"If not now, when?" With that mindset, Joycelyn Woo — who had eight years of experience in marketing — threw herself into upskilling during the COVID-19 pandemic, and made a career switch into artificial intelligence more than three years ago, opening a new chapter in her professional life.
Joycelyn Woo, now 36, is a Senior AI Specialist at Synapxe, the national healthtech agency. She has no background in computer science or programming, yet through passion and continuous learning, she successfully made the transition in 2023.
During the pandemic, in-person marketing events slowed due to restrictions, giving her the opportunity to rethink her career direction. Having always had an interest in data analytics, she began making use of the SkillsFuture funding from mid-2021, enrolling in short courses related to data analytics and AI to see whether the field was truly a good fit for her.
Once she confirmed her interest, she enrolled in January 2022 in the Master of Science in Business Analytics programme at the NUS Institute of Systems Science, initially studying part-time while working before switching to full-time study, completing the programme in about a year and a half.
She interned at Synapxe from March to August 2023, and after graduating, officially joined the company in September of the same year.
The career switch was not without its challenges. "In my previous marketing role, I had to organise events to meet marketing objectives," she said. "Now, I need to grasp more technical knowledge, evaluate different AI solutions, and solve real-world problems. The AI field moves quickly, so you have to keep learning and stay on top of the latest developments."
Her current work involves developing AI solutions, and one project that left a particularly strong impression on her was participating in the proof-of-concept work for HealthHub AI shortly after joining Synapxe.
The beta version of HealthHub AI, which is now live, is an AI chatbot that understands all four of Singapore's official languages. Members of the public can use it through the HealthHub website or mobile app to look up health information, healthcare services, and more. The system responds in the user's chosen language and also has translation and text-to-speech capabilities.
Joycelyn recounted how the team visited polyclinics and neighbourhood communities to let residents — especially elderly users — try out the prototype, in order to understand their needs around multilingual and voice features.
"Some of the elderly users were very excited after trying it out," she recalled. "They couldn't wait to ask when they could download it, and wanted to recommend it to their friends. Knowing that technology can help elderly people who aren't proficient in English access medical information more easily — that's what gives me a real sense of fulfilment in this work."
