Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) is embarking on an ambitious effort to transform its undergraduate education with artificial intelligence (AI).

By 2030, NTU Singapore aims to embed AI into 40% of the courses across all 52 undergraduate degree programmes the University offers. This is an eightfold increase from 5% today.

Half of these courses will use AI to personalise learning. The other half will teach students how to build, deploy, and manage AI agents to solve real-world problems. The goal is to produce graduates who can not only learn continuously with AI tutors but can also create and work effectively with AI agents.

To power this aspiration, from August 2026, NTU will give all undergraduates full access to a suite of premium Google AI tools, such as Gemini Enterprise, Google AI Studio, and Vertex AI. Students will also receive computing credits to build and deploy their own AI agents for learning and problem-solving. Each year, they can choose to create dozens of such AI agents to support their studies.

These agents are portable – NTU graduates can continue to use and improve them even after they enter the workforce to enhance their productivity. This feature will make the University’s graduates highly competitive in the job market.

NTU is the first university in Singapore to adopt AI in education at such scale.

These new AI initiatives are introduced as part of NTU2030, the University’s five-year plan to deliver transformative education and deepen its global impact.

NTU President Professor Ho Teck Hua said: “As one of the world’s top-ranked universities for AI research, NTU is well-placed to pioneer a new model of education with AI. We hope NTU students will learn how to break down a real-world problem into a series of tasks and orchestrate a team of AI agents to tackle each task. For instance, a business student might deploy AI agents to run randomised control experiments to test various pricing points for a new product on an e-commerce website.”

Professor Ho, who is also Founding Executive Chairman, AI Singapore, and Member, Economic Strategy Review’s Committee on Human Capital, added: “By embedding AI across our curriculum, our graduates will leave NTU with not just a deep understanding of AI, but also a portfolio of AI agents ready to deploy from day one in the workforce. This collection of AI agents will be a key differentiator for our graduates.”

Embedding AI into the learning journey

Typically, an undergraduate completes around 40 courses in a degree programme. Currently, apart from computing and AI degree programmes, only 5% of the courses incorporate AI. NTU will progressively increase this to 40% by 2030.

In half of these courses, educators will deploy AI tools to personalise learning, helping students at every level to better grasp challenging material.

For instance, the University has built the NTU AI Learning Assistant (NALA), a platform that enables educators to develop AI tutors. These AI tutors are trained on course materials to help students address their own learning gaps around the clock, in a way that suits how they learn.

In the other half of the courses, students will engage in problem-based learning, where they work through real-world problems from industry, government, and society to develop their own solutions. They will learn how to build, deploy, and manage AI agents to tackle these problems.

For example, an engineering student designing a new car might build and deploy AI agents to generate multiple designs and simulate their possible energy usage.

In consultation with the NTU Students’ Union, the University will give all undergraduates access to Google’s suite of premium AI tools, regardless of discipline. These tools cater to a broad range of technical backgrounds, from first-time users to advanced builders, helping students experience new ways of learning.

Together, these initiatives will equip NTU graduates not just to use AI, but to work alongside it effectively, preparing them to lead and thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world.

NTU Deputy President and Provost Professor Christian Wolfrum said: “By making AI a central component for all programmes, not just for computer scientists, we are moving to an education model where AI is an integral part of the student’s learning journey. This can be achieved by using AI tutors and deploying AI agents to enhance productivity when solving real-world problems. This leverages NTU's strength as a top-ranked university for interdisciplinary research. We believe our graduates will thrive in the AI economy.”

As part of the AI-empowered learning journey, students will be taught how to use AI responsibly. This means adopting a “beyond yourself” mindset that considers the impact of AI on the wider community.

Students will also learn to discern whether the output of AI agents is accurate and ethical. This helps ensure that students can explain the output and take responsibility for it. These core skills will be taught in a mandatory course, “Science and Technology for Humanity”, which will emphasise the responsible use of AI.

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