Feature Articles
Beyond the Checklist: Reclaiming Time for What Matters
16 June 2026
When people hear that AI is handling part of the processing, the misconception is that there is no human involved. The reality is far from that.
For staff processing grants, every claim is unique, but verifying each claim used to mean hours spent cross-checking invoices, categories and figures. The work is essential and meticulously done to ensure corporate governance and controls, but it left little time for the important and impactful questions: Is this programme achieving what it sets out to do? Are resources being directed where they matter most?
From Verification to Value
That changed when NCSS introduced automation tools including Pair Assistant, which now handles the initial assessment of the claims processing work based on a set of defined assessment rubrics. The grants staff then steps in to make the final decision. While the routine verification is automated, the judgment remains human, and rightly so.
Judgment Stays Human
For Ms Leong Mei Chin, Lead Executive from the Grants Management team, who has been part of this shift to use AI and be future-ready, what has changed is not just the workload but the nature of the work itself.
With automation taking care of the repetitive and administrative steps in our work processes, I can focus my energy on making speedier, accurate and informed decisions. In one instance, this allowed me to process a pre-approval claim promptly, enabling the social service agency (SSA) to proceed with their course enrolments on time and avoiding any disruption to course participants. Automation has truly freed up the bandwidth needed for more meaningful and impactful work and decision-making.— Ms Leong Mei Chin, Lead Executive, Grants Management, NCSS
Across the grants management lifecycle, processing time has been cut by up to 70%, depending on the types of workflows - freeing up more than 235 working days in one year. For SSAs awaiting approval of grants, that means a quicker turnaround time from NCSS, enabling SSAs to plan and execute programmes to serve the beneficiaries.