THE HOT STORY

Singapore firms hope humanoid robots can ease worker crunch

In Singapore, businesses are becoming increasingly interested in deploying humanoid robots to address manpower shortages. In a 2025 global survey, marketing research firm Forrester found that 69% of decision-makers said they were adopting or planning to adopt humanoid robots, with respondents also reporting that when robots were used in repetitive, tedious and time-consuming workflows, they cut processing errors by 40% and labour costs by 20%. Tung Meng Fai, executive director of Singapore's National Robotics Programme (NRP), said that although costs are falling fast, robots remain significant investments. “It's not like buying a laptop or tablet . . . you also require engineers or technicians to maintain the robots,” he said.

Straits Times

LEGAL

Hong Kong to 'name-and-shame' law firms for sloppy listing applications

Hong Kong plans to expand its "name-and-shame" regime for sloppy listing applications to include law firms and auditors. Under a new Enhanced Return Mechanism proposed by Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd, all professional parties involved in a deal will be publicly identified if a listing application is rejected for being "not substantially complete." The exchange seeks to compel more rigorous due diligence before filings ever reach the regulator by including legal and accounting advisers in the public record of failed applications.

Bloomberg

TECHNOLOGY

AI is making workloads more intense

AI is increasing the speed, density and complexity of work rather than reducing it, according to an analysis of 164,000 workers’ digital work activity by workforce analytics and productivity-tracking software company ActivTrak. The data covers more than 443 million hours of work across 1,111 employers, making it one of the biggest studies of AI’s effects on work habits to date, the Wall Street Journal reports. “It’s not that AI doesn’t create efficiency,” observed Gabriela Mauch, ActivTrak’s chief customer officer. “It’s that the capacity it frees up immediately gets repurposed into doing other work, and that’s where the creep is likely to happen.”

Wall Street Journal

Microsoft adds Anthropic's AI technology to its Copilot service

Microsoft is bringing Anthropic's Claude Cowork to its Microsoft 365 Copilot AI platform. The Copilot Cowork service, which the tech giant said it developed in close collaboration with Anthropic, can handle long-running, multistep tasks such as preparing for a customer meeting by assembling a presentation, pulling together financials, emailing the team, and scheduling prep time. “We really believe right now is an inflection point,” Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer for AI at Work, told Fortune. “The inflection point for us is Copilot taking on these agentic capabilities and going from assistance to real doing.”

CYBERSECURITY

Asahi Breweries to fully resume shipments after cyberattack disruption

Asahi Breweries plans to fully resume shipments of all products from April 7th following disruptions caused by a cyberattack on its parent company, Asahi Group Holdings, last September. Most alcoholic beverage shipments have already restarted, while logistics operations were fully normalised in February and shipments of non-alcoholic drinks and food products have resumed. The cyberattack forced the company to restrict shipments and delay its earnings announcement. For the first nine months of 2025, Asahi reported net profit of ¥102.8bn ($650m), down 26.2% year-on-year, on sales of ¥2.15tn. The company has kept its 2025 earnings outlook unchanged while it continues assessing the full impact of the cyberattack.

The Japan Times

McKinsey rushes to fix AI system after hacker exposes flaws

McKinsey is rushing to fix flaws in an in-house AI system after hackers - who acted without malicious intent - gained access to millions of its internal messages and were able to identify sensitive files. Researchers at red-team security startup CodeWall say their AI agent hacked McKinsey's internal AI platform and gained full read and write access to the chatbot in just two hours. "We used a specific AI research agent to autonomously select the target, it did this without zero human input," CodeWall chief executive Paul Price told The Register. "Hackers will be using the same technology."

Financial Times

The Register

HEALTH & WELLBEING

South Korea launches pilot for free menstrual pads and expands support for women

South Korea plans to launch a pilot programme providing free menstrual pads to any woman who needs them, regardless of income, as part of broader efforts to improve women’s welfare. Under the “Public Menstrual Pad Dream” initiative, the government will install free vending machines in locations such as community centres, libraries, health clinics and industrial complexes. The programme will begin with 3bn ($2m) won in national funding this year, with plans to expand it nationwide through joint national and local funding from 2027. Existing vouchers that help low-income girls aged 9–24 purchase menstrual products will continue.

ChosunBiz

STRATEGY

Apple ramps up iPhone production in India

Apple produced about 25% of its global iPhones in India in 2025, assembling around 55m devices, up 53% from 36m in 2024, as the company accelerates efforts to reduce reliance on China and avoid US tariffs. India’s growing role has been supported by government production incentives and partnerships with manufacturers such as Foxconn, Tata Electronics, and Pegatron, which now assemble the latest iPhone models for both export and domestic sales. Despite higher manufacturing costs compared with China and Vietnam, Apple is expanding its supply chain in India by sourcing more components locally and producing accessories like AirPods. The shift reflects Apple’s long-term strategy to establish India as a second major manufacturing hub.

Bloomberg

INTERNATIONAL

US immigration crackdown fails to boost jobs, data suggests

One year into President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, evidence suggests that closed borders are not improving employment opportunities for US-born workers. Researchers from the American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution estimate that net migration may have been negative in 2025 for the first time in at least 50 years, a situation coinciding with rising joblessness among native-born individuals. “Look at what we're seeing: The US-born unemployment rate has been going up. The US-born labour force participation rate has dropped,” said Mark Regets, a senior fellow at non-partisan research organisation the National Foundation for American Policy. “So if we've had a big withdrawal of immigrants from the labour force, we don't see any sign of the US-born workers getting more employment because of that.”

Los Angeles Times

Wall Street banks offer UAE staff option to relocate temporarily

Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are allowing employees in the UAE to work remotely due to the ongoing conflict in the region. “This is an unsettling time for people across the Middle East, and we continue take measures to support our colleagues and our clients,” a spokesperson for Citigroup said. “We are permitting some Middle East-based colleagues to work remotely from other geographies on a temporary basis while also maintaining enough on-the-ground support to service our clients.” But while some firms have offered temporary relocations, one bank said the uptake has been very limited, and employees may not receive compensation for moving.

Business Times SG

OTHER

Lululemon fined A$700,000 over illegal marketing emails

Lululemon has been fined A$700,000 ($500,255) by Australian regulators for sending hundreds of thousands of unauthorised marketing emails to customers without offering a proper option to unsubscribe. Authorities said the company mischaracterised the emails as transactional messages, such as delivery receipts, when they also contained promotional content. The Canadian-based retailer, which operates about 30 stores in Australia, was found to have knowingly breached spam rules by disguising marketing communications and failing to provide a clear opt-out mechanism.

ABC News

News.com.au

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