NCS Launches Enterprise AI Playbook Targeting Hidden Costs and Scaling Pitfalls
Source: The Edge Singapore
NCS released its new AI Playbook at the NCS AI Impact 2026 event, arguing that companies risk burning through AI budgets unless they manage model usage, data quality, and ungoverned agents from the start. The playbook draws on over 100 AI projects and introduces a '3R Framework' for measuring AI returns beyond headcount reduction.
NCS has launched an enterprise AI Playbook that puts cost control at the centre of AI adoption, warning that companies are burning through budgets on token consumption, weak data infrastructure, and ungoverned agent deployments. Presented at the NCS AI Impact 2026 event, the playbook draws on the Singapore tech firm's experience across over 100 AI projects.
Central to the playbook is what NCS calls the "3R Framework": return on customer, return on employee, and return on future. CEO Sam Liew argued that companies should not assess AI purely by headcount reduction or cost savings. "We actually want AI solutions to not just be about cost elimination, but to be about growing capacity and capability," he said during the event.
The playbook identifies five blockers to AI scale-up: unclear costs, unchanged processes, poor data quality, ungoverned agent development, and unknown security risks. NCS's chief AI officer Edward Chen noted that token economics — the usage-based charges from processing AI prompts — is becoming a finance issue, with the firm working on an "AI for CFOs" course to help finance leaders model AI costs.
NCS found that matching each task to the right-sized model instead of defaulting to the most advanced option can cut costs by up to 82% and improve response speeds by three to ten times. The company has also created an AI Central unit with about 400 AI engineers across five groups to embed sector expertise alongside AI development.
Why it matters for Singapore: As Singapore enterprises accelerate AI adoption, the gap between pilot projects and production-scale deployment remains a critical bottleneck. NCS's playbook — built from real project experience — provides a homegrown framework for tackling the cost and governance challenges that stall AI transformation. With the Singapore government pushing AI adoption across both public and private sectors, practical guidance on scaling responsibly is increasingly valuable for the broader ecosystem.