Strategic Partnership Analysis & Impact on Singapore
Published: February 2026 | Academic & Policy Analysis
- Executive Summary
In February 2026, Certis Group — Singapore’s leading integrated security solutions provider — announced a strategic partnership with FieldAI, a US-based autonomous robotics company, to deploy general-purpose autonomous robots in live, complex security environments. The partnership integrates FieldAI’s Field Foundation Models™ with Certis’ Mozart™ orchestration platform, enabling scalable human-robot coordination across multi-site operations globally.
This case study examines the strategic rationale, technological architecture, and multidimensional impact of this partnership on Singapore’s security industry, labour market, smart city agenda, and geopolitical positioning. The analysis draws on the partnership announcement, Singapore’s Smart Nation framework, and comparative international deployments of autonomous systems in critical infrastructure.
- Background & Strategic Context
2.1 The Global Security Labour Challenge
The global private security industry employs over 30 million workers, yet faces structural labour constraints driven by ageing workforces in developed economies, rising operational costs, and increasing demand for 24/7 surveillance in complex environments. Singapore is no exception. The city-state’s tight labour market — characterised by near-full employment and significant reliance on foreign workers in services sectors — creates compelling economic incentives to automate routine, high-frequency security tasks such as patrols, perimeter monitoring, and incident detection.
Singapore’s Manpower Ministry has consistently highlighted workforce transformation as a national priority, particularly in sectors where automation can alleviate dependency on low-wage labour. The security sector, historically resistant to technology substitution due to its judgment-intensive nature, has reached an inflection point where AI-driven autonomy is operationally viable.
2.2 Singapore’s Smart Nation & Technology Policy Environment
The Certis-FieldAI partnership is deeply consonant with Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, launched in 2014 and significantly accelerated through the 2021 Digital Connectivity Blueprint. Government agencies including the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), the Economic Development Board (EDB), and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) have actively funded and incentivised pilot deployments of autonomous systems in public infrastructure since 2018.
Singapore’s regulatory environment has also been proactively shaped to accommodate robotics: the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has published guidelines for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in public spaces, and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has developed a Technology and Operations Roadmap that explicitly identifies robotics as a strategic capability for future-proofing national security operations.
- Partnership Architecture & Technology Stack
3.1 Core Technology: FieldAI Field Foundation Models™
FieldAI’s central innovation is its Field Foundation Models™ — general-purpose autonomy software that functions as an AI ‘brain’ for any robot type. Unlike conventional autonomous systems that rely on pre-mapped environments, fixed routes, or supporting infrastructure (such as beacon networks or LiDAR-based SLAM maps), Field Foundation Models enable robots to navigate in real time through dynamic, unstructured environments. Key technical differentiators include:
Map-free navigation: Robots operate without prior environment mapping, enabling rapid deployment at new sites with minimal setup cost and time.
Fleet-wide learning: Environmental encounters are shared across the entire robot fleet, improving collective performance continuously — a form of federated, real-world reinforcement learning.
Infrastructure independence: No reliance on pre-installed Wi-Fi grids, beacon systems, or dedicated navigation infrastructure.
Cross-platform compatibility: The software is designed to run on any robot hardware, providing hardware agnosticism.
3.2 Certis Mozart™ Orchestration Platform
Certis’ Mozart™ platform represents the operational integration layer — the command-and-control infrastructure that coordinates robots, human security teams, workflows, and command systems at scale. Mozart™ enables:
Real-time situational awareness dashboards integrating robot sensor feeds with human operator oversight.
Automated task dispatch and patrol scheduling across heterogeneous robot fleets.
Incident escalation workflows that transition autonomously from robot-detected events to human-led response.
Multi-site fleet management, enabling centralised oversight of geographically distributed deployments.
3.3 Integration Architecture
KEY INSIGHT The partnership’s core value proposition lies not in the robot hardware, but in the software integration layer: FieldAI’s autonomy brain + Certis’ operational orchestration platform creates a deployable, scalable system that neither party could deliver independently.
The integration creates a full-stack autonomous security system: FieldAI handles perception, navigation, and fleet-level learning, while Mozart™ handles operational coordination, human-robot tasking, command integration, and reporting. This division of responsibility allows each party to focus on its core competency while delivering a vertically integrated product to end customers.
- Deployment Scope & Operational Use Cases
4.1 Initial Security Applications
The partnership’s initial focus is on security applications across diverse indoor and outdoor environments. Specific use cases include:
Autonomous patrols: Scheduled and on-demand patrol routes through facilities such as commercial complexes, transport hubs, industrial parks, and public infrastructure.
Real-time incident detection: Computer vision-based anomaly detection — identifying unauthorised access, abandoned objects, crowd disturbances, and perimeter breaches.
Remote supervision: Robots as mobile sensor platforms enabling security operations centres (SOCs) to monitor remote or hazardous locations without deploying personnel.
Coordinated human-robot response: Robot-first response to detected incidents, with escalation protocols for human security officers to attend confirmed threats.
4.2 Future Expansion Verticals
Both companies have signalled intent to expand beyond security into inspection, facilities monitoring, and intelligent field operations. These verticals share core technical requirements with security (autonomous navigation, anomaly detection, real-time reporting) and represent significantly larger total addressable markets. Singapore’s integrated resort operators, port authorities (MPA), and airport operators (CAG) have been explicitly identified as potential deployment environments. - Impact Analysis: Singapore
5.1 Labour Market & Workforce Transformation
Singapore’s security workforce, estimated at approximately 40,000 personnel, will experience structural transformation over the medium term as autonomous patrols substitute for repetitive, low-complexity guard duties. However, the net employment effect is likely to be nuanced rather than catastrophically disruptive, for several reasons.
First, the partnership explicitly positions autonomous robots as augmenting rather than replacing human security officers. Robots are designed to free personnel for ‘higher-level analysis and critical response’ — a task substitution model rather than a wholesale displacement model. Second, Singapore’s tight labour market means that any workforce reduction in security is likely to be absorbed through redeployment into higher-value roles (SOC operators, robot fleet technicians, AI systems supervisors) rather than unemployment. Third, the government’s Progressive Wage Model (PWM) for the security sector creates a policy framework that incentivises companies to upskill workers as automation is introduced.
POLICY NOTE The Workforce Singapore (WSG) and IMDA Skills Future initiatives are well-positioned to fund reskilling programmes for security personnel transitioning to robot supervision and fleet operations roles. Proactive engagement between Certis, MHA, and WSG will be critical to managing this transition.
5.2 Economic Impact & Industry Competitiveness
The economic impact of the partnership on Singapore operates on several levels. At the firm level, Certis gains a differentiated competitive advantage in contract tendering for large-scale, multi-site security operations — particularly in government and critical infrastructure contracts, where operational resilience and technology capability are weighted evaluation criteria. Reduced reliance on headcount also improves cost predictability and reduces exposure to foreign worker levy fluctuations.
At the sectoral level, the partnership establishes a new competitive benchmark for the Singapore security industry, likely accelerating technology adoption among Certis’ competitors including AETOS Holdings and Prosegur. This competitive dynamic is consistent with Singapore’s industrial policy goals of upgrading domestic service sectors through technology-led productivity improvements.
At the macroeconomic level, successful deployment at scale creates export potential. Certis operates internationally across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East; the Mozart™ + FieldAI integrated system, proven in Singapore’s operationally demanding environment, becomes a marketable solution in labour-constrained security markets globally — particularly Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the Gulf Cooperation Council states.
5.3 Smart City & Urban Infrastructure
Singapore’s Smart Nation vision explicitly targets the integration of autonomous systems into urban operational infrastructure. The Certis-FieldAI deployment advances this agenda in several concrete ways. First, it generates real-world performance data on autonomous robots operating in Singapore-specific environments — high humidity, dense urban geometry, mixed public-private ownership structures — that can inform national standards and procurement frameworks.
Second, the deployment of autonomous security robots in Changi Airport, MRT stations, or integrated resorts would materially advance the capability density of Singapore’s urban sensor and response network. Third, the partnership’s map-free navigation architecture reduces the infrastructure investment required for autonomous deployment, making smart city applications more economically viable for smaller operators and public agencies.
5.4 Regulatory & Governance Implications
The deployment of autonomous robots in security roles raises a set of governance questions that Singapore’s regulatory agencies will need to address proactively. Key areas include:
Accountability frameworks: When an autonomous robot fails to detect a security incident, or causes physical harm through navigation error, the legal accountability chain between the robot operator, the AI software provider, and the deploying organisation must be clearly defined.
Data governance: Autonomous security robots generate continuous video and sensor data in public and semi-public spaces. The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) will need to clarify data retention, access, and use standards for robot-generated surveillance data.
Use-of-force protocols: As autonomous systems take on active security roles, regulatory clarity on permissible autonomous actions (blocking, alerting, physical intervention) versus actions reserved for human officers is necessary.
Certification standards: MHA and the Singapore Standards Council should develop technical certification standards for autonomous security systems, analogous to existing standards for CCTV systems under the Security Industry Regulatory Department (SIRD).
5.5 Geopolitical & Technology Sovereignty Considerations
The partnership involves a US-based AI company (FieldAI) providing core autonomous cognition software deployed in Singapore’s critical infrastructure security operations. From a technology sovereignty perspective, this raises questions analogous to those raised by the deployment of foreign-origin telecommunications and surveillance equipment. Singapore’s approach to this risk has historically been pragmatic: accepting foreign technology for commercial applications while maintaining sovereign control over data and operational protocols.
The establishment of FieldAI’s Singapore office signals a commitment to local engagement, and the integration architecture — where Mozart™ remains under Certis’ operational control — provides a meaningful layer of operational sovereignty. Nevertheless, Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA) and MHA should conduct supply chain risk assessments on the FieldAI software stack, particularly given the sensitivity of the environments where deployments are planned.
- Impact Summary Matrix
Dimension Short-Term Impact (1–3 yrs) Long-Term Impact (5–10 yrs)
Labour Market Task substitution in routine patrols; reskilling demand for robot supervisors Structural shift to higher-value security roles; reduced workforce size
Economic Competitive advantage for Certis; cost efficiency gains in security contracts Export of integrated autonomous security system to regional markets
Smart City Real-world data on autonomous systems in Singapore environments Integration of robot networks into national urban sensor infrastructure
Regulatory Pressure to develop accountability and data governance frameworks Establishment of Singapore as a standards-setter for autonomous security
Technology Sovereignty Dependency on US-origin AI in critical infrastructure security Potential for local capability development through technology transfer
- Conclusion
The Certis-FieldAI strategic partnership represents a landmark deployment of autonomous robotics in real-world security operations, with Singapore serving as the primary initial deployment environment. The partnership’s significance extends beyond its immediate commercial rationale: it operationalises Singapore’s Smart Nation agenda, stress-tests the city-state’s regulatory and governance frameworks for autonomous systems, and positions Singapore as a global reference site for scalable human-robot security operations.
The net impact on Singapore is likely to be strongly positive, provided that workforce transition programmes are proactively managed, regulatory frameworks are developed in parallel with deployment, and technology sovereignty risks are assessed and mitigated. The partnership demonstrates that Singapore’s tightly integrated ecosystem of technology companies, government agencies, and regulatory bodies remains capable of deploying frontier technology at operational scale — a capability that is itself a strategic asset in an increasingly competitive global environment.
BOTTOM LINE The Certis-FieldAI partnership is as much a governance test as a technology deployment. Singapore’s response to the regulatory and workforce challenges it raises will determine whether the city-state consolidates its position as a global leader in responsible autonomous systems deployment.