Rae Nah on reimagining customer care in the age of AI

The fourth edition of the Her World Mentorship Programme champions women who are just stepping into leadership. This year, 13 hand-picked mentees will spend six months journeying with accomplished women leaders.

What keeps Rae Nah going at Singtel after 15 years is her ability to make a real impact on people’s lives. The head of Customer Experience at the telecommunications company is now front-lining one of Singapore’s most consequential corporate transformations: reimagining what customer experience looks and feels like in the age of AI.

In her day-to-day work, Rae shapes Singtel’s customer experience strategy, and strives to make the experience of being a Singtel customer more consistent, seamless and human.

Even as she drives AI adoption across Singtel’s care teams, her guiding principle remains unchanged. She adds: “We use AI very purposefully and intentionally to reduce friction, but not to remove care.”

Rae’s view is that technology should always have a human fronting it. While AI frees people from repetitive and manual work, this is so that people can spend more time on what machines cannot replicate – which is building real relationships with customers. She hopes to bring this same relational quality to the Her World Mentorship Programme, and “create a trusted space where people can ask questions and navigate ambiguity together”.

Why do you think mentorship is important for women who are new to leadership roles?

Because leadership is not developed through capability alone. It is also shaped through perspective, confidence and support. Leadership can feel isolating. Having someone who can share experiences, challenge your thinking, and be there through difficult moments makes a real difference. For women who are new to leadership roles, mentorship creates a trusted space to build confidence, ask questions openly, and navigate ambiguity with greater clarity.

What is a leadership lesson you have had to learn the hard way?

To be less prescriptive and more empowering. Earlier in my career, I believed that strong leadership meant being very clear about the solution: setting the path, giving direction, and ensuring that execution was tightly managed. But as I took on larger and more complex responsibilities, I realised that being too prescriptive can unintentionally limit ownership, creativity, and the better ideas that live within your team.

The role of a leader is not always to provide the answer. It is to frame the problem well, set the ambition clearly, and create the conditions for the best solutions to emerge. That lesson has shaped how I lead today. I focus less on telling people exactly how to do things, and more on aligning teams around the why, the desired outcome, and the principles that matter.

When people are trusted to shape the how, they become more engaged, more accountable, and often arrive at stronger solutions than any one leader could have prescribed.

What are the hallmarks of a good manager?

The ability to create both performance and progress for the business, the team and the individual.

A good manager gives people clarity on direction, priorities, and what success looks like. They help the team focus on what matters, remove roadblocks, and create the conditions for people to do their best work.

A good manager also does not avoid difficult conversations. They give honest feedback with respect and care, because accountability is part of helping people grow. Strong management is not about being popular. It is about being fair, clear, and committed to both results and people.

Her World Mentorship Programme 2026 is made possible with the support of official beauty partner Cle de Peau Beaute and official network partner Singtel.

ART DIRECTION Adeline Eng
STYLING Donson Chan
HAIR Karol Soh
MAKEUP Lasalle Lee