Singapore Retail Investors Embrace AI Assistants for Portfolio Analysis

Adoption Surges During Market Turbulence

Retail investors in Singapore are rapidly adopting AI-powered tools embedded in their brokerage platforms, using the technology to decode market volatility, screen investment opportunities, and refine trading strategies without leaving their apps.

Tiger Brokers reported that conversation volumes on TigerAI, its in-app assistant, jumped 500 percent year-on-year as of June 2026, according to Jingxin Du, TigerAI product lead at the firm. Monthly active users climbed 65 percent over the same period. The surge coincided with heightened market uncertainty, including the implementation of updated reciprocal US tariffs in early August 2025, when investors flooded the tool with questions about specific holdings and sector exposure.

Longbridge and Moomoo, two other platforms operating in the city-state, have observed similar patterns. Longbridge Group chief Nowa Zhu and Singapore regional chief Gavin Chia noted that every major market event in the past year triggered measurable spikes in daily active users and AI query volumes. Close to 30 percent of Longbridge's global users have engaged with Longbridge AI, with roughly 18 percent interacting with it monthly.

Moomoo chief growth and marketing officer Erika Chiang said engagement with Moomoo AI has grown rapidly since its June 2025 launch, though the firm did not disclose specific figures. The platform has expanded AI capabilities from equities to options, initial public offerings, bonds, and exchange-traded funds within a year.

From Queries to Ongoing Conversations

The shift is not just about volume. Du said users are moving beyond one-off questions to sustained dialogues with AI assistants, allowing the tools to learn individual trading styles, risk preferences, and objectives over time. This enables more tailored insights.

Tiger Brokers cited a case in which a high-net-worth investor used TigerAI to evaluate a short-term trade in a popular tech stock during a rally. The tool flagged overly bullish sentiment, an upcoming earnings report, concerns over operating cash flow, and recent shareholder sell-downs. The investor delayed entry, and the stock fell after earnings were released.

In another instance, an investor uncertain about holding a tech position used TigerAI to assess the company's technology stack, customer base, and institutional activity. The tool highlighted an upcoming product launch, and the stock subsequently performed well.

Longbridge's Zhu and Chia described their approach as "agentic AI," which scans the market proactively for developments relevant to a user's portfolio and drafts action plans based on historical decisions. The system never executes trades without explicit user confirmation. The firm launched the suite in July at an event in Singapore, positioning AI-native products as a strategy to leapfrog competitors.

Lowering Barriers Across Skill Levels

Chiang said AI tools serve distinct purposes depending on investor experience. For beginners, they translate complex data such as earnings reports, options chains, and financial terminology into simpler language, helping users frame better questions. Intermediate investors use AI to accelerate research, comparing data points and monitoring news more efficiently. Advanced traders leverage the technology for multi-factor analysis, complex screening, options strategies, and backtesting.

Timothy Tham, a 30-year-old public relations professional who uses Moomoo, said he prefers AI tools integrated into brokerage platforms over standalone services such as ChatGPT or Claude because he trusts the platform's due diligence on data privacy. He uses Moomoo AI to analyze his portfolio, track market updates affecting his holdings, and generate diversification ideas, saving time previously spent manually researching company performance.

Concerns and Next Steps

S Kishan, founder of AI software development firm Analytico AI, cautioned that AI-powered insights in trading apps carry inherent biases. He noted that such systems rarely suggest inaction and that platforms have an incentive to keep users engaged and trading. Kishan urged brokerages deploying AI to be transparent about which behaviors their systems are designed to encourage.

Tiger Brokers plans to expand TigerAI's role from information provision to trade assistance, while maintaining full user control over execution. Moomoo intends to integrate AI across its educational resources, including Moo Academy. Longbridge is anchoring a Longbridge AI Lab in Singapore, partnering with local universities and industry players to attract top-tier AI talent to the city-state.

Zhu and Chia described AI as the next engine of Singapore's financial hub status, arguing that it lowers barriers to understanding local equities beyond the major banks and gives all motivated investors an equal edge. The technology's ability to synthesize information quickly during volatile periods appears to be reshaping how retail investors in the region approach decision-making, even as questions about transparency and incentive alignment remain unresolved.