Cover Parrot Social founder Hamidah Aidillah Mustafa (Image: Parrot Social)
Parrot Social founder Hamidah Aidillah Mustafa (Image: Parrot Social)
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Through Parrot Social, Hamidah Aidillah Mustafa helps companies understand markets, consumer sentiment and emerging trends. At the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, she advances a wider mission: equipping Singapore’s small and medium enterprises with the tools, talent and confidence to adopt AI meaningfully
Long before she founded Parrot Social, Hamidah Aidillah Mustafa was learning to read sentiment on the ground, her instincts sharpened by community and grassroots work. “Serving the community gave me the insight that there was a gap in the market,” she says. “There was a need to find out what people think, what people want, what people truly feel, and to use AI to do it instead of traditional market research.” Then she laughs at the instinct that set the company in motion: “I think I was being a kaypoh (busybody) by myself.”
It is a disarming way to describe an enterprise built on listening. Founded in 2018, Parrot Social is a Singapore‑based data analytics and consumer intelligence agency powered by artificial intelligence (AI). “We help companies understand what’s trending, what’s fading, what people want to buy and how much they are willing to pay,” she says. “We also help them read current sentiment and identify emerging trends around consumer preferences.”
In one market study for a connected-car business entering Southeast Asia, Parrot Social worked through aggregated data to understand what drivers wanted from smart mobility. Data is extracted, analysed, then translated into recommendations. “What our clients really value is not the data per se,” Hamidah says. “It’s the ability to draw the analysis and insights from the data.”
The most useful intelligence is framed for action: what a CEO needs to know, what a business owner can change, and how decisions can be made with judgement rather than instinct alone. Across healthcare, automotive, education, retail and government sectors, Hamidah sees the same desire: to replace instinct with insight. Whether it is a café owner studying what keeps customers coming back, or an education provider assessing which courses adults are willing to pursue, consumers leave clues in plain sight. What matters is knowing how to read them in context.
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Above Hamidah is also vice president for policy and communications at the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (Image: Parrot Social)
Hamidah is also vice president for policy and communications at the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (Image: Parrot Social)
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This is where Hamidah’s second role, as vice president for policy and communications at the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME), gives her work a wider frame. At Parrot Social, AI is a tool for turning public signals into business intelligence. At ASME, she sees the other side of the equation: the many SMEs that know technology could help them, but lack the capital or confidence to begin. The promise of AI is everywhere; the ability to adopt it remains uneven. “The truth is the level of adoption is not that high,” she says. “No SME owner wakes up in the morning thinking, ‘I’m going to [spend] SG$20,000 to SG$30,000 to do AI-related work’.”
ASME’s recent initiatives have been designed around that reality. At its AI Festival Asia 2026 in January, the organisation emphasised helping SMEs adopt AI and hiring “AI-bilingual” talent: people who are able to bridge technical tools and business value. The festival also marked the launch of AI Foundry for SMEs, a collaboration with Lenovo to co-develop ten real-world AI prototypes with Singapore SMEs, alongside efforts to mobilise up to SG$10 million in grants for SME digitalisation and AI projects.
For Hamidah, the promise lies in making the first step into AI less daunting. Through SME@AITE, a joint AI Centre of Excellence with the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), ASME helps SMEs define suitable AI projects, guides their implementation and gives ITE students practical exposure to real business challenges. “It’s not just about helping SMEs,” she says. “It’s also helping to better equip the students to become super users of AI. The ability then to analyse, distil insights and present them to CEOs becomes a big value-add.”
Beyond AI, ASME has set out a broader blueprint: to champion Singapore SMEs through representation, capability-building and market access. The SME Unite (Unifying Networks, Integration and Teaming for Enterprises) programme prepares companies for growth through strategic partnerships, while market access efforts look towards China and Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, the ASME Women’s Initiative, launched with global non-profit WEConnect International, helps women-owned businesses build leadership, reach procurement networks and scale into global markets.
That emphasis on women entrepreneurs carries a particular resonance for Hamidah. In 2023, she was recognised as one of Singapore 100 Women in Tech by the Singapore Computer Society, in partnership with SG Women in Tech and the Infocomm Media Development Authority. Yet for her, technology is not the transformation in itself. “Technology is a catalyst, but it’s the positive mindset of leaders and employees [that allows an organisation] to progress to another level.”
Between Parrot Social and ASME, Hamidah has one foot in the machinery of intelligence, the other in the realities of business owners. Every company, however small, deserves the chance to understand its market with greater precision, and to use technology in ways that are practical and human.
As Senior Editor of Tatler Singapore, Hashirin champions and refines the storytelling across platforms—curating and crafting compelling profiles, cover stories and features that spotlight visionaries shaping culture, business and impact. Driven by curiosity, she draws inspiration from the artists, changemakers and trailblazers she encounters through her work. Beyond the pages of Tatler, she is an avid supporter of local theatre and delights in seeking out art in every city she visits.
