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Singapore´s Model AI Governance Framework for Agentic AI
- From News from ASEAN - Q1 2026
- Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore
- Model AI Governance Framework for Agentic AI
- World´s first governance guide for agentic AI
In January 2026, the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (“IMDA”) published the “Model AI Governance Framework for Agentic AI” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the world’s first governance guide for agentic AI. The publication demonstrates Singapore’s role as a not only regional but global pioneer in terms of AI governance and provides helpful guidance for organisations planning to implement Agentic AI systems.
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Singapore´s role as global pioneer in terms of AI governance
Agentic AI systems plan across multiple steps to achieve objectives using AI agents. In contradiction to generative AI, AI agents can plan, reason, and act independently to complete tasks. That brings opportunities for organisations to automate specific tasks and “outsource” them to their AI agents; but also risks as AI agents take actions in the real world. When they malfunction, they can cause harmful impact.
Risks & challenges
Common risks would be erroneous actions, unauthorized actions, biased or unfair actions, data breaches and disruption to connected systems.
To minimise these risks, IMDA worked out four dimensions containing detailed advice on how to assess the risks in advance.
The 4 dimensions of risk assessment
- First, organizations are encouraged to adopt a risk-based approach when determining the appropriate level of autonomy granted to AI agents.
- Second, clear human accountability and oversight mechanisms must be defined to ensure that responsibility for AI-driven outcomes remains with identifiable individuals.
- Third, it is important to implement technical and organisational safeguards, including testing, access controls, and monitoring mechanisms.
- Finally, the framework emphasises enabling end-user responsibility, meaning that organisations should provide sufficient information to end users in terms of transparency and education about the working AI Agents.
Although the framework is voluntary and does not create legally binding obligations, it provides a structured governance benchmark for organizations developing or deploying agentic AI. In practice, such guidance may shape supervisory expectations, industry standards and future regulatory approaches. As Singapore has consistently positioned itself at the forefront of AI governance, the framework can be seen as an early indicator of how autonomous AI systems may be assessed by regulators going forward.