These mid-career workers are back in class to learn AI. Is it paying off?

SINGAPORE – Tasks that once took an entire working day can now be completed in minutes, as more workers harness artificial intelligence to work faster.

This drive to boost productivity is fuelling demand for AI training. Private academies The Straits Times spoke to reported a sharp rise in enrolments for AI-related courses, with particularly strong interests from mid-career professionals.

Vertical Institute said enrolments in its AI courses more than doubled over the past year, while Tribe Academy reported that its three-month flagship programmes have been consistently oversubscribed across 10 intakes since January 2025.

The growing demand comes as Singapore steps up efforts to equip its workforce with AI skills, with more than 200 courses rolled out on Sept 16, covering applications ranging from workplace productivity to advanced AI capabilities.

For some workers, the benefits are already evident. Three professionals told The Straits Times how they are putting their newly acquired AI skills to use in their day-to-day work.

Using AI in subtitling

For those in the business of media localisation, the impact of artificial intelligence is no longer a distant threat.

Kok Yokelee, general manager at media solution company Sky Vision Media, said AI has already changed what clients are willing to pay for transcription and translation services.

For example, her more budget-conscious clients have turned to AI-powered apps, which can process subtitles for an hour of TV show content for less than US$20 (S$25) – way cheaper than the costs of hiring human translators.

Sensing the real danger of losing some clients, Kok, who oversees business development for her company, began looking at how she could use AI to deliver faster and cheaper solutions.

After completing an introductory AI course at Vertical Institute, Kok, who is in her 40s, began using tools like Claude and Whisper, an open-source speech-to-text system, to automate parts of the subtitling workflow.

The efficiency gains were obvious. Transcribing and translating a one-hour Indonesian show into Bahasa Malaysia previously required two translators working for at least six to eight hours. With her new setup, the entire process takes just 30 minutes.

Beyond speed, the tool generates a report flagging segments where the audio is unclear and requires further checks. This allows her to jump to specific sections to correct errors instead of reviewing the hour-long footage manually.

But as public AI platforms present client confidentiality risks, Kok went for a more advanced class. There, she learnt to build AI agents using local large-language models – AI software that runs directly on her own device, ensuring client data never leaves the private network.

After demonstrating what the technology could do, Kok said she no longer needs to spend time convincing her boss of the need for AI adoption.

Now, her bigger challenge is persuading more co-workers to come onboard.

“AI is not just about the skills,” she said. “It’s also about the willingness to accept change.”

Some translators resist change as they believe that AI’s work can never be better than them – not in terms of accuracy and nuance. But she said AI is bound to catch up, and it is better to adapt to change sooner than later.

Using AI in digital marketing

For Jason Sim, an associate district director at real estate agency Huttons Asia, AI has significantly shortened the time needed to complete some digital marketing tasks.

The 46-year-old completed a five-month programme to attain an Advanced Certificate in Generative AI for Digital Marketing Specialist in May. The course was conducted by Singapore Management University in collaboration with Tribe Academy.

As a self-employed professional above 40 years old, he received subsidies covering up to 95% of the course fee. The remaining amount was covered by his SkillsFuture credit.

Sim said he can now build a functional website in one afternoon. It used to take him around a week.

He has also tapped AI to automate customer responses, manage schedules, and develop applications for clients and business associates.

Although he had experimented with AI before, he said keeping up with the technology was still challenging due to AI’s rapid development.

He believes labour-intensive administrative tasks are particularly vulnerable to automation, so it is increasingly important for workers to reconsider how they can contribute.

“It is not about competing with AI, but to direct and leverage AI to work for us,” he said.

Securing a job after AI training

For Brennan Lee, a 40-year-old senior AI search strategist at digital marketing agency Heroes of Digital, the impact of AI has been just as significant.

Having spent eight years specialising in search engine optimisation (SEO), Lee saw how the rise of generative AI was upending familiar tools and reshaping established industry practices.

Like Sim, Lee pursued an advanced certificate in generative AI for digital marketing, completing his training in June.

He was jobless when he signed up for the course. After attending it, he secured his current job.

He said a reporting task that previously took him eight to nine hours to do could now be completed in around 40 minutes.

Keyword research, which once involved manually examining search results, can now be conducted at scale using AI.

Preparing content briefs that previously required hours of competitor research can also be completed in about 20 minutes.

Lee said the experience changed how he viewed job security.

Rather than worry about technology replacing his job, he began thinking about how he could continue to add value in an AI-driven workplace.

He identified areas such as quality control, compliance, budget approvals and interpersonal communication, where human judgment remains indispensable.

For him, the key is to focus on what humans can do better.

Source : https://www.straitstimes.com/business/these-mid-career-workers-are-back-in-class-to-learn-ai-is-it-paying-off