Pico Launches AI Innovation Centre for Singapore's MICE Sector
Source: TTGmice
Singapore's MICE sector — already a cornerstone of the city's tourism economy — is getting an AI lab of its own. Pico Art International, one of Asia's largest event and exhibition builders, has opened the Pico Innovation Centre in Singapore, a dedicated facility for developing and testing artificial...
Singapore's MICE sector — already a cornerstone of the city's tourism economy — is getting an AI lab of its own. Pico Art International, one of Asia's largest event and exhibition builders, has opened the Pico Innovation Centre in Singapore, a dedicated facility for developing and testing artificial intelligence applications across the business events value chain. It is a bet that the future of conferences, exhibitions, and experiential marketing runs on algorithms, not just floor plans.
The centre, launched on August 3, pairs Pico's decades of event design expertise with Accenture's technology stack. Accenture will supply AI platforms, data analytics infrastructure, and enterprise solutions, while Pico leads on experience strategy, creative design, and event delivery. Together they will build modular AI-enabled tools for exhibitions, conferences, and experiential marketing — starting in Singapore and scaling across the region. The partnership builds on a track record: the two companies previously collaborated on the National Library Board's SG60 Heart&Soul Experience and The Albatross File Exhibition, projects that used content recommendations, real-time visitor insights, and interactive AI-driven experiences.
The timing is strategic. Singapore's Tourism 2040 blueprint targets a tripling of business events tourism receipts, with the MICE sector's share of total tourism revenue set to grow from 4% to 10%. That is a massive scaling challenge — and AI sits at the centre of solving it. From attendee matchmaking and personalised agendas to real-time sentiment analysis and post-event lead scoring, the tools Pico and Accenture are developing mirror what the broader events industry is quietly racing toward.
For Singapore's position as a global MICE hub, the centre signals that infrastructure alone — convention halls, hotel capacity, connectivity — is not enough anymore. The competitive edge is shifting toward data-driven attendee experiences and measurable ROI for event organisers. Jean Chia, Pico's group CEO, framed it as an investment in rethinking how business events are designed, delivered and measured, while Accenture's Singapore country MD Mark Tham described the shift from one-off engagements to data-driven platforms for customer engagement and business growth.
Why it matters for Singapore: The MICE sector contributes roughly S billion annually to Singapore's economy, and the government wants that to nearly triple. AI-powered event technology developed and tested here does not just serve local events — it becomes an exportable capability that strengthens Singapore's value proposition as the place where the future of business events gets built. Pico and Accenture's partnership is a signal that the MICE industry is serious about AI adoption beyond chatbots and basic automation.
