation while supporting informed decision-making and streamlined processes.

Seizing the opportunities of Confluent’s tech through IMDA Accreditation

Recognising the potential of Confluent’s data streaming technologies in helping organisations to effectively operationalise GenAI for deployment, IMDA accredited Confluent in May 2023, positioning the company as qualified contenders to government and large enterprise buyers.

Since its accreditation, Confluent’s solutions such as Confluent Cloud are onboarded by IMDA’s Tech Acceleration Lab (171.13KB) (TAL). The TAL allows government agencies and tech innovators to evaluate and test new technologies in a simplified, secure deployment environment that reduces learning curves.

Government agencies can also test, develop, and deploy Confluent’s suite of solutions within a controlled test sandbox on the Government Commercial Cloud (GCC). Fully supported by IMDA’s TAL, the sandbox enables government agencies to explore Confluent’s data streaming capabilities without having to go through a long and tedious process time to test these solutions. This partnership unlocked access to a fully managed Apache Kafka® service that is cloud-native, complete, and available across all cloud and on-premise environments, fostering a conducive space for developing and testing innovative digital solutions¹.

With real-time data streaming capabilities at their fingertips, Singapore’s government agencies are enhancing decision-making and citizen engagement through a modernised data infrastructure.

Taking a step forward in our Smart Nation vision with Confluent

Aligned with our Smart Nation initiative, Confluent is helping government agencies and Singapore-based companies in its digital transformation. In one use case, a government agency modernised its existing datastore with a data streaming platform, allowing real-time interoperability between modern and legacy systems as they gradually migrated to the cloud.

With the launch of Smart Nation 2.0, Singapore is highly geared towards enhancing the use of technology to improve our lives via building online safety and trust, while cushioning the impact of data failures. There is no doubt that GenAI will be central to helping us move swiftly towards its next stage of evolution.

As GenAI development intensifies, organisations must remember to strike a balance between safety, privacy, and innovation. More importantly, agencies must ensure that the systems and technologies that set data in motion continue to be adaptable, resilient, and robust – as these serve as the foundation for the cities of tomorrow.

Looking to make a difference in the public sector like Confluent? Discover how you can partner with IMDA to digitally transform the public sector through IMDA-Accreditation.