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As he affirms, AI is not the strategy – it is infrastructure that should enable clearer, simpler, and more valuable ways of working. His advice to leaders: stay focused on outcomes, and don’t be afraid to pivot or stop work that fails to deliver impact.
As machines become a part of the operating environment, Josh Skorupa believes the harder leadership challenge is no longer simply adopting new technology – it is understanding how work, decisions, and human capability must evolve when intelligence becomes embedded in the enterprise.
A global transformation leader with executive experience across APAC and EMEA, Josh specialises in digital strategy and AI enablement. Alongside his role as Head – Digital Transformation & Capability at GovTech, he leads the organisation's Digital Academy, shaping how Singapore’s public sector develops technology and leadership capability at scale. Appointed a Smart Nation Fellow in 2022, he also advises on national digital strategy and capability development across Singapore.
Having moved from advising on transformation to being directly accountable for delivering it, Josh has seen first-hand that change rarely happens in a clean environment. Instead, it unfolds amid trade-offs, evolving roles, and the difficult calls required to deliver measurable outcomes.
Speaking to Mary Ann Bundukin in this edition of Faces of HR, Josh shares why AI should be treated as infrastructure rather than strategy, why leaders must simplify and automate how the business operates, and why ambiguity is one of the biggest barriers to transformation. His message is clear: before scaling AI, leaders must first remove confusion – because "if you are not clear, neither is the system."
Q Through your work at GovTech Singapore, you have been closely involved in driving digital transformation. What have been some of the highlights or milestone moments of your journey here?
The most meaningful shift has been moving from advising on transformation to being accountable for delivering it.
After moving from a fellowship into a full-time role, that meant moving beyond advisory and coaching to take direct responsibility for people and measurable outcomes – including the difficult calls and their consequences.
In practice, transformation happens in a live, brownfield environment, not a clean one, so progress comes from trade-offs rather than chasing perfection. That includes roles evolving around what people can do and what the team actually needs, rather than fixed structures.
You know it’s embedding when change agents step up and start driving improvements, and even detractors begin to see the value. It only works when you have people who can absorb disruption without becoming it.
Q As someone who has been tasked to accelerate Singapore’s national digital agenda, what is your #1 advice for leaders to prepare their organisations for an AI-enabled future?
AI doesn’t change the fundamentals of transformation – it accelerates them.
There isn’t a single mistake, but a familiar pattern. AI is often treated as the strategy, when it is better thought of as infrastructure – a capability to be consumed.
AI has a low barrier to entry and amplifies everything – good and bad. It shortens reaction time and accelerates the resulting impacts. It also magnifies age-old transformation challenges: deploying systems without clarity on business outcomes, the quality of source data, and the contention between defined process and how work actually happens.
You’re not building or buying a platform – you should be investing in simplifying and automating how the business operates.
If there are no apparent valuable outcomes, don’t be afraid to pivot or kill the work.
Q Could you tell us something about yourself that people might be surprised to learn?
I tend to use stories to drive transformation, and many of them are personal. It’s not how people expect these topics to be approached, but stories make complexity relevant and easier to navigate.
Sharing real experiences, especially pivots or setbacks, helps build trust and makes the work more tangible, particularly when transformation still feels abstract to those impacted. I use stories and simple visuals to convey the connections I see when working on transformation.
Something that might surprise people is that I did my undergraduate degree in medical science, wrote my thesis on DNA fingerprinting, and even contributed to forensic work on a number of cases.
Q As a speaker at InteracTech Asia 2026, what is the #1 call-to-action you hope attendees will take away from your session?
AI is a powerful catalyst, but it increases the need for critical thinking, decisive communication, and removing ambiguity – from how you run your business to the quality of your AI prompts.
If you are not clear, neither is the system.
Human Resources Online is proud to host the 12th edition of our annual Talent Mobility conference – an exclusive event that brings together senior workforce mobility and HR professionals to discuss the latest trends and strategies in global mobility space. It will be taking place on 4 March in Singapore. You can find out more about the event here.
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