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Before Stuxnet, there was fast16: a state-grade sabotage framework that didn’t steal data or crash systems. It silently altered engineering simulations and calculations—poisoning digital twins while everything appeared normal. Now imagine AI giving attackers the power to find such weaknesses in hours. As Singapore expands protections beyond core CII, fast16 is a warning: tomorrow’s breach won’t hold your data hostage. It will corrupt the simulations and AI models you trust to run your plant, bridge, or refinery. And you won’t know until something breaks.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Vitaly Kumluk, cybersecurity researcher at SentinelOne Lab, SentinelOne, sheds light on what cybersecurity teams need to know and be prepared against this new breed of cyberthreats.

What is the role of a researcher in the cybersecurity space?
In a nutshell, what is fast16 and what makes it different from other categories of cyber threats?
How do we identify which of our engineering simulations, digital twins, and AI training pipelines are most vulnerable to silent output manipulation—and do we have any validation layer that checks results against physical or independent models?
How do we detect an attack that changes calculations but leaves systems running normally?
What stops an AI-powered attacker from finding a hidden weakness in our simulation software?

6. How do we assess and continuously monitor the integrity of simulation outputs from external partners, cloud-hosted digital twins, or legacy OT environments we cannot directly instrument?

Our incident plan covers ransomware. Do they cover a scenario where a state-grade actor has been quietly corrupting our engineering decisions for six months? How do we roll back trust in our own data?
If an attacker manipulates a supporting system’s simulation to cause a real-world failure, will current cyber insurance or legal framework treat that as a “breach” or as a “design error”?
How do we differentiate between adversarial attacks on the AI’s availability (denial) vs. subtle corruption of its reasoning or output distribution—and which defensive architectures apply?
Given what we now understand about fast16, what is your recommendation for moving forward?

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A recent Gartner survey found that only 28% of AI use cases fully meet ROI expectations, with a further 20% failing outright. For Asia-Pacific CIOs, the bottleneck is clear: it is not the model, but the governance and orchestration layer beneath it.

In 2026, the challenge has shifted from experimentation to industrialisation, demanding a focus on taming "agent sprawl" and mitigating "shadow AI" risks.

As Celine Siow, VP of Sales, GM for APAC at Workato argues, the control plane must be platform-agnostic to avoid recreating fragmentation. The path to 'production-ready AI' lies in a robust, vendor-neutral governance layer that ensures trust, interoperability, and measurable business value.

She joins us on this edition of PodChats for FutureCIO to elaborate further on her arguments for a platform-agnostic control plane as CIOs orchestrate the industrialisation of AI.

1. With only 28% of AI projects meeting ROI targets, how can we build a formal "value playbook" to ensure our AI investments deliver tangible, measurable business outcomes?

2. As "agent sprawl" becomes the new technical debt, how can we architect a neutral control plane to govern, orchestrate, and observe our growing fleet of autonomous agents?

3. Given that 80% of workers now use unapproved AI tools, how can we move from simply blocking "shadow AI" to enabling governed, safe adoption across the entire workforce?

4. What does an effective governance framework look like when AI moves beyond content generation to action management, requiring real-time control over permissions, escalation, and audit trails?

5. With AI infrastructure costs set to run up to 30% higher than planned, how should our FinOps practices evolve to manage this new cost volatility, including token-based consumption?

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CIOs across Southeast and Northeast Asia face a brutal budgetary paradox today: board-mandated surges in AI and cybersecurity investments clashing directly with flat overall IT expenditure.

According to IDC and Forrester, while regional tech spending is rising, geopolitical risks and inflation are eroding real purchasing power. Consequently, technology leaders are forced into aggressive reallocation.

They must defer legacy ERP upgrades, consolidate SaaS contracts, and renegotiate vendor support to fund digital priorities without expanding the top-line budget, turning run-rate IT optimisation into a critical strategic lever for margin protection. This shift is redefining the CIO role.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we explore why IT budget strategies need to shift from cutting waste to driving innovation. For more on this, we are joined by Seth Ravin, CEO of Rimini Street.

Setting the Macro Context

With overall IT budgets remaining largely flat across Asia despite surging AI demands, how are CIOs fundamentally restructuring their 2026 budget cycles to accommodate these new priorities without asking for more money?

The Core Trade-off: AI vs. Legacy

In your conversations with customers, when boards ring-fence AI and cybersecurity spend, which specific legacy IT projects or 'run rate' operations bear the brunt of the cuts?
You have highlighted the deferral of ERP upgrades; what are the operational and technical risks CIOs are willing to accept by pushing these critical modernisations down the line?

Executing the Cuts: ERP, SaaS, and Cloud

How are enterprises leveraging third-party enterprise software support models to immediately free up capital. Is this shifting from a tactical cost-saving measure to a strategic boardroom lever?
Beyond traditional on-premise legacy systems, are we now seeing CIOs aggressively consolidating SaaS contracts and even renegotiating hyperscaler cloud commitments to fund AI initiatives?

Regional and Sector Nuances

CIOs at different sectors: manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, and financial services, approach how they manage their IT budgets. Are there distinct budget-cutting patterns or unique pressures specific to these sectors in the Asian market?

The CIO and CFO Dynamic

How has the conversation between the CIO and CFO evolved in the region? Are finance leaders now driving IT vendor renegotiations, or is the CIO leading this charge to protect innovation budgets?

Strategic and Financial Implications

Looking beyond 2026, if AI and cyber costs continue to scale without a corresponding increase in overall IT budgets, is the current model of funding them purely through legacy cuts sustainable?
Let’s round out what we’ve covered so far. Our topic is IT budget strategies for focusing on innovation and not cost-cutting. What are your top 3 recommendations for IT budget strategies for focusing on innovation and not cost-cutting?

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In 2026, the competitive advantage in AI will no longer come from model speed or scale—it will come from trust. As Southeast Asia and Korea accelerate enterprise AI adoption amid fragmented regulatory landscapes (from Singapore’s FEAT to Korea’s AI Basic Act), the CIO’s mandate has shifted from deployment to defense.

“AI integrity”—the convergence of data provenance, bias mitigation, explainability, and ethical resilience—is now a board-level risk. For heads of compliance and data science, the question is no longer “Can we scale AI?” but “Can we certify its integrity?” Without it, you face regulatory fines, model drift, and reputational collapse.
In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Lee Anstiss, Regional Director, Southeast Asia and Korea at Infoblox, to hopefully get insights and tips on how to safeguard AI integrity.

Do Asia’s CIOs and CISOs know exactly which AI models are running across all our business units—or is shadow AI already creating integrity risks we cannot see?
Given the fragmented state of each model’s regulatory status, what options are there for CIOs as they navigate fragmented rules with fragmented data?
In your view, are enterprises in Asia prioritizing raw accuracy over an “integrity scorecard” that includes bias, explainability, and robustness—and if so, are CIOs trusting models that are fast but not fair?
Based on current technologies and practices, can CIOs trace every piece of training data, including synthetic data, back to its source? Do organisations have blind spots where hidden bias or poisoned inputs could enter?
Can CIOs test their production AI for bias against local languages and cultural norms in each market? Can they produce an audit trail for any regulator who asks?
If a regulator demands proof of real-time bias disclosure tomorrow, is there a way for enterprises to have automated logs mapped to specific legal articles?
Should organisations maintain a human-in-the-loop for high-stakes decisions, with override logs that feed back into retraining? How risky is using the discipline of oversight as a checkbox?
Our topic is “tips on how to safeguard AI integrity” Can you share some of the most common or practical tips for CIOs, heads of AI, for ensuring or safeguarding AI integrity.

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Across Southeast Asia, generative AI pilots are stalling—not from a lack of model power, but from broken retrieval. Agentic RAG bridges this gap: autonomous agents that verify facts, enforce governance, and execute end-to-end workflows. For CIOs in 2026, this turns fragile experiments into auditable, scalable profit centres.

With Gartner warning that 60% of AI projects will be abandoned due to poor data and weak controls, agentic RAG is no longer optional—it is the only practical path from pilot to production. In markets like Singapore, where data residency and compliance are non-negotiable, retrieval intelligence is now the bedrock of ROI.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Ed Keisling, Chief AI Officer, Progress Software, discusses how CIOs and heads of AI across Southeast Asia, can turn AI pilots and POCs into profit-generating initiatives for enterprises in 2026.

What is RAG?
Given that most regional AI pilots never scale, what specific architectural weaknesses does agentic RAG fix that traditional RAG or fine-tuning cannot?
In markets with fragmented data landscapes—legacy systems, multilingual content, and disparate cloud storage—how does agentic RAG ensure consistent, high-quality retrieval at enterprise scale?
What out-of-the-box governance and audit trails does agentic RAG provide to satisfy both local data residency laws (e.g., Singapore’s PDPA) and board-level risk controls?
For CIOs managing lean teams, how does agentic RAG reduce the operational burden of maintaining retrieval pipelines, monitoring hallucinations, and orchestrating multi-step agent workflows?
How can agentic RAG help move beyond isolated use cases (e.g., customer support) toward fully autonomous, end-to-end processes spanning finance, supply chain, and compliance?
As agents become more autonomous by 2027, what retrieval strategies will prevent cascading errors or unauthorised actions, and what should CIOs implement today to stay safe?
(original 3) How should CIOs in Singapore and across Southeast Asia measure the ROI of retrieval intelligence compared to simply upgrading large language models?
For regional enterprises without custom AI stacks, what vendor or open-source scaffolding for agentic RAG offers the fastest path from pilot to profit while preserving data sovereignty?
What organisational, data, and leadership shifts must CIOs prioritise over the next 12–18 months to ensure agentic RAG transitions from a technical capability into a sustained source of competitive advantage?

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APAC CISOs face an escalating battle as AI agents rapidly outpace traditional defences. Key issues include distinguishing legitimate actions from malicious automation, soaring fraud speeds, and customer attrition from either excessive friction or unreimbursed losses.

The Biocatch report, the future of Digital Trust, concluded that with 86% viewing AI agents as the industry’s greatest vulnerability, leaders urgently need real-time behavioural insights and interbank collaboration to preserve trust.

To know more about this and to help CISOs at the region’s banks find solutions to this rising AI-driven fraud incidents, we are joined by Subhashish Bose, Director of Global Advisory, BioCatch.

What are the key salient points of the future of digital trust report?
How can we distinguish legitimate AI-assisted customer actions from agentic AI-driven fraud in real time?
What behavioural and intent-based signals can replace static identity checks as AI agents mimic human behaviour?
How do we prevent customer attrition caused by either excessive friction or unreimbursed scam losses? (intelligent friction?)
What interbank intelligence-sharing frameworks can we deploy to stop authorised fraud at the receiving account stage?
AI-powered scammers are on the rise. How do we accelerate fraud detection systems to match the rising speed of AI-generated attacks?
What investments are needed to counter agentic AI attacks that 79% of our peers have already encountered?
How should we restructure fraud and scam reimbursement policies to maintain trust without increasing vulnerability?
What metrics will tell us whether our AI defences are reducing fraud losses or merely shifting criminal tactics?
What is your advice for CISOs, CIOs and banking executives in the face of this rising AI-driven fraud?
What is the biggest myth related to financial fraud with AI?

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CFOs in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong face a new reality: talent is now a strategic risk. Between 2026–2027, cautious hiring contrasts with fierce competition for hybrid-skilled professionals who blend accounting expertise, digital literacy, commercial acumen, and regulatory fluency. Automation and AI threaten traditional career pipelines, while rapid AI adoption, family office growth, and capital market resurgence intensify demand, driving attrition and salary inflation. CFOs must act as talent architects, restructuring teams, embedding AI governance, and building resilient succession plans to safeguard leadership continuity against competitive pressures and workforce disruption.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, Angus Tsang, CFO and Company Secretary, CN Logistics International Holdings Limited, shares his thoughts on how finance leaders transforming the finance function to align to business priorities and market dynamics.

How are CFOs redefining the finance operating model to balance cost efficiency with the strategic agility required to support business growth in 2026-2027?
Do CFOs have a clear inventory of the skills they need versus the skills they possess, particularly regarding AI, data analytics, and regulatory technology?
How are CFOs adapting their talent acquisition strategy to compete for "versatile" talent in a market where specialists command significant salary premiums?
What is the CFO’s strategy for managing the "automation paradox"—automating routine work without eroding the developmental pathways for early-career finance professionals?
In your view, are succession plans for critical roles (e.g., Controllers, FP&A Heads, Tax) robust enough to withstand unexpected departures in a volatile hiring market? Is this succession plan reactive (someone resigns) or proactive?
What should be the approach to managing the emerging risks associated with AI governance, specifically ensuring that the team has the talent to oversee algorithmic decision-making and regulatory compliance?
How are CFOs leveraging the fluidity of regional hubs (Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia) to access talent pools that were previously out of reach?
Given the rise of contract roles (fractional/project) driven by transformation projects, how are CFOs (and CHROs) balancing permanent headcount with flexible talent to maintain organisational resilience?
How do CFOs measure the ROI of their talent development programmes, specifically regarding their impact on retention and internal promotion rates for leadership roles?

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This year’s Earth Day (22 April), the conversations pivot from carbon accounting to carbon action. While APAC CIOs have embedded sustainability dashboards, the rise of autonomous agents threatens to undo this progress.

In 2026, an uncontrolled "agent sprawl" could exponentially increase compute, data storage, and energy use—directly conflicting with Net Zero pledges. True sustainability isn’t just about reporting emissions; it’s about embedding green governance into every autonomous decision.

As agents become "digital coworkers," CIOs must treat energy efficiency and waste reduction as non-negotiable compliance metrics, ensuring AI acceleration doesn't come at the planet’s expense.

With us to understand what Earth Day means in the context of the exploding AI agent sprawl is Mr Liher Urbizu, present and MD of SAP Southeast Asia.

Questions covered:

Give us the agentic sprawl in Southeast Asia in 2026.
How do you embed "carbon-aware" policies directly into agent workflows? This should force autonomous agents to defer non-urgent batch processing to times of renewable energy availability. (treat carbon data like financial data)
With Earth Day commitments tightening, what technical controls are required to mandate energy consumption caps per agent, treating efficiency as a governance rule rather than a post-execution report?
To ensure agents don't inadvertently increase waste, how do you establish trusted data lineage for Scope 3 emissions, enabling an agent to verify a supplier's carbon intensity before autonomously placing an order?
Given that poor data quality leads to redundant processing, what data governance rules are necessary to prevent agents from repeatedly querying or transforming the same inefficient datasets, wasting energy?
How do you build a "sustainability audit trail" for every autonomous decision, allowing CIOs to trace a specific agent's action back to its energy cost and carbon footprint for regulatory reporting?
As we manage agents like digital coworkers, what "retirement criteria" ensure that low-value, high-frequency agents are automatically decommissioned to prevent long-term energy leakage? (leanIX)
To avoid "shadow agent" sprawl doubling your infrastructure emissions undetected, what discovery tools can catalog every autonomous agent and calculate its real-time energy consumption against your Net Zero milestones?
With stakes higher than Shadow IT, how do you differentiate between essential agents that optimize sustainability (e.g., logistics routing) versus "rogue" agents that create unnecessary digital waste and technical carbon debt?
Where is the starting point for my organisation to move towards a more sustainable IT operation?

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In 2026, the risk engineer in Asia faces a fractured reality. Geopolitical decoupling has splintered supply chains across Southeast Asia, while simmering South China Sea tensions directly threaten subsea cables—the region’s digital arteries.

Concurrently, climate-driven heatwaves stress power grids, collapsing OT systems in manufacturing hubs. The core dilemma is no longer single-peril analysis but the "poly-crisis": ransomware demands spiking as a grid fails, or a sovereign cyber operation triggering an insurance exclusion.

For Asian risk engineers, resilience means stress-testing for layered shocks—where a trade war, a flood, and a data exfiltration all arrive on the same Tuesday.

Vivien Bilquez, global head of Cyber at Zurich Resilience Solutions, answers the following questions on resilience imperatives as the region faces its most challenging crises to date.

To set the context for our dialogue, please briefly provide a state of resilience for organisations in Asia today?
With global trade splitting into US and China-centric blocs, which regulatory regime (export controls, data localization) costs/is costing/will cost businesses in Asia the most to operate under?
Are existing power/electricity backups designed for simultaneous crises (e.g., heatwave blackout plus ransomware), and can we recover in milliseconds rather than minutes?

4. How much do businesses rely on subsea cables through the South China Sea or Strait of Malacca, and what is the backup route if a cable is cut?

If a nation-state or hacktivist group shuts down existing OT systems (e.g., cooling or chemical delivery), what is the financial loss per hour of halted production?
Do prevailing insurance policies exclude "sovereign cyber operations" (Stryker clauses), and have organisations moved from relying on insurance to building quantified self-resilience?
When an AI-driven disinformation campaign targets an organisation’s brand or a climate event shuts plants/production facilities, do organisations have a playbook that unites engineering, the CISO, and the CFO within ten minutes? (If not, can you suggest such a playbook?)
State the resilience posture of organisations in Asia
What questions do I ask to put my organisation on the track to resilience?
What do I need to do to put my organisation on the path towards resilience?

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For ASEAN CIOs in 2026, the AI paradox is clear: budgets are rising, yet financial returns are not. With almost half the region scaling AI beyond pilots, we have hit a "data wall". The shift to agentic AI has made integration the new control plane.

To move from ambition to monetisation, leaders must stop managing data in silos and start activating it in real-time across finance, supply chains, and customer systems.

Without a unified data fabric that ensures governance and trust, autonomous agents cannot operate safely at scale. Data activation is no longer an IT project; it is the core strategy for turning AI spend into EBIT.

Joining us to clear the cobwebs of this data wall, is Mr David Irecki, chief technology officer for Asia Pacific & Japan at Boomi.

David, welcome back to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Boomi cites an interesting statistic: 95% of organisations struggle with AI ROI, yet you argue the models are ready. Where are ASEAN CIOs getting stuck—and why are data quality and integration now the real villains, not the AI? (Singaproe report)
Beyond lakes and dashboards, what does "data activation" mean in practice? How do we put live, trusted data into the flows AI agents rely on?
As Agentic AI explodes in 2026, why should CIOs see APIs and integration as the new "control plane" for security, privacy, and sovereign AI?
According to Boomi, with 90% of staff using AI informally, how do we enforce data governance without killing speed? Can the integration layer automate policy enforcement?
Define data debt. How do we build a business case for killing "data debt" and moving from brittle scripts to reusable, AI-ready integrations?
According to Salesforce, 96% of CIOs say success hinges on integrating AI into the flow of everyday work. Where do ASEAN CIOs see the fastest payback for data activation—finance, supply chain, or customer service?
How does activating data for a swarm of autonomous agents differ from powering a simple chatbot? How do we make different vendors' agents talk to each other?
If Asia has hit a data wall, what are the three non-negotiables for CIOs to turn AI spend into EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) by 2026?
Takeway for CIO to get their CIO initiatives from delivering disappointing results to powering the business innovations?

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From IT’s view, enabling the workplace means ending the chaos of disjointed apps as well as siloed technologies and work environments. This workplace complexity breeds fragmentation spikes where teams juggle chat, docs, and tickets while workflows stall.

One of the CIO’s critical missions in 2026 should be to restore flow: a unified system where conversations trigger actions, not more tabs. We need platforms that reduce IT firefighting by embedding knowledge, automation, and follow-through into collaboration itself.

When work moves seamlessly from talk to completion, only then can we finally stop maintaining tools and start enabling outcomes.

This is the Resolution Economy – an economic model that focuses on guaranteed outcomes, reduced fragmentation and systemic resolution beyond experience. For the IT department, the resolution economy means fewer alerts, smoother integrations, and a digital workplace that works as one.

Joining us on PodChats for FutureCIO is Carlos Quaderi, head of Asia, Zoom. He will share his perspective on the technologies and workflows for enabling workplace and collaboration for distributed IT teams.

Questions

How do we measure ROI when collaboration platforms evolve from communication hubs to operational “systems of action”?
With AI agents joining workflows, how do we govern data privacy across ASEAN’s varying regulations?
Can our current stack reduce fragmentation without forcing yet another new tool on employees?
What metrics truly indicate workflow completion velocity, not just user activity?
How should we rethink vendor lock-in when a single platform begins controlling both conversation and execution?
Will hyperlocal infrastructure (e.g., Indonesia’s data sovereignty laws) limit seamless cross-border collaboration?
How do we balance frontline worker needs with knowledge workers in one integrated platform?
What new security boundaries are needed when AI “follow-through” pulls data across previously siloed systems?

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Despite rapid digital acceleration across Southeast Asia, enterprises remain trapped in a costly cycle of reactive cybersecurity and third-party risk management. Fragmented vendor ecosystems, opaque AI integrations, and siloed threat data force CISOs into perpetual firefighting rather than strategic anticipation.

As regulatory expectations tighten and attack surfaces expand through generative and agentic AI, waiting for incidents to strike is no longer viable. Regional leaders must pivot from compliance-driven checkboxes to intelligence-led oversight.

By unifying external threat intelligence, continuous vendor monitoring, and AI-augmented analytics, ASEAN organisations can break the reactive loop and build resilient, forward-looking risk architectures.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Mark Harris, solutions sales director APAC, for Diligent offers some practice insights and recommendations for how organisations in Asia can move out of reactive cyber habits in 2026.

How are ASEAN enterprises currently measuring the gap between reactive incident response and proactive threat intelligence, and which metrics best validate a shift toward predictive oversight?
Where do traditional third-party risk frameworks fall short in anticipating systemic cyber exposures introduced by agentic AI and cross-border cloud vendors?
How can CISOs operationalise external threat intelligence and regional peer benchmarking to pre-emptively adjust controls before attackers or regulators force a reaction?
What balance should organisations strike between AI-driven automation for vendor assessments and human-led judgement for nuanced, jurisdiction-specific supply chain risks?
Which intelligence-led reporting narratives are successfully converting technical cyber and third-party exposures into actionable board-level strategy across diverse ASEAN markets?
How are divergent regional data and AI regulations (e.g., PDPA, MAS, BSSN, NPC) creating reactive compliance silos, and what unified frameworks can harmonise oversight?
What underutilised data signals or external intelligence sources could transform your organisation from reactive firefighting to continuous, predictive risk management?
As AI-augmented vendor ecosystems become more autonomous, what new governance models will CISOs need to maintain intelligence-led oversight without stifling regional innovation?

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In 2026, Asia Pacific’s travel boom is reshaping airport strategy. While January saw a slight demand dip due to Lunar New Year shifting to February, IATA confirms a 5.2% global seat capacity expansion by March, signalling robust growth.

This surge, with passenger numbers projected to double by 2043, forces airports to modernise aggressively.

But as with many industry sectors turning to transforming to capture unpredictable market opportunities, a cornerstone of any transformation is being to tap the data that exists at their fingertips.

Cxociety Research discourse with the C-suite community suggests that central to achieving any lasting transformation is achieving a unified, data-driven operation. In the case of the travel industry, it is moving away from siloed airside, terminal, and landside management.

COOs are adopting AI for predictive disruption management and embedding energy optimisation to cut OPEX by up to 15%. The modern airport is no longer a transit hub but an intelligent, seamless, and ecosystem.

In this PodChats for FutureCOO, we are joined by Philippe Arsonneau, Senior Vice President of Infrastructure Segment, Schneider Electric, who will help us make the case for unified, data-driven operations.

Given that many airports currently run airside, terminal, and landside operations separately, what is our roadmap to intelligently unify these functions for complete situational awareness?
With AI able to analyse millions of signals simultaneously, how can we best deploy it to predict disruptions and reduce delays, thereby improving passenger flow during peak travel seasons?
How can we leverage AI-embedded energy management across all our buildings and assets to achieve up to 15% OPEX reduction while shrinking our carbon footprint?
What new revenue opportunities can AI and data analytics unlock for our airport retailers, and how do we integrate these with passenger movement data?
With passenger numbers forecast to double by 2043, how will our current infrastructure and technology scaling plans accommodate this long-term growth without compromising service?
What interdependency models must we develop between airlines, ground handlers, and retailers to manage the growing complexities and traveller volumes smoothly?
No discussion around modernisation and transformation can continue without addressing the security aspects of an operation. As airport modernise, how do we balance the need for seamless digital travel experiences (biometrics, wayfinding) with robust cybersecurity and passenger privacy?
Based on IATA’s January 2026 load factor of 83.9% for Asia Pacific, what key performance indicators should we track to continuously optimise both operational efficiency and passenger satisfaction throughout the terminal?
What is your advice for airport operators striving to transform and modernising their operations in 2026?

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CFOs in Singapore are accelerating customer experience (CX) investments under national innovation priorities, yet data signals a structural misalignment between spend and outcomes.

While most customers still rely on voice support, organisations are deprioritising it, creating hidden operational drag, rising churn risk, and mispriced ROI.

Fragmented systems, low agent productivity, and an under-recognised empathy gap further distort financial visibility.

The result: CX budgets that scale cost without improving retention or value. For CFOs, the critical question is no longer how much to invest, but how to recalibrate operating models, metrics, and governance to restore measurable returns.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, CK Tan, APAC Innovation at ServiceNow, offers some perspective on the Customer Experience Budget Trap: The CX Operational Drag CFOs Aren’t Measuring

According to a new ServiceNow Customer experience report, 80% of customers prefer phone support but only 9% of organisations plan to prioritise it, how should CFOs re-forecast churn given that 52% of customers would switch brands due to poor service?
With agents spending just 44% of their time on resolution and 83% toggling between three to five systems, what is the monthly cost of that 56% operational drag, and why is it missing from CX ROI dashboards?
If 48% of customers cite lack of empathy as a top frustration versus only 28% of executives, what financial provisions should CFOs make for repeat contacts and churn—especially when only 11% have made meaningful AI progress on emotional connection?
Before funding more digital-only CX systems and processes, what baseline must CFOs demand to reduce agent systems from five to one, and how much budget is wasted on workflows that force 40% of customers to repeat information?
When 83% of customers want self-service only for simple tasks and demand seamless human escalation for complex issues, at what point does the absence of empathetic hand-offs outweigh savings from defunding voice channels?
Which three operational metrics often ignored by finance—such as sentiment scores per call or agent system-switching time—should CFOs hardwire into monthly P&L reviews to detect a deepening empathy gap before it impairs customer assets?
Given that only 30% of executives have connected people, data and processes on a unified AI-enabled platform, what would a worst-case 2026 scenario look like for return on invested capital on CX spend?
What specific board-level governance change is required to force the three operational fixes—unified agent desktop, balanced channel investment, and empathy metrics—before better returns become possible?
On the topic of CX budget trap, what is your advice for CFOs to get out of the Customer Experience Budget Trap.

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In 2026, quantum computing has moved from lab breakthroughs to early commercial pilots across China, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, intensifying the “harvest now, decrypt later” risk for APAC enterprises.

Sensitive data traversing cross-border networks regulated financial systems, healthcare platforms, and critical infrastructure can be intercepted today and decrypted tomorrow—exposing organizations to future compliance violations, reputational damage, and competitive loss.

Challenges are acute: legacy PKI, fragmented hybrid-cloud environments, and strict data-sovereignty rules across ASEAN, India, and Greater China make rapid overhauls expensive and operationally risky.

Risks are immediate—delayed action could render years of stored data indefensible once cryptographically relevant quantum computers scale.

Opportunities, however, are equally real. Crypto-agile architectures (a system, platform, application, or organization can rapidly adapt its cryptographic mechanisms and algorithms in response to changing threats) now allow enterprises to introduce quantum-safe communications incrementally, layering post-quantum encryption alongside existing controls without rip-and-replace projects or business disruption.

Weiling Neo, VP of Product Management at Fortinet, joins us on this PodChats for FutureCISO and explains how APAC CISOs can seize this window to adopt quantum-safe communications today—without disrupting existing security architecture.

Weiling, how is quantum computing changing cryptographic risks for APAC enterprises in 2026?
Why has “harvest now, decrypt later” become a board-level concern across the region?
What exactly are quantum-safe communications, and why do they matter now for CISOs in Asia?
What makes legacy and hybrid environments in APAC especially challenging for this transition?
How can enterprises start adopting quantum-safe encryption without disrupting current security architecture?
What role does crypto-agility play in protecting mixed legacy, cloud, and cross-border systems?
Which industries—finance, government, healthcare, critical infrastructure—should move first?
Can you outline a practical phased roadmap that balances security, compliance, and continuity?
How can organizations layer quantum-safe methods alongside existing controls today?
What immediate, low-disruption steps should CISOs take to become quantum-ready now?
What’s in it for Fortinet along the lines of quantum-safe communications?

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In Asia-Pacific, CISOs are navigating a pivotal shift as organisations operationalise AI across complex hybrid and sovereign environments in 2026-2027.

AI has evolved from an innovative layer into a source of profound operational and security complexity, where failures in autonomous systems now trigger systemic business risks rather than contained outages, amplified by geopolitical tensions, supply-chain interdependencies, and regulatory volatility.

Ultimately, building digital resilience at scale demands robust governance, continuous monitoring, and sovereign-compliant architectures that safeguard trust, uptime, and compliance—enabling sustainable AI-driven growth without exposing enterprises to unacceptable risk.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, John Morgan, SVP & GM of Splunk Security, reveals how machine data and agentic AI help CISOs operationalise real-time observability, bridge talent gaps, and embed sovereign-compliant resilience. From Singapore to Sydney, discover strategies for secure, scalable AI growth through 2027.

Here are 10 key questions for CISOs in Asia in 2026, sequenced to align with the narrative flow:

Why has AI transitioned from a supplementary technology to a core driver of operational and security complexity across Asian enterprises?
How are AI-related failures increasingly manifesting as systemic business risks rather than isolated technical incidents?
What machine data strategies have organisations in Asia implemented to create a definitive, auditable record of system, user, and autonomous agent behaviour across hybrid environments?
Telemetry. How are organisations in Asia embedding real-time observability into security architectures to detect anomalies before AI-driven failures cascade across interconnected systems?

a. SIEMs and SOARs have been with us even before AI. What’s different today?

Given the regional investment in security talent consolidation, what expertise gaps remain in organisations’ ability to govern where AI and operational decisions converge?
How does the convergence of automation, human judgement, and unified data enable agentic AI to transform security operations capabilities?
In what specific ways can agentic AI accelerate detection, deepen investigations, and support controlled, proportionate responses to incidents?
What practical strategies allow organisations to operationalise AI at enterprise scale across hybrid infrastructures while sustaining resilience?
How are regional CISOs adapting to sovereignty requirements across Asia—from Singapore’s MAS guidelines to Australia’s data locality rules—while maintaining unified security visibility?
How can trust, uptime, and regulatory compliance be maintained as AI adoption accelerates in sovereign, multi-cloud Asia-Pacific contexts?
What should CIOs and CISOs bear in mind as Agentic AI makes its way in the SOC?

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Meta’s recent acquisition of Moltbook, the first social network built exclusively for AI agents, marks a pivotal moment as autonomous agents begin talking to each other across platforms. While this unlocks powerful new capabilities, it also exposes critical identity security challenges.

From impersonation risks to exploding machine identities, organisations must now treat AI agents with the same rigorous verification, visibility, and governance as human users. The question is no longer if agents will interact — but how securely they will do so.

These and more we will cover in this edition PodChats for FutureCISO with Marco Zhang, solutions engineering director, APJ at Saviynt.

Marco, welcome to PodChats for FutureCISO.

What new identity security expectations should enterprises set when their own AI agents begin participating in always-on directories or cross-platform agent socialization?
Why will AI agents soon require the same robust identity verification frameworks as human users as they begin autonomously interacting across systems, platforms, and even external agent networks?
What does the high-profile impersonation incident on Moltbook reveal about the immediate risks of unsecured machine identities in emerging agent-to-agent ecosystems, and how quickly could similar vulnerabilities scale in enterprise environments?
Why do most organisations still lack basic visibility into the machine identities operating across their cloud, SaaS, and AI environments even as agent adoption accelerates — and what are the hidden costs of this blind spot?
How could attackers exploit AI agents that possess valid credentials to manipulate automated systems, exfiltrate data, or move laterally through infrastructure without triggering traditional security alerts?
As the ratio of machine identities to human identities continues to explode (already exceeding 1:80 in many enterprises), how should CISOs rethink their entire identity fabric to accommodate persistent, autonomous agent sessions?
Why is identity governance rapidly becoming the central control layer that will determine how safely AI systems can interact with sensitive data, applications, and other agents?
What lessons from Moltbook’s rapid rise and security shortcomings should inform how organisations design least-privilege and just-in-time access policies specifically for agent-to-agent communication?
How can AI-powered identity security platforms (like Saviynt) turn the very technology driving agent proliferation — discovery, continuous posture monitoring, and automated governance — into a competitive advantage rather than a liability?
Looking ahead to 2027, when projections suggest AI agents may outnumber human users in many organisations, what single identity security investment will separate the leaders from those facing uncontrolled “ghost agent” risk?

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Over the last several years, successful CFOs have evolved from traditional financial stewards into strategic co-leaders who drive transformation with vision and discipline. In the era of artificial intelligence, they are taking the next step in corporate leadership integrating AI thoughtfully, championing agile practices, building data-driven cultures, and balancing innovation with robust governance to deliver measurable business impact.

Divya Kumar exemplifies this new breed of finance leader. With over two decades of experience scaling businesses and leading large-scale digital transformations across diverse industries and geographies, she has earned multiple CFO and executive leadership awards. As a board member, keynote speaker, and author of the 2026 book CFO AI Compass, Divya empowers finance leaders to co-lead their organization’s AI agenda while transforming the finance function itself.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2026, join us in this PodChats for FutureCFO as she reveals her approach to leadership as well as her secrets to leading finance in the era of AI.

Part I

In your career, what have been the key success factors that led you to senior leadership roles?
What mindset shifts prepared you to lead digital and business transformations across Fortune 500s, startups, Capgemini, IKEA, and now Decathlon (no company name)? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Part II

In your book, "CFO AI Compass", you've described CFOs shifting from financial stewards to strategic AI co-leaders. What practical steps and lessons from your IKEA (Digital CFO + Chief Data Officer) and Decathlon roles helped you make this transition and which framework or chapter from your book have you applied the most?
Your early ideas on agile budgeting and analytics-driven FP&A were forward-thinking. How have they evolved with today's AI?
How do you balance rapid innovation adoption h governance, risk, and measurable value across multinationals which operate in numerous countries, like the ones you have worked for? What guardrails or metrics work best in your experience?
With your board experience at IKEA and Decathlon, how has your strategy-finance-analytics experience given you an advantage? (connecting the dots) What's your top advice for finance leaders to gain a seat at the AI table?

Part III

You stress balancing humility with inspiration to foster curiosity and courage. What helps leaders and teams embrace (not fear) innovation?
In your journey as a leader and mentoring women/students, what one key learning do you want emerging women leaders to internalize?
IWD thoughts (115 years)?

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In 2026, APAC CIOs are under intense pressure. GenAI and agentic AI workloads are surging, talent is scarce, and strict data-sovereignty rules are non-negotiable. Yet according to the latest IBM Institute for Business Value research, only 8% of organizations say their current infrastructure fully meets AI needs, just 42–46% believe they can handle advanced models or real-time inferencing at scale, and privacy, security, and compliance remain among the top reasons AI investments fall short.

That’s where the conversation turns to storage. Today we explore how flash storage is evolving from a simple high-performance tier into something far more intelligent: Agentic Flash — systems with embedded autonomous AI that self-provisions, tunes, migrates workloads, detects threats, and optimizes costs in real time.

We’ll examine how this autonomous intelligence is changing enterprise storage demands, how flash can integrate with content-aware capabilities to make RAG pipelines dramatically more efficient, what new governance guardrails are required between humans and autonomous AI, and how organizations can define SLAs and FinOps practices that keep pace with production agentic AI.

Joining us to unpack all of this is Craig McKenna, Vice President - Storage Sales, IBM Technology, Asia Pacific.

What is the current state of AI adoption in APAC in 2026, and how has the shift to autonomous agentic AI changed the demands placed on enterprise storage infrastructure?
Beyond GPUs and accelerators, how is the rapid adoption of agentic AI workloads transforming enterprise storage requirements, and how have flash technologies evolved to support these workloads at scale?
How can flash storage integrate with content-aware storage capabilities to improve RAG pipeline efficiency as AI adoption drives explosive growth in unstructured data?
According to the IBM Institute for Business Value, 83% of executives view effective governance as essential yet only 8% have embedded risk frameworks. What governance guardrails and trust boundaries should exist between human oversight and autonomous agentic AI in intelligent flash storage systems?
How can embedded agentic AI in flash arrays help deliver measurable ROI as organizations scale AI workloads?
As organizations move agentic AI into production, what changes in SLAs will be needed to guarantee the performance, resilience, and compliance required by these workloads?
What FinOps policies and real-time dashboards are needed when autonomous AI in flash storage dynamically moves data between tiers and object storage during unpredictable AI workload spikes in hybrid environments?
In Asia’s regulatory environment, how can flash storage systems ensure that autonomous workload placement and data-mobility decisions remain fully auditable and compliant with privacy, security, and data-localisation requirements?

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In 2026, Sovereign AI is shifting from a compliance burden to a strategic weapon for CIOs in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. As regional AI regulations mature and data residency rules tighten, CIOs are under pressure to prove not only where AI runs, but who controls it, how it is governed and how decisions can be audited end‑to‑end.

Sovereign AI is no longer about ticking data residency boxes—it's about architecting control into every layer of the AI stack. For CIOs and CTOs, 2026 demands "sovereign-by-design" systems where data, models and decisions stay jurisdictionally compliant without sacrificing performance or innovation speed.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Chris Wolf, global head of AI for VMware reveals how policy-as-code, runtime guardrails and hybrid control planes turn regulatory constraints into competitive moats—enabling faster approvals, auditable pipelines and resilient architectures that regulators trust and boards back. Join us to discover the technical playbook to make sovereignty your enterprise AI advantage. (source)

Chris, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

How do we define AI sovereignty for our organisation in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, given diverging national laws, sector regulations and cross‑border data flows?
What governance model will give the board, regulators and customers confidence that AI decisions are transparent, explainable and auditable across their full lifecycle?
How can we design “sovereign‑by‑design” architectures that guarantee jurisdictional control over data, models and logs, rather than relying only on static data residency?
Where should we draw the line between sovereign, private and public AI workloads so we can balance regulatory risk, cost, performance and innovation speed?
What metrics and evidence will we use to prove to regulators and partners that our AI systems meet local AI laws, sectoral guidelines and emerging regional best practices by 2026?
How do we enforce policy‑as‑code for AI sovereignty (by country, customer segment and use case) across Kubernetes clusters, virtual machines and edge nodes without creating operational drag?
How do we implement runtime guardrails—such as policy‑aware APIs, output filters and human‑in‑the‑loop checkpoints—that adapt to different jurisdictional rules without having to rebuild apps per market?
How do we technically separate and evidence “control‑plane in‑country, data‑plane hybrid” architectures, so that regulators accept our claim of operational control even when we consume external AI services?
What strategies can we use to localise foundation models (e.g. domain‑specific adapters, parameter‑efficient fine‑tuning, prompt governance) so that sovereign variants comply with each regulator but still share a common core?
What mechanisms do we need to rapidly decommission, roll back or re‑route AI workloads when a jurisdiction updates its AI laws, without causing downtime for critical services such as payments, trading or clinical systems?
Final advice for CIOs on the topic of Sovereign AI by design.

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In 2026, APAC CFOs face a stark reality: AI and cloud expansions are fueling explosive data-driven growth, yet 76% of regional organisations suffered material cyberattacks in the past year. These incidents trigger 90% revenue hits, 89% ransom payments (40% exceeding US$1M), 73% earnings guidance adjustments for public firms, and 74% of private firms diverting growth budgets to recovery. Slow restores (97% >24 hours) and “data icebergs” expose hidden vulnerabilities.

Cyber resilience is now a core financial imperative. By reallocating budgets toward AI-powered detection, validated recovery, and response capabilities—at least one-third of cyber spend per Cohesity predictions—CFOs protect revenue streams, ensure PDPA compliance, safeguard market confidence, and unlock safe innovation. Financing resilience isn’t a cost; it’s the enabler of sustainable 2026 ambitions.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, Eric Brown, CFO and COO at Cohesity shares his views on How CFOs can finance cyber resilience for data-driven growth.

With APAC enterprises accelerating AI and cloud investments for 2026 growth, what emerging data vulnerabilities are CFOs most underestimating, and how are these “data icebergs” creating hidden financial risks?
Cohesity’s recent APAC research shows 76% of organisations faced material cyberattacks with 90% reporting revenue impact—what specific financial consequences (downtime, ransom, churn, regulatory fines) are CFOs now modelling in their 2026 forecasts?
What shifting Board expectations are forcing CFOs to treat cyber resilience as a balance-sheet issue rather than an IT line item? Any one recommendation for responding to this?
From your observations, how are finance leaders beginning to co-own cyber strategies with CISOs, and what governance frameworks are proving most effective? Is this repeatable in APAC?
With 78% of global organisations (per PwC) planning cyber budget increases in 2026 and Cohesity predicting at least one-third reallocation to response/recovery, how should APAC CFOs prioritise and phase these investments without derailing growth initiatives?
What practical checklist can APAC CFOs use in Q1 2026 to audit data risks across hybrid/cloud environments, including ransomware readiness and PDPA compliance?
How can CFOs quantify and measure the ROI of cyber resilience investments—particularly AI-driven backups and immutable recovery—so they can justify them to boards amid tight capital allocation?
Given APAC’s position as the region with the highest volume of cyberattacks globally, what unique regional factors (data sovereignty, sovereign cloud trends, regulatory fragmentation) should Singapore-based CFOs factor into their 2026 resilience strategies?
Looking at organisations that recovered fastest post-attack, what common decision-making traits distinguish “risk-ready” finance leaders from those still exposed?
For APAC CFOs balancing aggressive 2026 revenue growth targets with escalating cyber threats, any advice on making cyber resilience a competitive advantage rather than a drag on innovation?

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For 2026, Gartner says CFOs must balance intense cost pressures with strategic growth and AI adoption, focusing on five key actions: improving cost discipline while funding growth, using AI to deliver enterprise-wide savings, identifying high-value AI use cases, developing finance talent with new digital skills, and driving transformation despite constrained budgets.

Every CFO wants to back bold AI and automation plans. However, economic volatility brings the question of where to fund AI projects when IT budgets are already stretched? Rimini Street suggests that the AI budget is trapped inside ERP.

In PodChats for FutureCFO, Rimini Street CFO Michael Perica shares how finance leaders are rethinking maintenance and upgrading spending to unlock cash for AI and digital innovation.

If you’re under pressure to fund transformation without breaking the budget, this conversation is packed with practical ideas you can take straight to your next board meeting.

What does Rimini Street mean by “trapped inside ERP”?
How are CFOs identifying and measuring the “trapped” ERP cash within IT budgets, and what metrics best reveal opportunities to redirect spend toward AI and automation?
Based on your experience, what portion of ERP and maintenance costs can realistically be freed within 12–24 months to fund GenAI or digital initiatives?
How do finance leaders weigh the risk–return trade‑offs between extending legacy ERP systems and investing in new AI‑driven capabilities?
What critical questions should CFOs be asking their CIOs and ERP vendors before approving major upgrade or migration proposals?
How can finance teams build a structured ROI framework that links ERP lifecycle decisions directly to shareholder value and capital allocation discipline?
What are some standout examples of APAC organisations that have successfully redirected ERP savings to accelerate AI and data‑driven transformation?
As AI investment decisions converge with cybersecurity, compliance, and operational resilience, how must CFOs redefine their technology investment models beyond 2026?
Any advise Funding AI and digital initiatives without breaking the bank
how finance leaders are rethinking maintenance and upgrading spending to unlock cash for AI and digital innovation.

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For year now, Asia's cyber threat landscape has been marked by escalating nation-state attacks and rampant cloud breaches. In 2026, it stands to be transformed by integrating agentic AI for proactive threat detection.

This autonomous technology could pre-empt lateral movements, reduce alert fatigue, and enable real-time breach containment, bolstering defences for organisations amid high cloud saturation and sophisticated adversarial tactics.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Andrew Kay, Director of Systems Engineering APJ at Illumio, to share with us his views on how CISOs in Asia can use behavioural AI to shields against multi-cloud vulnerabilities.

How are Asian organisations employing machine learning algorithms, such as graph neural networks, within AI frameworks to manage hybrid cloud complexities and mitigate nation-state-sponsored APTs?
What specific vulnerabilities in multi-cloud environments, exacerbated by Asia's high cloud saturation, enable east-west lateral movement, and how can agentic AI utilise behavioural analytics to pre-empt such exploits?
How do AI-driven security graphs, leveraging real-time entity resolution and anomaly detection via unsupervised learning, offer a dynamic topology of workloads, users, and communications to identify subtle deviations indicative of threats?
Amid Asia's exposure to APTs, how can agentic AI leverage multi-agent systems for real-time threat correlation, accelerating decision trees and automating containment protocols like micro-segmentation?
What capabilities might agentic AI provide in tailoring threat intelligence feeds and remediation workflows to specific roles, such as integrating with SOAR platforms for threat hunters or generating compliance-aligned reports for analysts?
What technical risks arise from agentic AI deployment, including prompt injection vulnerabilities or model drift leading to erroneous autonomous decisions, and what mitigation strategies, such as human-in-the-loop safeguards, are suitable for Asian regulatory environments?
Under which conditions could agentic AI interoperate with existing EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) and XDR (Extended Detection and Response) tools to orchestrate automated responses, such as dynamic access controls, in expansive cloud infrastructures?

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Rohit Dhawan, group executive director of Artificial Intelligence at Lloyds Banking Group in the UK, wrote: Agentic AI goes beyond GenAI, enabling autonomous action, workflow orchestration, and real‑time decision-making at scale.

He goes on to predict that 2026 marks a turning point as agentic AI moves from experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment across financial services.

In this context, CISOs and CIOs in Asia may want to consider prioritising AI-driven identity governance for autonomous environments, in the process treating agentic AI as first-class identities requiring least-privilege enforcement, continuous behavioural monitoring, lifecycle visibility, and human-in-the-loop controls.

Maturing understanding of regulationswill drive compliance efforts to mitigate shadow agents, rogue actions, excessive privileges, and accountability gaps in securing enterprise IT infrastructure.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Matthew Graham, Chief Security Officer for Asia Pacific at Okta, shares his thoughts on emphasising practical, regulation-grounded decision-making on agentic AI adoption.

How ca n we quickly evaluate if our current identity and access management systems are ready to handle agentic AI as independent actors?
What key principles from Singapore’s Model AI Governance Framework for Agentic AI should we adopt first to set safe boundaries for autonomous agents?
Drawing from our experience with the proliferation of Shadow GenAI, how do we prevent shadow or over-privileged AI agents from gaining too much access and causing unauthorised actions?
What basic steps ensure every agentic AI has its own clear, trackable identity with proper permissions and audit trails?
What practical approaches manage the full lifecycle of short-lived agent identities—from creation and delegation to safe removal?
There is a possibility that many organisations don’t have the experience or capability to follow through your recommendations. How do CISOs and CIOs have appropriate governance for their business and workflow?
How can we add simple behavioural monitoring and emergency stop controls to catch rogue or unexpected agent actions without slowing operations?
Looking forward, how might new standards and Asia’s push for sovereign AI influence our long-term plans to balance safe innovation with compliance?
Agentic AI is predicted to be the IT project of 2026. For organisations that have decided to deploy agentic AI, any security recommendations to ensure resilience?

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As of 2025, women represent just 24% of the global cybersecurity workforce, with figures in Asia lagging behind at under 20%—a stark reminder of the persistent gender gap in one of the world’s most critical and fast-evolving sectors.

Yet this imbalance also signals immense untapped potential. Across Singapore, India, Japan, and beyond, women professionals are increasingly stepping into roles as threat analysts, chief information security officers, cyber policy advisors, and entrepreneurs—bringing diverse perspectives that strengthen organisational resilience and innovation.

While cultural barriers, limited mentorship, and structural inequities remain, targeted initiatives and shifting workplace norms are beginning to accelerate inclusion.

In an era where cyber threats transcend borders, empowering more women in cybersecurity isn’t just about equity—it’s a strategic imperative for Asia’s digital future.

Jasie Fon, regional vice president of Asia at Ping Identity, shares her journey and experience.

What early experiences or role models first sparked your passion for technology and shaped your career direction?
How have you turned setbacks or biases into opportunities for growth and resilience?
What key decisions helped you balance technical expertise with leadership responsibilities?
How do you approach continuous learning and adaptability in such a fast-evolving field like cybersecurity?
What is your perspective on work-life integration in high-stakes tech roles, and how do you sustain personal well-being alongside professional ambition?
In your experience, what strategies effectively build diverse, collaborative teams while mitigating cultural or gender bias—especially in Asia’s varied business contexts?
How has mentorship influenced your journey, and how are you paying it forward to support the next generation of women in tech?
What legacy do you hope to leave for future tech professionals, particularly young women entering cybersecurity in Asia?

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In 2026, Asia's AI landscape is characterised by unparalleled leadership in adoption, with some organisations, like Baidu (China), SenseTime (Hong Kong), Naver Corporation (South Korea) and Grab (Singapore) surpassing global peers in generative AI deployment and employee engagement. Yet, true transformation demands responsibility and sustainability: balancing rapid innovation with robust governance, ethical workforce integration, and scalable strategies that deliver enduring value amidst diverse national policies and economic dynamics.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Grant Case, field chief data officer for APJ, Dataiku, shares with us his views on how organisations in Asia can achieve responsible and sustainable AI-led transformation.

Describe the state of awareness/recognition/understanding of the ethical/responsible use of AI in 2025 (keep it brief)?
How can organisations in Asia assess their current AI maturity to ensure adoption aligns with long-term strategic goals rather than short-term hype?
What metrics should leaders prioritise to measure the true impact of AI initiatives beyond initial experimentation?
In what ways can national AI strategies in countries like Singapore and South Korea influence corporate investment decisions and talent acquisition?
How might fragmented governance frameworks hinder AI deployment, and what steps can be taken to harmonise them across multinational operations?
What role does workforce upskilling play in addressing employee concerns about AI, fostering trust and reducing resistance to adoption?
In human-machine collaborations, how can leaders design systems that enhance efficiency while promoting transparency and accountability?
What strategies can mitigate the risks of informal generative AI usage outpacing formal oversight in fast-moving Asian enterprises?
Looking ahead, how will sustainable AI practices contribute to competitive advantage, driving not just growth but resilience in Asia's evolving economic landscape?

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Traditional defences fall short in the region's rapidly digitising landscape, with vulnerabilities in cloud, OT, supply chains, and critical sectors like healthcare. For CIOs, CISOs and CROs, the industrialisation of cyber threats requires pivoting to practical defence strategies against industrialised cyber threats that operate like efficient enterprises, powered by AI agents and automated workflows compressing attack lifecycles to minutes.

What does a resilience strategy look like? What should be the approach taken by organisations to achieve machine-speed adaptability in 2026.

For more on this, we are joined by Jonas Walker, director of threat intelligence, Fortinet.

Describe what for you is an industrialisation of cybercrime?
How has this industrialisation of cybercrime in Asia necessitated a shift from reactive to proactive defence strategies?
What role do AI-enabled agents play in accelerating attack stages, and how can defenders in the region counter this by operationalising threat intelligence at machine speed?
Why must defences prioritise refining established controls over novel innovations, and what does this mean for managing dwell times in environments with expanding OT and IoT exposures?
How are botnets and insider recruitment threats amplifying industrial-scale attacks, and what defensive measures should leaders implement to disrupt these?
In recent years, governments around Asia have raised concerns around the vulnerability of critical infrastructure. Can you suggest 1 or 2 practical strategies to mitigate blended threats such as ransomware and data extortion, including essential tools and frameworks like integrated SecOps for automated detection and containment?
In the context of today’s hybrid, meaning human and machine workers, why is identity governance becoming central to defence? More importantly, how can it be enforced in AI-driven cloud environments?
What is the answer to Asia’s perennial security skills gap? How can organisations build specialised expertise in areas like detection engineering and AI operations to support resilient defences?
What practical incentives can Asia’s leaders leverage to disrupt cybercrime ecosystems and enhance accountability, and how can CISOs and CIOs work together to strengthen long-term defence strategies against evolving industrialised threats?

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In 2025, AI is reshaping the COO’s mandate across Asia, shifting focus from process efficiency to strategic orchestration. According to McKinsey (2024), 68% of APAC operations leaders report AI-driven automation freeing up 20–30% of planning capacity, enabling greater emphasis on resilience and innovation.

Accenture highlights that AI-powered predictive operations are now table stakes in manufacturing and logistics hubs like Vietnam and Singapore.

However, Gartner cautions that only 35% of Asian firms have mature data governance to support enterprise AI at scale.

For COOs, the imperative is clear: integrate AI into core operational workflows while navigating talent gaps and ethical AI frameworks unique to Asia’s fragmented regulatory landscape.

Questions

Define AI as viewed from the perspective of the COO.
How is AI redefining the strategic scope of the COO beyond traditional operational efficiency in Asian organisations?
In organisations where CEOs increasingly own AI strategy in Asia Pacific, how can COOs ensure day-to-day operations, processes, and KPIs stay tightly aligned with that strategy, including their role in cross-functional AI governance and enterprise-wide AI scaling?
Which high-value operational domains (e.g. supply chain, customer operations, risk and compliance, manufacturing, warehousing, etc) in Asia offer the greatest near-term returns from generative and agentic AI, and how should COOs prioritise them, including which industries are leading in AI-driven operational transformation?
What new operating models are emerging as AI blurs the lines between planning, execution, and decision-making, and how should the COO mandate evolve when AI and automation become core to the business model in Asian markets?
How can COOs redesign operating models to integrate “digital labour” and AI agents alongside human teams, including how leading Asian firms are reskilling operations talent to work effectively alongside AI systems while addressing employee job-fear and skills gaps?
What new leadership, data, and AI literacy capabilities must operations leaders and middle management in Asia develop to manage AI-augmented teams effectively?
What governance frameworks are needed for responsible and ethical AI use in operations, ensuring alignment with Asia’s diverse regulatory and ethical standards on data privacy, security, model risk, transparency, fairness, and brand trust?
What metrics beyond cost savings should COOs adopt to measure AI’s impact on resilience, service quality, growth, and overall business value in Asia’s volatile markets?
How should COOs structure partnerships with consulting firms and technology providers to accelerate AI-enabled operations without creating long-term vendor lock-in?
Given constrained budgets and competing priorities for 2026, what capital allocation and business case criteria should COOs apply to scale AI in operations while avoiding hype-driven investments, addressing pressing data governance and infrastructure gaps?
What is Teceze?
What i

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As we approach 2026, the promise of artificial intelligence across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong is palpable, driven in part by aspirations for unparalleled efficiency and innovation.

Yet, for AI to truly deliver on this promise for business leaders, a critical threshold of trust and security must be crossed.

The emergence of agentic AI—autonomous systems that can act, access data, and execute tasks—represents both the pinnacle of this potential and its greatest peril.

With the region's rapid digital acceleration and complex regulatory tapestry, securing these agents from large-scale data breaches and operational disruption is no longer a future consideration; it is the definitive security mandate for 2026.

The journey from hype to secured value depends on the governance, design, and vigilance we enact today.

FutureCISO spoke to Ray Canzanese, director of Netskope Threat Labs, about the approaches the things that need to happen for AI to deliver on its promises in 2026.

Questions:

What is the most interesting observation you’ve seen in 2025?
As ASEAN releases its AI Guide and regional regulations evolve, what should be the priority for a CISO building a governance framework for agentic AI in 2026?
Why does agentic AI fundamentally change the cyber risk profile for an organisation, and how does this exacerbate threats in our interconnected Southeast Asian business landscape?
You’ve suggested the first major agentic AI-driven data breach could occur in 2026. What might a typical attack chain look like, targeting a poorly secured agent in a multinational based in Singapore or Hong Kong?
The principle of least privilege is challenging with dynamic AI agents. What are the practical steps for security leaders to implement effective permission models without stifling innovation?
How can frameworks like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) be leveraged to enforce a 'security-by-design' approach for AI agents, and is the industry in our region adopting them quickly enough?
With organisations here often using a mix of global and local AI providers, how should we approach the unique third-party and supply chain risks introduced by agentic AI ecosystems?
Beyond technical controls, what changes in day-to-day security operations (SecOps) are needed to monitor and respond to anomalous agent behaviour in real-time?
How can CISOs effectively communicate the tangible business risks—and secured value—of agentic AI to boards, CFOs, and COOs who are eager for competitive advantage?
Looking ahead to 2026, what one metric will indicate that an organisation in our region has successfully secured its agentic AI initiatives and is ready to scale?

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As we move into 2026, AI is no longer a strategic experiment—it’s the engine of operational transformation. Across Asia, COOs are stepping beyond traditional oversight roles to become chief orchestrators of AI infrastructure: the complex, dynamic backbone that powers everything from real-time customer insights to autonomous supply chains.

But what does it truly mean to build “AI-ready” infrastructure in a region defined by rapid innovation, diverse regulatory regimes, and intensifying pressure on energy and talent?

In this PodChats for FutureCOO, we are joined by Tejaswini Tilak, VP, Marketing, APAC, Digital Realty, who will share her perspective on Orchestrating the organisation’s AI Infrastructure as viewed by the COO in 2026.

How can we ensure our AI infrastructure investments deliver long-term operational agility and business value amid rapidly shifting AI models, regulations, and market conditions across Asia?
What operating model enables us to efficiently manage both compute-intensive AI training and real-time, low-latency inference—especially as business units demand responsiveness from factory floors to customer touchpoints?
As AI inference moves closer to end users and industrial operations, how must we evolve our edge and colocation footprint to guarantee uptime, performance, and disaster resilience across diverse Asian markets?
Given Asia’s patchwork of data sovereignty laws, how can we standardize data governance across markets while enabling seamless AI operations and avoiding regulatory penalties or business delays?
Beyond raw compute, which operational metrics—such as time-to-decision, energy-per-inference, or cost-per-AI-outcome—should drive our AI infrastructure strategy and investment reviews?

6. How do we balance the surging energy demands of AI with our corporate sustainability commitments and operational cost targets—without compromising scalability or performance?

What strategic partnerships—with digital infrastructure providers, energy utilities, and technology vendors—are essential to de-risk and accelerate our AI operational roadmap across Asia in 2026–2027?
Drawing from your observations in the market in 2025, what advise can you offer COOs and other members of the C-Suite when it comes to their investment strategies for 2026?
With 2026 just around the corner, what are you expectations of things to come?

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For the modern COO, the future of operational excellence in Asia hinges on perfecting human–AI collaboration and workforce orchestration. This is not about mere automation but about creating a synergistic ecosystem where human intuition and machine intelligence coalesce.

In 2026, with Asia's diverse and rapidly evolving labour markets, the ability to orchestrate this new workforce is paramount to driving productivity, innovation, and agility. As a practising COO in the region notes, “The most successful organisations will be those that can best choreograph their human and digital talent to perform in unison.”

Mastering this is no longer a competitive advantage but a core operational necessity. In this exclusive interview with FutureCOO, Bhaskar Roy, Chief of AI Products and Solutions at Workato, offers his perspective on the human-AI collaboration as it evolves with maturing use and industry of what the technology can and cannot do.

(Define) What is Human-AI collaboration? (new role: agent manager)

a. How would COOs define a strategic vision for Human–AI collaboration that aligns with their organisation’s core business objectives and creates a tangible competitive advantage in the Asian market? (operational efficiency - HR, drive growth – sales/marketing, improving customer experience/success)

What new organisational structures and operational workflows are required to support integrated human and AI teams? (teaming up with CIO, upskilling,
Do you expect human-AI collaboration to diminish the proliferation of operational silos?
Do we apply the same adoption principles used in RPA to AI? (Which specific operational processes and decisions are best suited for full automation, enhanced human judgement with AI insights, or entirely new collaborative tasks?)
What are the most critical new skills—both for human employees and leadership—that COOs (and functional leaders) must develop to thrive in this new collaborative environment?
How do COOs, working with CHROs, ethically manage the transition for our existing workforce, ensuring robust reskilling and upskilling pathways that align with future operational needs?
What key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics can COOs, functional leaders and HR use to measure the effectiveness and ROI of Human–AI collaboration, moving beyond simple productivity gains?
How will the COO's role evolve from managing people and processes to orchestrating a fluid, hybrid workforce of employees, contractors, and AI agents?
Any recommendations for how to design a technology infrastructure that is both scalable and flexible enough to integrate new AI capabilities rapidly as they emerge? (partner to set guardrails, partner to identify the right tech,
Into 2026, can you share your expectations on the human-AI collaboration landscape as it develops in Asia?
Questions that a COO needs to consider as they look to adopt human-AI collaboration?

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As IoT adoption accelerates and cross-border supply chains deepen, the region faces escalating risks from fragmented regulations, AI-driven malware, and legacy infrastructure gaps. Traditional prevention models are faltering against sophisticated, fast-moving threats. Instead, governments and enterprises are shifting toward containment-first frameworks—rapid isolation of compromised nodes, segmented supply chain networks, and resilient recovery protocols. This reckoning reflects Southeast Asia’s dual reality: digital economies expanding at breakneck speed, yet exposure widening. By embracing containment as the new prevention, the region positions itself not to eliminate breaches, but to survive and adapt within them.

Following the case of Singapore’s pivot in 2025–2026 toward containment-first cybersecurity, perhaps there is merit in treating containment as the new paradigm.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, Kenny Ng, Head of Network Business Division, APAC, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, offers his perspective on how containment is the new prevention.

Given that third-party digital partners were the primary attack vector in 2025, what is the most effective way to enforce "never trust, always verify" without crippling operational efficiency?
Beyond multi-factor authentication, what specific contextual factors—such as device posture, time of access, and requested application—should enterprises use to dynamically grant vendors the least privilege required?
For Operational Technology environments, which are often air-gapped or rely on legacy systems, how can enterprises practically implement micro-segmentation to create containment zones without disrupting critical processes?
How do security and operational leaders rigorously define and enforce the boundary between corporate IT network and production OT network to prevent a cross-functional breach?
With the mindset of "containment, not prevention," what are the key metrics IT and OT should track to measure their success in limiting the blast radius of a potential incident, rather than just counting blocked attacks?
How can organisations redesign their incident response playbooks to prioritise the immediate isolation of compromised segments, thereby containing a threat before it can move laterally?
What is the business case for prioritising investment in ZTA over traditional perimeter defences, and how can enterprises demonstrate its ROI to the board through enhanced business continuity and reduced operational risk?
As organisations implement ZTA, how can they ensure seamless interoperability between existing security investments and new ZTA-enabling technologies to avoid creating new security gaps?
How must the roles and responsibilities of IT and OT security teams evolve and collaborate to manage a unified Zero Trust policy across both corporate and production environments?
Looking beyond their own enterprise, how can businesses encourage or mandate the adoption of Zero Trust principles across their entire supply chain to strengthen the collective ecosystem resilience?

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In 2026, governments across Asia grapple with escalating cybersecurity challenges amid rapid digital transformation and geopolitical tensions. AI-powered threats, including sophisticated phishing and deepfakes, pose significant risks, with IDC forecasting that 76.5% of Asia/Pacific enterprises lack confidence in detecting such attacks.

Ransomware continues to evolve, targeting critical infrastructure, while supply chain vulnerabilities expose sensitive data—Gartner predicts 45% of global organisations will face software supply chain attacks by 2025, a trend persisting into 2026.

Cloud adoption amplifies hybrid environment breaches, compounded by espionage-driven incursions, as Verizon reports 25% of APAC cyberattacks motivated by spying, with public administration the most targeted sector. Regulatory mandates demand robust compliance, straining resources in an era of legacy systems and talent shortages.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Aaron Bugal, Field CISO, APJ, Sophos, walks us through some of the coming cybersecurity issues government CISOs as well as those in the private sector, will find important in 2026.

How can government CISOs effectively measure and improve their cybersecurity resilience, moving beyond compliance-based checklists to ensure the continuous delivery of essential citizen services during an attack?
What strategies, have proven, most effective for securing legacy systems that remain critical to national operations, given they cannot be immediately replaced?
With Gartner highlighting that by 2026, 50% of C-level executives will have performance requirements tied to cybersecurity risk, how can government CISOs best align their security metrics with national-level outcomes?
How can CISOs proactively defend against state-aligned (sponsored) actors who are increasingly targeting digital public services and critical infrastructure for espionage and disruption?
Name one CISO strategy for managing third-party and supply chain risk, particularly as organisations, both private and public, rely on an ecosystem of partners to deliver complex, cloud-native government services?
Given IDC's prediction that by 2026, 70% of organisations will consider environmental sustainability in their cloud purchase decisions, how can CISOs balance security, sovereignty, and sustainability in their technology procurements?
How are government CISOs addressing the critical cybersecurity skills gap, and what new models for talent acquisition and retention must be developed to compete with the private sector?

a. How to avoid burnout?

To what extent have CISOs integrated security into the entire application lifecycle (DevSecOps) for their national digital identity and other citizen-facing platforms?
Name a governance and technical framework for the safe and ethical adoption of AI, both to enhance a government’s cyber defences and to mitigate its potential malicious use by threat actors?
How are government CISOs collaborating with regional counterparts and international bodies to share threat intelligence and establish coordinated response protocols for cross-border cyber incidents?
What is that one final advice for government CISOs as their update their cybersecurity strategies for 2026?

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By 2026, the paradigm of network defence is set to undergo its most profound shift. For CISOs and Heads of Networking, the escalating velocity of AI-powered threats is rendering human-scale response obsolete.

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, these attacks are projected to cost the world $60 billion annually by 2025, creating pervasive and costly risk.

In this landscape, a self-defending network is no longer a futuristic concept but a strategic imperative. It represents the evolution from human-led, reactive security to an AI-native architecture capable of autonomous threat detection, isolation, and remediation, ensuring business resilience.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Nick Harders, APJ Systems Engineering Director, HPE Networking, to talk to us about why enterprises must reframe their security strategy around a self-defending network in 2026.

What is your definition of self-healing, AI-driven networks?
How can we effectively measure the ROI of self-healing, AI-driven networks beyond traditional uptime metrics, perhaps in terms of risk reduction or operational expenditure savings?
As we deploy agentic AI for autonomous network operations, what new governance and audit frameworks are required to ensure its decisions remain aligned with business objectives and compliance mandates?
In a region with diverse data sovereignty laws, how can we design our autonomous network architecture to ensure data for AIOps and security analytics is processed and stored compliantly across different Asian jurisdictions?
With AI-powered threats capable of social engineering and polymorphic code, how do we ensure our AI-native defences can adapt quickly enough without generating excessive false positives that disrupt business?
To what extent can we trust predictive insights from our network AI, and what processes are needed for human teams to validate and act upon these proactive recommendations?
Given the increased reliance on AI, how do we protect AI's own infrastructure—the data pipelines, models, and control loops—from becoming a primary target for sophisticated threat actors?
With the attack surface expanding to include every connected user and device, how does a converged NetSec strategy fundamentally change our approach to implementing and enforcing a zero-trust architecture?
As networking and security teams converge, how do we bridge the cultural and skills gap to create unified "NetSec" engineers, and what does their new career path look like?
What is the realistic division of responsibility between human teams and AI agents in a security incident response loop, and where should the final 'kill chain' authority lie?
What strategic, human-centric skills should we be prioritising in the recruitment and training of our next-generation NetSec professionals?
What are your expectations in 2026 and advise for CISOs and CIOs?

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In 2025, Asia's digital economy surges beyond $330 billion in Southeast Asia alone, yet escalating cyber threats loom large for business, finance, and security leaders. SMS fraud is projected to intensify, with over 50% of telecom providers anticipating growth, fuelled by AI-enhanced smishing and artificially inflated traffic costing billions globally. Key concerns include ransomware, supply chain disruptions, and mobile payment scams eroding profitability and customer trust in finance, retail, e-commerce, and logistics. Opportunities lie in proactive, no-code tools for real-time detection, AI-driven prevention, and cross-sector collaborations, fostering operational agility and regulatory compliance amid a cybersecurity market reaching $74.22 billion.

Igor Mostovoy, Product Director of CPaaS, 8x8

Who/What is 8x8?
What are the latest projections for SMS fraud costs in Asia by 2026, including the impact of sophisticated threats like AIT on customer acquisition and operational margins?
Beyond direct financial losses, what quantifiable effects do major SMS fraud incidents have on brand reputation and customer churn rates in key Asian markets?
How might artificially inflated traffic and AI-powered scams like smishing affect e-commerce profitability and supply chain operations in logistics?
Are our current fraud defences reactive, requiring developer intervention and causing delays, or can business teams detect and act in real time?
What strategies can finance, and operations leaders employ to maintain customer trust amid rising threats, whilst ensuring secure communication channels during Southeast Asian expansion?
How can we better integrate fraud management across operations, finance, and security teams to dismantle internal silos and enhance organisational agility?
What capabilities are essential for proactively blocking fraudulent SMS traffic before it impacts customers or systems, including the use of no-code tools for non-technical teams?
What role will regulatory changes and cross-industry collaborations play in combating digital fraud and strengthening security in retail and finance sectors?
How would real-time visibility into SMS traffic patterns, powered by behavioural analysis, improve data-driven decisions on marketing spend and channel reliability?
What is the total cost of ownership of fragmented fraud tools compared to integrated platforms, and how can robust defences be leveraged as a competitive trust advantage?

12. (team sport) Into 2026, what is your advice for CISOs, CFOs and marketeers on the topic Proactive Fraud Defence?

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In 2025 identity has become the new (security) perimeter, making identity security attacks a primary threat vector for organisations throughout the region. Threat actors are targeting user credentials and privileged access pathways, moving beyond traditional network-based assaults to exploit identities as the weakest link.

This is forcing CISOs to re-evaluate their defence-in-depth strategies, with a pronounced focus on securing privileged access management (PAM) as a critical control point. As organisations adopt zero trust architectures, we are seeing just-in-time and just-enough-access privileges becoming standard practice. But what about the use of AI in identity management?

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Nigel Tan, Delinea’s director of sales engineering in APAC, shares his views on how is AI altering identity and access management strategies?

Before we start, give us the 30-second elevator pitch of who Delinea is.
How is AI Redefining Identity and Access Management?
Please identify emerging AI-driven IAM use cases in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong?
How do you see Agentic AI potentially changing Privileged Access Management (PAM)?
We may have covered this in the earlier questions, what are the cybersecurity risks of AI-Enhanced IAM? Please cite 2025 incidents on the same topic.
Efforts are underway to come up with regional regulations around AI use. Can we expect something similar around AI in IAM?
Can AI improve IAM for hybrid workforces?
You mentioned earlier about identity access rights that have become dormant. What role would GenAI/Agentic AI play in identity lifecycle management?
Deepfake cases are growing in Asia. How should CISOs prepare for AI-enabled identity fraud?
What skills will security teams need for AI-driven IAM? How about endusers?
What is the future of AI in IAM for Southeast Asia and Hong Kong?

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The corporate treasury function in Southeast Asia (SEA) and Hong Kong is navigating a complex landscape defined by monetary policy divergence, rapid technological adoption, and evolving regulatory demands.

The role is transforming from an operational cost-centre to a strategic value-driver, focusing on resilience, efficiency, and strategic advisory. Key issues for 2026 will be mastering data analytics for decision-making, managing currency volatility in a multi-polar world, and integrating sustainability into the core of treasury operations.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Pulat Yunusmetov, director, Zanders Singapore.

What is the function of treasury?
What do you mean by a proactive treasury?
Since you brought up the topic of the pandemic. What did you experienced or see during the pandemic that triggered this desire to transform treasury to a proactive function?
The pandemic may be over, but we continue to experience economic volatility in the form of the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, socio-political turbulence in many parts of the world, as well as more pronounced natural calamities in Asia. How have these events impacted corporate treasury?
In 2025, do you think treasury is still an interesting career to pursue?
You have built your career around the treasury function. How would you describe your journey over the years? Drawing from your own experience, what are the career prospects for treasury roles in the years to come?
What skills do I need to have to be good at a treasury role?
In the last couple of years, we’ve noticed an increased curiosity and interest around artificial intelligence as applied to the finance function. In what ways will AI, and its variants – GenAI, agentic AI, AI agents – impact the treasury function and profession?
In 2026, what will be the biggest challenge or challenges facing the treasury function?
What is the business of Zanders Singapore?

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The Silent Engine of Digital Resilience: Why Developer Experience Is Now a Boardroom Priority

In the boardrooms of Jakarta, Singapore, Tokyo, and Seoul, CIOs are no longer just asking, “How fast can we ship software?” They’re asking, “How sustainably can our developers innovate under mounting pressure—from regulators, customers, and competition?”

Across Asia, digital transformation has shifted from optional to existential. But the hidden bottleneck isn’t infrastructure or cloud spend—it’s developer productivity and experience (DevEx). As regulatory landscapes tighten (think Singapore’s PDPA amendments, Japan’s revised APPI, and Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act enforcement), and as AI-augmented development reshapes workflows, enterprises that treat DevEx as a cost centre are falling behind those that treat it as a strategic asset.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Toh Soon Seah (Sia), founder and CTO, Netgain, discusses why developer experience is a boardroom priority, and how to turn DevEx into a core enterprise value.

What is developer experience (DevEx)?
Why is DevEx suddenly a C-suite priority in Asia in 2025–2026?
How are tightening data privacy regulations—from Singapore’s PDPA to Korea’s PIPA—reshaping the way engineering teams build software?
What role does cognitive load play in developer productivity, and why are leading Asian enterprises investing in internal developer platforms (IDPs) to reduce it?
Can AI-augmented development coexist with regulatory compliance, or does it introduce new risks?
How are companies in Asia embedding compliance into the developer workflow—not as a gate, but as guardrails?
What measurable business outcomes (beyond speed) are organizations seeing from mature DevEx practices—e.g., talent retention, audit readiness, incident reduction?
Why is “developer onboarding time” now a KPI for CIOs in digitally ambitious markets like Vietnam and Indonesia?
How do cultural and operational differences between countries in Asia influence DevEx strategies?
What are the pitfalls of treating DevEx as an IT initiative rather than an enterprise-wide value driver?
1. Do you see this trend towards use of platforms a positive step in appdev?
2. Looking ahead to 2026, what will separate the digital leaders from the laggards in Asia’s competitive tech landscape—code volume, or developer enablement?

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The conversations in the boardrooms of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong have fundamentally shifted. Two years ago, the discourse around Artificial Intelligence was dominated by fear: fear of disruption, fear of competitors moving faster, and crucially, fear of emerging regulation.

Today, in late 2025, that fear has crystallised into strategy. For forward-thinking CIOs and functional leaders, AI regulation is no longer an obstacle to be circumvented; it has become a catalyst for building a durable competitive advantage—what industry leaders now call “The Governed Advantage.”

In this new paradigm, efficiency is taking a backseat to trust with consumers, partners and investors allocating their capital and loyalty to businesses that demonstrably deploy AI responsibly.

In a region characterised by disjointed and patchy regulation, winners are those that moved from a mindset of compliance to one of operationalisation – embedding governance into the very fabric of their AI lifecycle and strategy.

CIOs are building targeted use cases—in fraud detection, hyper-personalised customer engagement, or predictive supply chain management—that have built-in governance, proving that rigour enables velocity, not the opposite.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Russell Fishman, Global Head of AI Solutions at NetApp, joins us to share his views on how we can achieve the operationalisation of trusted AI in 2026

Rusell, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Name the most important characteristics of a trusted AI as viewed from the POV of a CIO?
What are the top 3 drivers pushing enterprises in the region to accelerate trusted AI adoption?
What are businesses in the region doing right (and wrong) in their current approach to responsible AI?
Why do we continue to have a data problem?
(Chinese philosophy about risks and opportunity) Why should CIOs see the evolving regulatory landscape in SEA+HK as an opportunity?
Given the evolving nature of the technology and regulation, how should a CIO approach the company’s AI strategy so that it is adaptive, scalable and sustainable?
How should CIOs architect their AI strategy to support innovation while staying compliant?
What role does technology infrastructure, particularly data management, play in enabling this new era of governed AI?
Looking ahead to 2026, what is the single most important action a CIO should take now?

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In 2025, Asian CISOs navigate a hardened regulatory landscape where updated Cyber Security Acts and PDPA amendments significantly raise the stakes. With stringent new rules on cross-border data transfers, mandatory breach notifications, and AI governance, compliance is a primary battlefield. Regulators are flexing enhanced audit powers and levying multi-million-dollar fines, making unpreparedness a critical corporate risk.

The challenge lies in harmonizing these diverse, evolving mandates across jurisdictions while countering sophisticated threats like ransomware and cloud account takeovers. However, this pressure also creates strategic opportunities.

Joining us on this PodChats for FutureCISO is Ananth Nag, APAC VP, Rubrik.

QUESTIONS:

How do the latest amendments to the PDPA and equivalent ASEAN frameworks (e.g., Malaysia’s PDPA, Brunei’s PDPO) redefine consent, DPO obligations, and lawful data processing for 2026?
Under the new Cyber Security Act, what designation criteria classify organisations as critical information infrastructure owners—and what heightened obligations follow?
What mandatory incident reporting timelines, formats, and cross-jurisdictional protocols must be embedded into our response plans for countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore?
How should CISOs evolve their incident response and breach notification strategies to align with the operational convergence of the Cyber Security Act and PDPA mandates?
Which sovereign cloud providers and data residency architectures satisfy both national regulations and the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework for cross-border flows?
What evidence of “reasonable security arrangements”—including DPIAs (impact assessment), encryption standards, and privacy-by-design—will regulators demand during audits across ASEAN?
How are third-party and supply chain obligations expanding under these acts, and how must vendor contracts and due diligence be updated to mitigate cascading liability?
In what ways are regulators leveraging AI for compliance monitoring—and how can we ethically deploy AI while meeting emerging governance mandates for automated decision-making?
What penalties (fines, imprisonment, operational suspension) should compliance heads budget for, and what cyber resilience benchmarks (e.g., NIST-aligned) must we certify against to avoid them?
How do we future-proof our compliance strategy amid ASEAN regulatory convergence—through board-level cyber governance metrics, strategic regulator partnerships, and anticipatory investment in ransomware/supply-chain resilience? What is your advise for Navigating the New Cyber Security Act & PDPA in 2026?

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The ASEAN region’s enterprises are no longer choosing between legacy systems and cloud-native architectures; they are converging them. This is where Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) cease to be competing paradigms and become symbiotic enablers.

For ASEAN CISOs and CIOs, this duality is not theoretical—it’s operational. Regulatory mandates from Singapore’s MAS Technology Risk Management Guidelines, Bank Negara Malaysia’s Cyber Security Framework, Indonesia’s OJK Regulation No. 12/2023, and Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) demand granular control over data residency and access.

With regulation, pressure to innovate securely, and new technologies like AI making their influence known, what is the path forward for CISOs and CIOs to safeguard resilience without double headcount or budget?

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Steve Riley, Vice President and Field CTO, Netskope, shares is perspective on How ASEAN CISOs Are Rebuilding Security for a Borderless Cloud Era.

How can CISOs effectively integrate Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) principles to secure access in multi-cloud environments without impeding business agility?
In what ways might Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) unify their fragmented security tools across hybrid IT infrastructures?
What role will AI and emerging technologies play in amplifying cloud security risks, and how can CIOs/CISOs mitigate them proactively?
What has worked with regards to how organisations approach use of ZTNA and CSMA?
Any recommendation for quantifying the ROI of shifting from perimeter-based firewalls to a zero-trust + mesh model—not just in cost savings, but in risk reduction?
What long-term metrics should CISOs track to evaluate the success of their cloud security strategy in a rapidly changing Southeast Asian landscape?
Why platforms when it comes to cybersecurity? How does it map to defense-in-depth?
How will we address the increased complexity of managing a distributed security model while adhering to Zero Trust principles?
What would be a realistic roadmap for evolving security posture to embrace both CSMA and Zero Trust?

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In 2024, there were 440,000 detected cyber threats to critical infrastructure, and the U.S. Critical Infrastructure experienced a surge in attacks, including the Volt Typhoon and Chinese Telecom Network Infiltration. For 2025, projections indicate 30% of critical infrastructure organizations will experience a security breach, and major attacks on the sector are expected to continue, according to Gartner.

As we welcome 2026, what would a maturing artificial intelligence present to critical infrastructure, and how should CISOs strengthen their cybersecurity strategies to reflect the evolving technology, regulatory, geopolitical and business landscape in the coming years.

Joining us on PodChats for FutureCISO is Lim Hsin Yin, vice president of sales for ASEAN at Cohesity for her views on the topic of Resilience in Action: Critical Infrastructure Defence.

What is Cohesity?
How robust are enterprises’ data resilience strategies in Asia—including immutable backups, air-gapped copies, and recovery drills—in ensuring operational continuity after ransomware or destructive cyber-attacks? What KPIs are being used to measure its effectiveness?
To what extent have enterprises in ASEAN integrated IT and OT security teams, tools, and processes to achieve unified threat visibility and coordinated response across our entire critical infrastructure estates, especially considering legacy systems prevalent in the region?
How are CISOs continuously re-evaluating and managing third-party and supply chain risks—especially for vendors linked to OT environments—to prevent breaches similar to regional supply chain attacks like MOVEit or airport data centre infiltrations?
What zero-trust and segmentation measures have CISOs prioritised to protect industrial control systems (ICS) and OT environments against increasingly sophisticated hacktivist and state-backed threat actors targeting ASEAN and Hong Kong critical infrastructure?
How are enterprises leveraging real-time, cross-border threat intelligence sharing within ASEAN to detect and disrupt pre-positioning and advanced persistent threats (APTs), as exemplified by campaigns like Volt Typhoon?

Coming into 2026, what are you expecting as far as critical infrastructure defense, and what should operators of critical infrastructure be taking in terms of their defense structure?

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As organisations mature in their understanding and use of AI, FutureCISO becoming standard practice. But what about the use of AI in identity management?

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Nigel Tan, Delinea’s director of sales engineering in APAC, shares his views on how is AI altering identity and access management strategies?

Before we start, give us the 30-second elevator pitch of who Delinea is.
How is AI Redefining Identity and Access Management?
Please identify emerging AI-driven IAM use cases in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong?
How do you see Agentic AI potentially changing Privileged Access Management (PAM)?
We may have covered this in the earlier questions, what are the cybersecurity risks of AI-Enhanced IAM? Please cite 2025 incidents on the same topic.
Efforts are underway to come up with regional regulations around AI use. Can we expect something similar around AI in IAM?
Can AI improve IAM for hybrid workforces?
You mentioned earlier about identity access rights that have become dormant. What role would GenAI/Agentic AI play in identity lifecycle management?
Deepfake cases are growing in Asia. How should CISOs prepare for AI-enabled identity fraud?
What skills will security teams need for AI-driven IAM? How about endusers?
What is the future of AI in IAM for Southeast Asia and Hong Kong?

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For Chief Operating Officers, CFOs, and heads of warehousing, logistics, and retail across Asia, 2026 will be defined by one overarching theme: strategic resilience through intelligent automation. The region's blistering e-commerce growth, coupled with persistent geopolitical and supply chain volatilities (as highlighted by analysts like BCG regarding the fragmentation of global trade), is forcing a fundamental rethink of operational models.

By 2026, we will see the full maturation of trends nascent in 2024. AI and machine learning will transition from pilot projects to the core operational nervous system of high-performance warehouses. Their primary role will be predictive: forecasting demand spikes with greater accuracy, pre-empting maintenance on automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and robotics to prevent downtime, and dynamically optimising inventory placement to slash picking times and maximise cube utilisation.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, we are joined by Ms Vivien Tay, APAC Vertical Lead for Warehousing, Transport & Logistics, Zebra Technologies.

At the operational level, briefly describe the business environment today from the perspective of the supply chain.
Given the fragmentation of global trade routes, how are organisations in Asia leveraging AI and data analytics to build more regionalised and resilient supply chains to mitigate geopolitical risks?
How are enterprises integrating predictive analytics into daily operations to move from reactive problem-solving to pre-empting issues in inventory management, maintenance, and order fulfilment?
Given that most organisations have existing warehouse management systems (WMS), name one proven approach for integrating new AI-powered software with existing legacy systems without causing disruptive downtime.
Beyond labour displacement, can you share a proven approaches/framework for measuring the full ROI of automation investments, including improved accuracy, enhanced safety, reduced shrinkage, and increased employee retention?
Many technologies fail as they move from pilot to scale, how can organisations ensure that the automation technologies they implement today are scalable and flexible enough to adapt to unpredictable demand cycles and future business growth?
With increasing focus on ESG, how are organisations using automation to measure and reduce their carbon footprint through optimised energy use, waste reduction, and smarter inventory planning?
As operations become more reliant on connected IoT devices and AI, what enhanced cybersecurity measures can be implemented to protect against operational shutdowns and data breaches?
How is investment in real-time visibility technology directly translating into a superior and more transparent customer experience for e-commerce and retail partners?
Our topic is strategic resilience through intelligent automation what is your advise for warehousing and supply chain leaders in 2026?

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In 2025, AI and automation are reshaping Asia’s cybersecurity landscape, empowering both defenders and adversaries. CISOs face intelligent, self-evolving threats—from AI-generated deepfakes to autonomous malware—exploiting the region’s rapid digitalisation and IT/OT convergence.

While AI-driven SOAR and predictive analytics enhance response, over-reliance risks blind spots, especially with regionally biased data. Regulatory shifts in Japan, Singapore, India and beyond demand accountability in AI use, placing CISOs at the nexus of compliance and innovation.

The rise of cross-border, AI-powered attacks underscores the need for resilient, adaptive security strategies. CISOs must balance automation with human oversight, secure generative AI platforms, and strengthen supply chain defences.

Success hinges on anticipating threats, ensuring ethical AI deployment, and upskilling teams to operate effectively in an era of intelligent cyber conflict. The challenge is not just technical—but strategic, regional, and human.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Kylie Watson, head of security at DXC Technology, shares her views on AI, automation and the next generation of threats.

Our topic is AI, automation and the next generation of threats. Please describe for us the relationship between all three as viewed from the perspective of a security professional.
How can CISOs ensure the integrity and security of third-party AI models integrated into their core business systems?
In your view, are incident response playbooks used by enterprises in Asia resilient enough to handle AI-powered, self-evolving malware?
What safeguards are in place to detect and prevent deepfake-driven social engineering attacks targeting regional executives?
How can enterprises maintain compliance with emerging AI governance regulations across multiple Asian jurisdictions?
To what extent are organisations auditing training data for bias, leakage, or adversarial manipulation in our automated systems?
Can current detection tools distinguish between legitimate automation and malicious AI-driven lateral movement?
How are enterprises preparing for supply chain attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in open-source AI frameworks?
Are security teams equipped with the skills to monitor, interpret, and challenge AI-driven security decisions?
How can enterprises build adaptive, intelligence-led defences that evolve in tandem with next-generation threats? What is the role of the CISO here?
Coming into 2026, how should CISOs and the security team prepare for the further deepening of the integration of AI into the organisational workflow?

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While traditional automation and GenAI are making inroads in 2025, Southeast Asian CFOs face persistent efficiency challenges demanding more sophisticated solutions.

Agentic AI emerges as a promising, albeit complex, answer by enabling autonomous execution of intricate finance workflows.

Its potential lies not just in incremental efficiency gains, but in fundamentally reshaping the finance function's operating model towards greater speed, accuracy, and strategic focus. Success hinges on overcoming significant data, governance, and talent challenges.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, Nikhil Parambath, Regional Vice President, Asia, BlackLine, offers his thoughts and some suggestions for senior finance leaders looking to step out of the shadows of AI and into the real-world possibilities of Agentic AI as applied within the finance function.

Nikhil, welcome to PodChats for FutureCFO

Which specific finance processes (e.g., closing, reconciliation, reporting, compliance) still represent the biggest bottlenecks to efficiency and strategic agility within the finance function in Asia in 2025?
Where have traditional automation tools (like RPA) fallen short in delivering the transformative efficiency gains finance needs, particularly in our complex, diverse SEA operating environments?
From your observation, how would you assess finance leaders in Southeast Asia in terms of their understanding of AI, Generative AI and Agentic AI (framed in the context of 2025)?
For SEA finance leaders prioritising efficiency in 2026, what are the 1-2 most compelling, near-term practical applications of Agentic AI within core finance operations (e.g., dynamic forecasting, intelligent reconciliation, autonomous fraud detection)?
What foundational data governance and integration challenges must SEA finance functions urgently address now to be ready to leverage this technology effectively in 2026?
As AI agents potentially execute multi-step processes autonomously, how should finance leaders rethink internal controls, audit trails, and human oversight mechanisms to ensure accuracy, compliance, and ethical operation?
How can Agentic AI agents be practically integrated with existing ERP systems, legacy platforms, and other best-of-breed finance applications common across SEA businesses without creating untenable complexity or risks?
If Agentic AI takes over complex operational execution, how must the skillset and role of the finance professional evolve in 2026? What does "strategic business partnering" look like in this context, and how do we upskill our SEA teams?
Traditional cost savings aside, what new metrics should CFOs use to evaluate the true efficiency and strategic value delivered by Agentic AI implementations within the finance function in 2026 (e.g., speed to insight, reduction in manual intervention points, improved forecast accuracy)?
Finally, any recommendations for how should SEA finance leaders strike the optimal balance for 2026 and beyond?

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2025 has seen deepfake technology become alarmingly accessible and sophisticated, fuelling a surge in high-impact incidents that erode confidence in institutions, media, and digital interactions.

The proliferation of AI-powered deepfakes represents an existential threat to digital trust across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Singapore's leadership in countermeasures, including watermarking and advanced authentication, is crucial, yet recent CSA survey data reveals a stark reality: 75% of Singaporeans cannot reliably identify deepfakes, despite 78% believing they can. This confidence gap underscores the urgent need for robust digital identity verification and advanced IAM strategies.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Jasie Fon, regional vice president for Asia at Ping Identity, covers some of the key issues, challenges and opportunities CISOs will find important in 2026.

How severe is deepfake as a threat to businesses, governments and individuals in Asia in 2025?

a. Should AI take credit for the rise of deepfakes in the region?

How has AI impacted the cybersecurity function at organisations?
In your view, is the (identity and access management) IAM roadmap of most organisations in Asia sufficiently aggressive in deploying phishing-resistant (FIDO2/Passkeys) and continuous authentication to mitigate deepfake-enabled account takeover? (DCI?)_
In your view, do current incident response plan explicitly include procedures for dealing with deepfake-based fraud, extortion, or reputational attacks?
With 2026 coming, does the rise in deepfake threat require CISOs to revise their cybersecurity strategy?

a. Will this necessitate revising the cybersecurity budget priority and allocation?

How will emerging regulations across ASEAN and Hong Kong specifically mandate deepfake detection and mitigation for customer interactions and internal communications?
How can CISOs, CIOs and CFO effectively measure the ROI and efficacy of their deepfake detection investments across communication channels?
What is your expectation around cybersecurity in 2026? Any recommendations for CISOs and CIOs in the coming year?

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Across APJ boardrooms, the initial excitement around generative AI has hardened into a pressing demand: “Show me the real impact.”

Experiments are done, budgets are spent. Now, the C-suite wants tangible results from their AI investments.

The answer emerging isn't just smarter automation; it's a leap towards autonomy.

Welcome to the era of Agentic AI.

To be clear, these aren’t your standard run of the mill tools; they are intelligent, independent agents capable of perceiving complex situations, reasoning through options, and taking decisive action – often without human intervention (but with the option for humans to intervene just in case).

Agentic AI free your staff from repetitive tasks, can adapt dynamically, and orchestrate decisions at unprecedented speed and scale.

For the fast-moving, diverse, and efficiency-critical markets of APJ, Agentic AI has shifted from a 'nice-to-have' novelty to a competitive imperative.

This is the move From Automation to Autonomy, fundamentally redefining how enterprises make decisions."

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Grant Case, chief data officer at Dataiku, for his take on how organisations can use agentic AI to redefine how they make business decisions.

What exactly is Agentic AI, and why should APJ enterprises be prioritizing it right now, beyond the initial generative AI hype?"
What specific market pressures and business opportunities in APJ are making the adoption of Agentic AI so critical at this moment?"
CXOs need clear business value. Beyond efficiency gains, how does Agentic AI unlock innovation and ensure alignment with measurable ROI for executives?
Can you share concrete examples of APJ enterprises leveraging Agentic AI today? What specific competitive advantages are they realizing?
Diving into the tech: How does Dataiku's Universal AI Platform specifically enable the development and orchestration of these autonomous agents?
Autonomy raises concerns. How does Dataiku ensure essential governance, maintain human control, and enable seamless integration of Agentic AI within complex existing enterprise environments?
For a CIO looking to embrace this, what does a practical roadmap look like – from establishing the vision to achieving enterprise-wide scale with Agentic AI?
What's your advice on starting points? How can organizations begin small with Agentic AI, prove concrete ROI quickly, and then expand capabilities safely and effectively?
You talked about the 'Do It For Me' economy. How will Agentic AI evolve over the next 2-3 years to fulfill this expectation within APJ enterprises?
What is your advice for C-suites in 2026?

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Data centre COOs in Southeast Asia face a dual challenge in 2026: managing rapid AI-driven growth while ensuring sustainability and regulatory compliance.

Key challenges include strained local grids unable to meet intense power demands from densified AI workloads, increasing public opposition due to environmental concerns, and complex, uneven regional regulations.

COOs must navigate costly infrastructure upgrades, such as adopting medium-voltage power distribution and integrating innovative power architectures like solid-state transformers to improve efficiency and reduce losses.

The good news is, COOs who balance technological innovation with stakeholder collaboration will transform their operations, achieve aligned sustainability objectives while supporting the digital economy’s growth in an increasingly regulated environment.

In this PodChats for FutureCOO, Daniel Pointon, group CTO for STT GDC, shares his perspective on How to Achieve Data Centre Sustainability and Regulatory Alignment in 2026 from the perspective of the COO.

Perhaps to start off, give us a short brief of the business of STT GDC.
In 2025, give us a brief around the state of DC operations in Southeast Asia? (13 Gigawatts)
How will AI workload growth influence energy consumption and infrastructure needs?
How are data centre operations taking national sustainability initiatives?
How do you see Asia regional regulations on carbon emissions impacting data centre operations?
What new technologies can improve both sustainability and compliance affordably?
For 2026, any advice for how COOs can integrate sustainability goals with business growth targets effectively?
Identify 3 best practices for engaging stakeholders to secure public and regulatory support?

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In 2026, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong stand at a pivotal moment in the integration of agentic AI, a technology that empowers machines to make autonomous decisions.

While organisations can harness agentic AI to streamline operations and enhance customer experiences, they also face significant challenges, including ethical concerns and workforce displacement.

Leaders are racing ahead to adopt these innovations, seeking competitive advantages that promise to reshape industries. As they navigate this tipping point, the balance between opportunity and risk becomes crucial, defining the future landscape of work in the region.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Adhil Badat, managing director for Asia Pacific and Japan at Rackspace Technology, shares his perspective on how organisations are pushing forward agentic AI adoption in the quest to accelerate transformation and innovation.

How different is agentic AI from traditional AI?
What is the connection between robotic process automation (RPA) to agentic AI?
What preparations are necessary for adopting agentic AI?
What competitive advantages do AI leaders currently enjoy?
Referring to the Rackspace report, The AI Acceleration Gap: Why Some Enterprises Are Surging Ahead, How will the 250% surge in AI investments affect scalability?
In 2025, CFOs we spoke to are demanding greater transparency and accountability when it comes to technology investments. What strategies are AI leaders using to maximise RoAI (return on AI investments)?
Speaking of use cases, in your experience, what are the most impactful real-world applications of agentic AI?
We’ve heard of AI hallucinations. How about with agentic AI. Is agentic AI also susceptible to hallucinations. And while are on the topic, how can organisations address ethical concerns surrounding agentic AI?
Generative AI gave rise to a new skills requirement: prompt engineering. What about for agentic AI? What skills will the workforce need when they use agentic AI?
I mentioned earlier CFOs demanding proof their investments are delivering the promised ROI. How should leaders measure the success of agentic AI initiatives?
It can be argued that in Asia, Singapore led the way with regards to provide guardrails and frameworks with AI use. Specific to agentic AI use, what regulatory considerations must organisations keep in mind, and how to do so for those that operate in multiple markets?

a. What about Australia (in terms of regulations)?

Last question, what will Agentic AI evolve into in 2026? How should CIOs plan their AI strategy to tap this next evolution of Agentic AI?
In my experience, when it comes to technology, the most successful organisations rarely go it alone. For those seeking to maximise the return on their Agentic AI investments, who do they partner with internally and externally?

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This 2026, agentic transformation is set to revolutionize Asia's boardrooms, shifting the focus from traditional digital automation to autonomous AI agents capable of decision-making and task execution with minimal human input.

This transition promises unparalleled agility and efficiency, empowering organizations to enhance productivity while alleviating mundane tasks.

But not everything is a walk in the park. Given Asia's fragmented digital ecosystems, the rise of agentic AI underscores the urgent need for robust data management, integrated connectivity, and strong governance frameworks to maximize AI's potential – safely.

Visionary leaders view this transformation not merely as a tech upgrade but as a strategic overhaul, necessitating new leadership styles, accountability, and trust-building.

Successfully embracing this shift will enable Asian enterprises to compete on a global scale, accelerating innovation, optimizing workflows, and augmenting human creativity with AI-driven “digital employees,” – all while ensuring compliance, transparency, and security in an increasingly complex environment.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, David Irecki, CTO for APJ at Boomi, discusses how agentic transformation will reshape not just the boardroom but the rest of leadership.

What distinguishes agentic transformation from traditional digital automation and why does it matter?
In this agentic transformation paradigm, what is the role of agentic AI and to what extent is it critical to achieving agentic transformation? Why can’t this be done in the traditional approach of digital transformation?
What comprises agentic transformation?
Who should lead an agentic transformation initiative? What experiences, qualifications and expertise must this person have?
What new leadership roles and cultural shifts are necessary to drive agentic transformation?
What practical metrics should be used to guide an agentic transformation initiative?
Coming into 2026, what is your advise for the board, the C-suite and functional leaders as they try to create, nurture an agentic strategy that transforms the enterprise from top to bottom?

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The global finance function is undergoing profound transformation, driven by technology (AI, automation, blockchain), evolving regulations (ESG, cryptocurrency, data privacy), and heightened demands for strategic insight. In this dynamic landscape, professional certifications and continuous education are no longer merely advantageous; they are fundamental to relevance, competence, and career progression.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Guru Balasubramaniam, chairman, CIMA Hong Kong SAR Area Committee to share with us his observations and perspective on the finance profession in Hong Kong.

With AI automating core tasks (reconciliation, reporting), which advanced technical skills (data science, predictive analytics, blockchain auditing) will become essential for accountants to remain indispensable in 2025/2026?
How can professionals effectively navigate the cost barrier of prestigious certifications (CIMA, ACCA, CPA) while managing living expenses in high-growth but sometimes lower-wage Asian economies?
What innovative learning formats (micro-credentials, AI-powered personalised learning, virtual reality simulations) will best address the severe time constraints faced by working professionals across Asia?
Beyond technical skills, which critical 'soft' skills (strategic communication, ethical leadership in complex environments, cross-cultural collaboration) will be paramount for finance leaders in Asia's diverse markets?
How can professional bodies and employers better collaborate to make continuous learning genuinely integrated, affordable, and recognised within career progression paths?
With ESG reporting becoming mandatory in more Asian jurisdictions, how can accountants swiftly gain the necessary expertise in sustainability accounting frameworks and assurance?
What strategies are most effective for maintaining the relevance and portability of my existing qualifications amidst rapid technological and regulatory change across different Asian markets?
How will the rise of alternative credentials (digital badges, specialised nano-degrees) complement or challenge traditional accountancy certifications?
What ethical considerations and new risk management competencies are emerging due to increased data usage, AI in finance, and cybersecurity threats specific to the Asian operational context? (Future Focus: Ethics & Risk)
What is your advise for finance professionals in the AI digital era?
How should a finance professional approach the fear of losing relevance with AI? (rewrite)

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In 2026, Asia's digital transformation is not just a trend—it's a thrilling opportunity for CFOs ready to lead their organizations into the future! As the region rises as a global commerce powerhouse, with Singapore paving the way, CFOs face the challenge of navigating geopolitical uncertainties while harnessing groundbreaking innovations like AI-powered automation and stablecoin adoption.

Imagine streamlining cross-border transactions and slashing operational costs, with AI-enhanced payment systems boosting conversion rates by an impressive 17.8%! By leveraging regulatory harmonization across APAC markets and tapping into projected cross-border revenue growth exceeding 30%, CFOs can supercharge their strategic expansion efforts.

The mantra for CFOs and other leaders in Asia may as well be: embrace the change, lead through volatility, and seize the emerging opportunities that will define tomorrow’s economy.

To tell us more about how we can capture these opportunities, FutureCFO is pleased have as a special guest. Ms. Sarita Singh, Regional Head & Managing Director, Southeast Asia, India, Greater China, Stripe, in uncovering just how finance and business leaders in the region can, not just harness, but drive this future.

We are going to be talking about one of a CFO’s most evolved responsibility – finance management. So our audience will understand your responses, tell us what is the business of stripe?
Given this background of stripe as a global finance infrastructure, how has the landscape of commerce changed for CFOs in Asia since 2024?
What is your view on stablecoin adoption in Asia?
Given the evolving state of regulations around AI, stablecoins, data privacy and security, how can businesses ensure compliance while capitalising on innovation?
With persistent volatility and uncertainty as the new normal, what financial infrastructure changes should CFOs prioritise to support cross-border expansion while maintaining cost efficiency and regulatory compliance?
ow does Stripe help CFOs achieve their objectives?
Given your understanding of the financial infrastructure landscape and the challenges businesses will face in the coming year, any advice for our intrepid finance leaders?
On a more personal note, what attracted you to join Stripe?
What can CFOs and businesses look forward to at the coming Stripe Tour Singapore this 20 August 2025 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre?
And for you, what we excites as a delegate to the event?

Click here for more on the Stripe Tour Singapore 2025 event.

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A unified AI vision serves as the North Star for enterprise-wide AI adoption, ensuring all departments work toward common strategic objectives. Without this alignment, organizations risk fragmented investments, duplicated efforts, and missed opportunities for transformation. A cohesive vision enables CIOs to prioritize initiatives that deliver measurable business value, while fostering cross-functional collaboration between IT, business units, and leadership. It also facilitates better resource allocation, accelerates time-to-value, and builds organizational consensus around AI's role in driving competitive advantage and operational excellence.
In this PodChats for FutureCIO, C K Tan, APJ Innovation Officer at ServiceNow, shares his perspective on the critical need for a unified AI vision.

What does a "unified AI vision" mean in practice, and why is it critical for CIOs to champion this now? [why AI maturity dipped? – get copy of report]
How can organisations in Asia align AI investments with core business strategy and measurable KPIs to demonstrate clear ROI?
What proven metrics and maturity models can leaders use to track progress toward enterprise-wide AI adoption and competitive advantage?
How should the CIO and CFO jointly measure, report, and justify the business value of AI investments to stakeholders?
How can CIOs foster cross-functional collaboration to break down silos and prevent AI solution sprawl?
What governance frameworks are currently in place to manage AI risks, ensure accountability, and maintain regulatory compliance? What gaps remain, especially in the APJ region?
AI adoption brings cultural and operational disruption. What change management strategies should organisations deploy to build workforce trust and accelerate adoption?

8. AI risks exacerbating technical debt if not integrated thoughtfully. Based on early 2025 lessons, how can CIOs embed AI into legacy workflows without creating long-term liabilities?

How should CIOs articulate the long-term AI tech debt strategy—and its financial implications—to the CFO and Board?
Into 2026, what is your advice for CIOs and other technology leaders as they build and sustain a unified AI vision across their organisations?

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Gartner predicts that by 2026, developers outside formal IT departments will account for at least 80% of the user base for low-code development tools.

While citizen developers boost agility, decentralised creation brings new risks in the form of shadow IT, fragmented systems, data silo sprawl and data exposure, and compliance gaps.

But with proper leadership, LCNC can empower audit and other teams to innovate quickly while staying aligned with enterprise goals.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Leonard Tan, regional director for Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Greater China at OutSystems shares his observations and perspective on the essentials for LCNC audit workflow builders.

Leonard, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Briefly give us a state of the low-code/no-code (LCNC) adoption in Asia in 2025.

2. What are LCNC Audit Workflow Builders? What are the strategic objectives for adopting these?

What governance model and policies must be enforced to effectively manage decentralised citizen development of audit workflows?
How do these LCNC platforms ensure compliance with diverse regional data privacy regulations and regulatory frameworks across Asia?
How do organisations maintain an up-to-date inventory and ensure consistent oversight of all LCNC audit workflows developed centrally and departmentally? Who should be in-charge of this?
List one proven way LCNC audit tools are adequately integrated with core enterprise systems (ERP, GRC, data lakes) for seamless data sharing, reporting, and end-to-end auditability of critical processes?
What specific training, support frameworks, and guardrails must be provided to non-IT users to empower them to build compliant and effective audit workflows?
How can leaders regularly assess and mitigate risks (including auditing the audit workflows themselves for integrity and accuracy) stemming from rapid, decentralised development, and ensure automated compliance reporting? Who should be leading/doing this?
Closing off our PodChats, what key metrics and KPIs will organisations use to track/measure the effectiveness, efficiency, compliance, and overall success of their LCNC audit workflow initiatives?

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Imagine, it is 2026, a semiconductor plant in Penang, Malaysia is running at peak efficiency—not because of more workers, but because of agentic AI. Autonomous digital agents, each with goals, context, and decision rights, now orchestrate production lines, dynamically rerouting workflows when a machine falters or a shipment delays. These aren’t rule-based bots—they reason, collaborate, and learn. In Vietnam, agentic AI forecasts monsoon-driven port congestion weeks in advance, renegotiating logistics routes with shipping partners via API—without human intervention (but with human oversight). Across ASEAN, supply chains are no longer reactive; they’re anticipatory.

For COOs, this is transformative. Agentic AI slashes unplanned downtime by up to 50%, optimizes inventory in real time, and ensures compliance across fragmented regional regulations. Imagine AI agents acting as autonomous supply chain managers—balancing cost, carbon, and speed across Thailand, Indonesia, and India.

The future isn’t just automation—it’s intelligent agency. Leading manufacturers are already piloting multi-agent systems that simulate, decide, and act. The question is no longer if you adopt agentic AI—but how fast you can scale it. The next competitive edge is self-driving operations.

Joining us on PodChats for FutureCOO is Tony Tay, founder and CEO, AgileAlgo

Give us a brief about AgileAlgo.
To what extent is agentic AI a good fit for process operations?
Which functions or workflows are the biggest candidates for autonomous agent-driven transformation?
What new skills or roles should we develop among our workforce to maximize human-AI collaboration?
What measurable ROI have early adopters in Asia achieved after implementing agentic automation?
What human oversight is necessary to maintain trust and accountability in automated decisions?
Gartner predicts that by 2027 40% of organisations will Agentic AI projects will fail. Other analysts estimate that up to 70% of current systems are hybrid and may be tied to legacy system. How do we ensure agentic AI solutions integrate smoothly with existing IT and business systems?
With technology refresh occurring faster than in the past, how do you see agentic AI reshape core operational processes over the next 12–24 months?
What is your advice for COOs and other functional leaders, perhaps working closely with the CIO and IT teams, to optimise and improve their use of agentic AI technologies?
As for CFOs, how should they approach the adoption of agentic AI?

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Artificial intelligence may be the topic that is on the thoughts of leadership in 2024, Agentic AI is quickly becoming the new watercooler discussions among users of the technology looking to answer the question – how do I marry automation and AI so that it benefits “my way of work”?

Agentic AI represents the next frontier in enterprise automation and decision-making. For the CIO, it presents both an opportunity and a challenge: to harness autonomous systems that can dramatically enhance productivity and agility while managing complexity, risk, and ethical considerations.

Getting started requires a strategic mindset, strong cross-functional collaboration, and a willingness to experiment and iterate.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Matthew Tan, principal solution engineer at UiPath, Southeast Asia, to get his perspective on getting started and operationalizing agentic AI.

What are the core differences between AI-powered process automation and traditional RPA, and why does it matter for an organisation’s digital transformation strategy?
In which business units or industry-specific workflows do you anticipate the greatest value from AI agents as applied in automation workflow?
What approach can CIOs use to identify and prioritise high-impact automation opportunities within their organisation? Is this decision-making process a unilateral one exclusively decided by the CIO?
How can the CIO, and whoever he or she is working with, ensure successful pilot implementation before scaling AI automation enterprise-wide?
What steps can the CIO, and partners, use to ensure seamless integration between AI agents and legacy as well as cloud systems?
What governance structures, policies, and controls are essential to build trust and ensure regulatory compliance when it comes to automation using AI agents?
What internal skills and change management initiatives are needed to support agentic process automation (APA) adoption, particularly our use of AI agents?
How do you plan to measure, benchmark, and improve the ROI of AI agents in automation initiatives?
We are midway into 2025, 2026 is almost just around the corner. Any recommendations for CIOs and other leaders as they look to further invest in their use of AI agents?

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In 2025, Asia’s cybersecurity landscape is shaped by rapid digitalisation, AI adoption, and evolving regulatory frameworks. Regional authorities, such as Singapore’s MAS and South Korea’s National AI Committee, are intensifying enforcement and introducing robust regulations for data privacy, AI governance, and cyber risk management.

Businesses face mounting threats from ransomware, advanced persistent threats, and supply chain vulnerabilities, driving demand for Cybersecurity-as-a-Service and managed SOCs. Industry reports highlight a widening gap in cyber resilience and stress the need for urgent action to address cyber inequity and enhance recovery capabilities.

Sean Duca, Customer Experience Chief Technology Officer for Cisco in the APJC regions shares his perspective on the following questions.

How will evolving AI, cloud security, and data privacy regulations across Asia-Pacific affect CISO’s multi-cloud governance and compliance frameworks?
What strategies can CISOs/organisations adopt to defend against increasingly sophisticated ransomware, supply chain attacks, and network-based intrusions?
How do CISOs/CIOs secure hybrid and multi-cloud environments effectively, leveraging generative AI tools to automate identity and access management while reducing manual overhead?
Some say quantum computing is still years away. That said, people are talking about post-quantum cryptography today. Can you share any best practice for implementing quantum-resistant encryption and network security protocols to mitigate emerging quantum computing threats?
How can CISOs ensure robust security and compliance for AI-powered cloud applications and edge computing infrastructure under diverse data sovereignty laws? How should the CISO work with the CIO and the risk/compliance officers of the organization?
Recapping what we’ve covered so far: our topic is Developing a Resilient Cybersecurity Roadmap. Can you offer some recommendations for CISOs and CIOs in developing their resilient cybersecurity roadmap?

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FutureCIO discussions with CIOs and business leaders in Asia reveal key trends such as strategies revolving around increased AI integration, hybrid cloud adoption for flexibility and compliance, and the growth of edge computing for real-time data processing.

Organizations are also prioritizing sustainability and security, with a focus on green cloud solutions and robust compliance frameworks.

Into 2026, FutureCIO polls suggest that the convergence of AI and hybrid cloud will further accelerate digital transformation and innovation across various industries. Among the key trends we anticipate to arise from these include the strategic adoption of AI-powered hybrid cloud solutions, the rise of AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS), and the increasing use of cloud-native applications and SaaS-based intelligent solutions.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Sean Flanagan, IBM vice president for IBM Power and IBM Cloud Technical Sales shares his observations of the challenges businesses around the world face as they modernise their operations, supported by hybrid cloud infrastructure that is expected to be secure and dynamically adaptive to evolving demands and regulation.

What are the key considerations for workload placement between on-premises data centres and hybrid cloud environments?
Business leaders are demanding CIOs modernise current infrastructure to take advantage of the promise of AI. At the same time CIOs are asked to make sure new IT strategies support sustainability initiatives. How can we balance AI infrastructure growth with sustainability and energy efficiency goals?
Legacy applications continue to be at the core of many governments and businesses in Asia. IDC found that over 60% of applications in use today are legacy systems. What strategies can we adopt to modernise legacy applications and maximise developer productivity using AI-driven tools?
Are AI-powered tools better than the best experienced technology experts?
CFOs are increasingly focused on cost optimization within their cloud environments, calling for strategies to manage and reduce cloud spending effectively. How do flexible consumption models, such as IBM Power Virtual Server, support business agility and cost control?
IDC estimates that over 77% of organisations in Asia Pacific operate in a multicloud or hybrid cloud environment. This trend will continue as wholesale transformation and modernisation become essential to evolving business models. Disruptions, both planned and unplanned are inevitable. How can business maximise availability of their IT services?
Given all the innovations to date, including the new IBM Power 11, what advise can you offer CIOs and business leaders in Asia as they look to better optimise their workloads regardless of where the applications are running?

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In 2025, the business landscape in Malaysia, Singapore, and much of ASEAN is being reshaped by the rapid evolution of technology, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and advanced analytics.

Drawing on valuable lessons learned, organizations are increasingly adopting a hybrid cloud by design approach. This strategy offers flexibility and scalability while effectively addressing the complex regulatory environments surrounding data protection, ethical technology use, and cybersecurity.

By leveraging public cloud resources for scalability and securing sensitive data in private environments, businesses can strike a crucial balance between innovation and compliance—an essential strategy for navigating the challenges of data sovereignty.

Recently, FutureCISO spoke with Mark Figley, Vice President of Power Development at IBM, to explore how leaders in Singapore and Malaysia can strategically position their organizations to thrive in this dynamic environment.

Why is it critical for Singaporean and Malaysian business and technology leaders to rethink their technology strategies in today’s fast-evolving digital landscape?
How do IBM clients address evolving business challenges while also addressing requirements around regulatory compliance, data protection, and data sovereignty?
In what ways does IBM (Power Systems) accelerate AI workloads and support large-scale, real-time data processing for enterprises in Asia?
How can hybrid cloud architectures leveraging IBM (Power Systems) ensure zero unplanned downtime and continuous business operations?
Speaking of security, what unique security features does IBM (Power Systems) offer to safeguard sensitive AI workloads across hybrid cloud environments?
CIOs tell us that their technology stack today is complex because of the variety of technologies they have in place – applications, hardware, operating environments, management tools, the list goes on. To close our discussion, how can Singaporean and Malaysian organizations leverage IBM Power’s unified hybrid cloud management platforms to simplify operations, close the cloud skills gap, and accelerate AI-driven innovation?

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In Asia, the rapid adoption of low-code/no-code (LCNC) platforms are transforming digital innovation by enabling faster application development amid developer shortages and rising competition.

However, this acceleration introduces significant security risks, including inadequate access controls, unmanaged integrations, and shadow IT, which can bypass traditional compliance protocols.

AI and automation are increasingly integrated into LCNC tools, enhancing development speed and intelligence but also complicating security oversight.

For CIOs in Asia, it is critical to proactively embed security early in the LCNC development lifecycle, maintain visibility into decentralized development efforts, and balance governance with innovation to mitigate risks without stifling agility.

Failure to address these risks can expose organizations to data breaches and compliance failures, undermining digital transformation efforts in 2025/2026.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Jason Merrick, senior vice president of product, Tenable, to talk about critical questions CIOs for business leaders need to address when adopting low code/no code.

Define what low-code/no-code means/is to users and to the application development team.
Current State of Adoption: What is the current landscape of low-code/no-code adoption in Asia, and what trends are emerging?
Security and Compliance: How do we ensure that LCNC platforms comply with relevant data protection and regulatory standards, and what access controls are in place to secure these environments?
Embedding Security: How can security be integrated early in the LCNC development lifecycle to mitigate potential risks?
Inventory Management: What processes should be established to maintain an up-to-date inventory of all LCNC applications and integrations, ensuring visibility and governance?
Citizen Development Oversight: What visibility and monitoring tools are implemented to oversee decentralized citizen development and manage risks associated with shadow IT?
Training and Incident Response: What training and support are provided to citizen developers on secure practices, and what incident response plans exist for vulnerabilities or breaches related to LCNC applications?
Final advice: With technologies like AI, agentic AI, among other things, what is your advice for business leaders and the heads of the development teams as it relates to LCNC adoption in 2025/2026?

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Three years on since the introduction of ChatGPT and the continuing commoditization of artificial intelligence, Asia’s CIOs and CAIOs continue to face intensified AI pressures. Yet 79% of firms globally report inadequate GPU capacity for AI workloads – signalling critical infrastructure strain. Beyond hardware, fragmented data ecosystems threaten regional AI scalability.

Ben Canning, chief product officer at Alteryx, highlights the disconnect between AI ambition and operational data realities, urging APAC enterprises to prioritise foundational data integration over algorithmic hype to unlock sustainable AI value.

Given the importance of data in the function of AI systems, we have asked Canning to share with us his perspective on how data integration can spell the success or failure of AI adoption.

Briefly give us a state of AI adoption in Asia in 2025. What has worked and what has not worked? (second wave of AI adoption now)
What is the understanding of CIOs and CAIOs/Chief Data Officers when it comes to the relationship between data and AI? What about the rest of the C-suite leadership?
What makes APAC’s data-AI gap distinct from global counterparts, and how can it be bridged?
What metrics have proven data integration’s ROI in accelerating AI deployment?
How do regulatory variances across Asian economies impact integrated data strategies for AI?
How can APAC leaders better align their executive AI vision with legacy data infrastructure constraints?
Our topic is data integration as an enabler of successful AI adoption, given AI adoption trends, data sprawl, AI sprawl, governance issues, etc., what is your guidance for CIOs and CAIOs to ensure organisations are able to better data integration when it comes to AI adoption?

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In 2025, Asia Pacific CIOs must optimise cloud value delivery amid a $250 billion market surge driven by AI and regulatory demands. With nearly 90% of enterprises adopting multi-cloud strategies, balancing hybrid cloud innovation and stringent data privacy laws is critical.

Addressing these challenges requires strategic focus on security, compliance, workforce capabilities, and data-driven decision-making to navigate this rapidly evolving landscape.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Brett Wheeldon, VP, Solutions Consulting, Asia Pacific, SAP Concur, for his take on how CIOs can optimise cloud strategies for value delivery.

Questions:

Strategic Vision

Q1: How can integrated cloud solutions be designed to deliver seamless end-to-end operational excellence across enterprises? (orchestration/press for suite-based approach that focus on outcomes)

Productivity & Innovation

Q2: How can cloud automation be leveraged to enhance employee productivity and improve user experience?

Architecture & Scalability

Q3: What hybrid cloud architecture best balances enterprises’ needs for innovation, data sovereignty, security, and cost optimisation?

Secure Implementation

Q4: What strategies can ensure secure and compliant migration and management of workloads across multi-cloud and edge environments?

Q5: How should CIOs and CISOs address growing cybersecurity risks (e.g., AI-driven threats) in cloud/edge deployments?

Governance & Compliance

Q7: What governance frameworks are needed to comply with evolving data privacy regulations across APAC jurisdictions?

Data-Driven Sustainability

Q8: How can cloud data platforms be optimised to provide actionable insights that support sustainability and reduce carbon footprint?

Talent & Adaptability

Q6: How can we build cloud and AI skills internally or through partnerships to accelerate cloud value delivery?

Future-Proofing

Q9: What measures ensure workload portability/flexibility to avoid vendor lock-in while maintaining performance?

Q10: What strategy integrates AI capabilities within cloud infrastructure to drive innovation without compromising security/compliance?

Q11: Our topic is Optimise cloud for value delivery, what is your final advise for enterprises as they try to leverage technologies like AI and other solutions to optimise cloud for the best value delivery possible?

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In 2025/2026, CISOs in Asia face the dual challenge of leveraging AI for innovation while safeguarding against its unique vulnerabilities. As generative AI reshapes the landscape, strategies must evolve to address risks like prompt injection and data poisoning. By prioritizing transparency, compliance, and a security-first culture, CISOs can navigate the complexities of AI integration and enhance organizational resilience.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Reinhart Hansen, director of Technology, Field CTO APJ, Thales, who will help us navigate the AI imperative from the security perspective.

How can we identify and mitigate the unique vulnerabilities introduced by generative AI?, such as prompt injection and data poisoning?
What specialised AI security monitoring and detection tools should we deploy to reduce breach detection and containment times?
How do we ensure transparency and compliance with evolving AI regulations like the ASEAN Guide on AI Governance and Ethics?
How can we secure AI systems (LLM factories) provided by third-party vendors and manage supply chain risks related to AI data access and processing?
How do we balance the business imperative to adopt AI-driven innovation with the need to defend against increasingly sophisticated AI-powered cyber threats?
How can we foster a security-first culture that promotes responsible AI use and equips security teams with the necessary AI expertise?
What investment priorities and cross-functional collaborations are essential to build a comprehensive and proactive AI security programme that aligns with business objectives?
Name top three recommendations that CISOs and their organisations should take as they lead their organisations into a more AI-immersed operating environment?

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Asia is witnessing a shift from transactional execution to strategic business enablement, driven by digitisation, AI, and a focus on enterprise value creation. For organisations considering expanding backoffice and midoffice operations into shared services, the decision between prioritising scalability or resilience is now more critical than ever.

Expanding shared services in Asia offers cost savings, process standardisation, and access to skilled talent, boosted by AI and cloud technologies that transform them into strategic business partners. However, scaling risks operational resilience, and exposes firms to geopolitical, cyber, and talent challenges. Leaders—COOs, CFOs, CIOs, CHROs, and CMOs—must balance scalability with resilience by defining scope, integrating systems, managing change, ensuring data readiness, and aligning with ESG goals. Success depends on robust governance, workforce upskilling, risk mitigation, and maintaining customer experience to build agile, secure, and future-ready shared services.

In this PodChats for FutureCOO, Byron Fernandez, CIO at TDCX, shares his thoughts on how to balance scalability-resilience: the shared services conundrum.

Give us a state of the shared services market in Asia in 2025.
Which processes or functions are best suited for centralisation, and which should remain local?
Should leaders build a captive centre, outsource, or adopt a hybrid model?
How do organisations ensure data quality and readiness for migration?
Drawing from your experience, what governance structures and project teams are needed to manage the transition?
Our topic is on scalability vs resilience. How do leaders balance the need for scalability with the imperative for operational resilience?
At the beginning I cited risks that go with any change in strategy. What are the key risks—cybersecurity, regulatory, talent—and how will organisations mitigate them?
Still on the issue of people. how will leaders manage change and maintain employee engagement throughout the transformation?
CFOs have started to be more critical of investments. What financial investments and returns can leadership realistically expect over a multi-year horizon?
How does a shared services strategy support an organisation’s broader ESG and sustainability objectives?
What is your advice for organisations thinking to move to a shared services model?

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In 2025, finance leaders in Singapore and Southeast Asia face a complex landscape shaped by rapid digital transformation, evolving regulatory demands, and heightened emphasis on sustainability. The rise of fintech innovations such as embedded finance, AI-driven personalization, and stablecoins is redefining financial services, while the pressure to attract and retain specialized talent intensifies amid skill gaps and workforce evolution. Against this backdrop, finance leaders must navigate shifting roles that have evolved from pre-pandemic stability through pandemic disruption to a post-pandemic era marked by geopolitical uncertainties and technological acceleration. Balancing organizational goals with personal leadership aspirations, building resilience, and preparing future leaders are critical priorities as they steer their companies through ongoing transitions. These dynamics prompt important reflections on leadership evolution, challenges, and role models relevant to senior finance executives in Asia today.

Song Yeow Chung, CFO of Old Chang Kee Ltd and ISCA council member shares his views and experiences on the topic.

Describe the finance leader’s role pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, post-pandemic, Trump 2.0.
As a finance leader, what has been most interesting to your during these periods of transitions?
In your view, what makes for a resilient and great finance leader?
What has been the most challenging aspect of the role in today’s environment?
What should future finance leaders do today to lead them to that future position?
How do you strike a balance between personal goals vs the company’s goals and aspiration?
As a leader, who for you is a role model to emulate/aspire to?

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For CFOs overseeing finance operations across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe, building compliant, scalable finance functions in unfamiliar jurisdictions is a high-stakes challenge. Asset acquisitions, market entries, and decentralized operations demand more than technical expertise—they require navigating fragmented regulations, cultural complexities, and resource constraints while ensuring agility and compliance. From establishing local GAAP reporting to designing anti-fraud controls in multilingual environments, success hinges on balancing global standards with hyperlocal realities. As cross-border complexities grow and regulatory scrutiny intensifies, CFOs must ask: How do we future-proof our finance infrastructure to thrive in uncertain, multi-jurisdictional landscapes?

Joining us on PodChats for FutureCFO is Mr Oleg Koslov, head of internal audit at Modern Mills Company.

How can CFOs harmonise financial reporting and compliance across multiple jurisdictions, balancing global standards like US GAAP and IFRS with local tax regimes and regulatory requirements without overburdening local teams?
What strategies and controls are essential to ensure pricing, contracting, and anti-trust compliance in politically volatile or complex regulatory environments such as Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia?
How can CFOs leverage digital technologies, including AI and machine learning, to automate compliance processes (e.g., ESG reporting, transfer pricing documentation) and enhance finance operations while managing risks like data privacy and algorithmic bias?
What approaches best address talent recruitment and development challenges in regions with acute skill shortages or unfamiliar markets, ensuring culturally aligned, high-performing finance teams?
How should finance functions design agile operational processes-such as accounts payable/receivable and payroll-that can adapt to sudden currency volatility, sanctions, and geopolitical risks across diverse markets?
What role should regional or localised finance hubs play in balancing cost efficiency, regulatory expertise, and the need for centralised oversight versus local autonomy?
How can CFOs proactively manage multi-jurisdictional risks related to geopolitical uncertainty, economic volatility, supply chain disruptions, and evolving regulatory landscapes to safeguard financial stability and support growth?
What frameworks and best practices facilitate the integration of finance operations post-acquisition, especially when acquiring specific assets with limited transitional information, to build sustainable, compliant finance functions in unfamiliar jurisdictions?

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In 2025, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and CIOs across Asia are grappling with an increasingly sophisticated ransomware threat landscape. The 2025 Veeam Ransomware Trends report reveals a concerning shift towards smaller, opportunistic groups that exploit vulnerabilities in larger enterprises, making rapid detection and response essential.

FutureCISO spoke to Ben Young, Veeam's CTO for APAC to discuss how AI is impacting the cyber threat landscape, most notably in the areas of ransomware and phishing, and what CISO's must revisit as part of their resilience strategy.

Questions covered:

Give us your summary of the 2025 Ransomware Trends & Proactive Strategies report.
How are ransomware groups adapting to law enforcement pressure, and what does this mean for mid to large enterprises in Asia?
How is the shift toward data exfiltration (vs. encryption-only attacks) impacting our incident response plans?
Are we prepared for the legal and compliance risks if we pay a ransom, given new regional/international regulations?
Do our backup and recovery strategies meet the "3-2-1-1-0" rule? Is this strategy still relevant in the era of hybrid data, AI everywhere, and digital-native workforces?
Are cloud-based backups and managed services a viable strategy for improving resilience?
How can organisations reduce dwell time for attackers between infiltration and detection?
Are current employee training program robust enough to prevent phishing/social engineering breaches?
Are IT and security teams aligned to ensure rapid response during an attack?
Should CISOs consider third-party incident response partnerships to reduce ransom payments?
How will rising cybersecurity budgets be allocated between prevention, detection, and recovery? Any tips on how CISOs can get the budget they need for the organisation?

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Asia's CISOs and CIOs face a uniquely complex cyber landscape in 2025. The convergence of AI-driven attacks and deepfakes intensifies disinformation and social engineering threats, demanding adaptive strategies. Simultaneously, securing sprawling IoT ecosystems against supply chain vulnerabilities call for more adaptive, scalable and resilient solutions.

Regional disparities in 5G and cloud adoption create systemic resilience gaps, necessitating stronger public-private partnerships. Ethical deployment of autonomous response systems and safeguarding AI algorithms against poisoning are critical.

CISOs must also navigate stringent data localisation laws amidst a cyber skills shortage, balancing AI orchestration with upskilling. Quantifying the ROI of resilience investments in emerging technologies remains a key priority for justifying essential budgets.

Joining me on PodChats for FutureCISO is Sunny Tan, Head of Security Business for AMEA, BT Business

How has the convergence of AI-driven attacks and deepfake technologies reshaped the threat landscape, and what adaptive strategies must CISOs prioritise to counter disinformation and social engineering?
In what ways can blockchain architectures mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities, particularly in securing IoT ecosystems across Asia’s manufacturing and logistics sectors?
How do regional disparities in digital infrastructure—such as uneven 5G rollout or cloud adoption—create systemic risks, and what role should public-private partnerships play in bridging resilience gaps? (mention The Cyber Agile Organisation")
With AI-powered autonomous response systems gaining traction, how can CISOs ensure ethical deployment to prevent unintended escalation during cyber incidents?
What safeguards are necessary to secure AI training data and algorithms against poisoning attacks, particularly as organisations rely on machine learning for predictive analytics?
How can CISOs reconcile stringent data localisation laws in markets like China and India with the operational demands of multinational businesses seeking regional cloud solutions?
Amid a shortage of skilled cyber professionals, should organisations prioritise AI-driven security orchestration or invest in upskilling programmes to build human-machine synergies?
What metrics should CISOs adopt to quantify the ROI of cyber resilience investments, particularly when justifying budgets for emerging technologies like deception platforms or homomorphic encryption?
Final Advise for CISOs given the prevailing uncertainties in 2025?

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Across Asia’s factories, hospitals, and retail outlets, AI is revolutionising frontline work by collaborating with employees in real time—enhancing safety, personalising customer service, and providing instant knowledge access.

However, this transformation faces challenges from diverse regulations, evolving labour laws, and data privacy concerns, alongside issues of trust, fairness, and digital literacy. Successful AI adoption demands a human-centred approach that involves frontline workers in design and feedback, offers tailored training to bridge digital divides, and implements ethical governance to ensure fairness and accountability.

Beyond productivity, organisations must measure impact through employee engagement and customer experience, investing in people and fostering human-AI collaboration to build resilient, agile teams ready for Asia’s dynamic future.

In this PodChats for FutureCOO, Steven Kramer, CEO and president at WorkJam offers his insights on how AI innovations that are transforming frontline industries.

Steven, welcome to PodChats for FutureCOO.

How is artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping the daily tasks and overall roles of frontline workers across Asia’s diverse industries?
Name 3 of the most promising AI-enabled tools currently empowering frontline teams, and how do these technologies vary between sectors such as healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and logistics.
How do evolving regulatory frameworks in Asia—covering data privacy, labour laws, and safety standards—affect the deployment and design of AI solutions for frontline work?
What are the key challenges organisations face in building trust, ensuring reliability, and maintaining fairness when integrating AI tools alongside tools used frontline employees?
In what ways is AI enhancing frontline training, knowledge access, and on-the-job learning, and what potential drawbacks should companies be mindful of?
How can organisations ensure AI adoption is inclusive, addressing digital literacy gaps and language barriers to prevent frontline worker exclusion?
How can frontline workers be more actively involved in shaping AI tools, and what ethical or governance considerations should companies prioritise as they scale AI across large, distributed workforces?
Outside of AI boards to ensure better/proper use of the technology, what metrics will be of interest to the CFO and CIO in terms of metrics for measuring the effective of the technology (the impact and return on investment of AI deployments on the frontline, balancing productivity with employee and customer experience)?

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In 2025, workforce burnout in Asia has become a silent crisis, especially in digitizing enterprises. Employees may appear present but are emotionally disengaged, particularly in hybrid work settings where cultural stigma masks mental health struggles. Traditional measures like Employee Assistance Programs are inadequate, as many don’t voice their distress. This silent burnout undermines productivity and morale. Proactive, data-driven mental health systems leveraging AI are emerging as essential for early detection and support. With the Asia-Pacific mental wellness market projected to surpass USD 70 billion by 2031, prioritizing mental health is now crucial for performance and retention.

In this PodChats for FutureCOO, we are joined by Antoinette Patterson, CEO of Safe Space, to talk about how Silent Burnout is Asia’s Digital Workforce Crisis

Antoinette, welcome to PodChats for FutureCOO

Define “silent burnout,” and why is it particularly challenging for businesses in Asia to detect and address?
Why do traditional Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) and wellness perks fall short in today’s workforce environment? (fire extinguishers)
What are the key signs of burnout that often go unnoticed in hybrid or remote work settings?
How can AI and data analytics be used to identify early indicators of employee mental distress without violating privacy?
What practical steps can companies take to embed proactive mental health support into their daily operations?

6. Can you share examples of how forward-thinking organisations in Asia have successfully implemented proactive mental health systems?

(We might be repeating this) How does investing in mental wellness infrastructure translate into measurable business outcomes like retention and productivity?
What cultural or regional factors in Asia affect how mental health support should be designed and delivered?
How do you see the mental wellness market in Asia-Pacific evolving over the next five to ten years?
What advice would you give to business leaders and HR leaders who want to move beyond “band-aid” mental health solutions and create lasting change?

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In 2024, FutureCISO dialogues with C-suite leaders including CISOs and cybersecurity practices highlight key trends in the region including AI-driven threats, increased board-level engagement, and a focus on compliance and data privacy.

In 2025, Southeast Asia's cybersecurity landscape demands that CISOs and CIOs consider integrating cybersecurity with business objectives.

CISOs must frame cybersecurity as a business enabler, demonstrating ROI through narratives that emphasize resilience, regulatory alignment, and sustained growth in Asia’s hyperconnected economy. In other words, CISOs must articulate their cybersecurity strategies in business terms, ensuring that security is a core element of growth and risk management.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are pleased to have as our guest expert, James McLeary, Group CIO and CISO, Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand.

Define for us what is a cybersecurity posture.
What are the long-term business benefits of maintaining a robust cybersecurity posture, and how can these be articulated to stakeholders? Who are the stakeholders who should be keen/interested on cybersecurity posture?
What role does compliance with regulations play in justifying cybersecurity spending, and how can/should CISOs present this to the board?
Speaking of justification, how can CISOs/CIOs quantify the return on investment (ROI) of their cybersecurity initiatives to demonstrate their value to stakeholders?
Is it possible to align cybersecurity investments to support the broader business objectives of the organization?
Cite 3 (max) examples of how prevention offers tangible ROI of cybersecurity investments.
Cite an example of a successful cyber risk narrative that CISOs can use to illustrate the business value of cybersecurity investments.
IT and OT processes are increasing in complexity, do you anticipate cybersecurity solutions and processes?

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The convergence of AI adoption and escalating cyber threats demands a paradigm shift in how organisations protect data and build trust.

As AI accelerates attack sophistication—enabling automated phishing, synthetic identity fraud, and adversarial machine learning—businesses face dual challenges: hardening defences against AI-powered threats while ensuring ethical, transparent AI deployment to overcome employee scepticism.

In Singapore and across Asia, leaders must prioritise zero-trust frameworks, AI-specific security guidelines (e.g., Singapore’s CSA lifecycle controls), and human-AI collaboration models to close critical trust gaps.

Organisations that invest in AI governance, workforce upskilling, and proactive threat-hunting agents will gain resilience and competitive advantage, whereas those failing to address AI-driven risks or employee distrust will face operational and reputational fallout.

Joining us on PodChats for FutureCISO is Assaf Keren, CSO, Qualtrics.

Interview questions:

How can organisations implement secure-by-design AI systems that comply with evolving regional regulations, such as Singapore’s CSA Guidelines?
What governance lessons from past tech integrations (e.g., cloud and IoT) can be applied to mitigate risks associated with AI systems?
What strategies can effectively combat AI-automated attack chains, like multi-modal phishing campaigns, without hindering innovation in defensive AI tools?

4. How should cybersecurity teams balance the efficiency gains from AI-driven tools against potential risks like shadow AI deployments and data poisoning?

How can CISOs bridge the trust gap around the use of AI between leadership and employees?
Advise for CISOs to build trust.

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In 2025, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations are crucial for operational leaders in Asia, as businesses face increasing pressure from regulators and investors alike. According to a recent McKinsey report, companies prioritizing ESG practices are projected to outperform their peers by 20% in the next decade. Governments across the region are implementing stricter regulations, making ESG compliance not just a choice but a necessity. Collaborations with major banks and rating agencies further enhance credibility, while technology streamlines reporting processes. Embracing ESG is not only a strategic imperative but also a pathway to sustainable growth and competitive advantage in the evolving market landscape.

Mark Blick, CEO of Diginex, shares his obvservations guiding organisations in Asia navigate the complexities of ESG execution.

Proposed questions:

Challenges in ESG Adoption – What are the key barriers preventing businesses from fully embracing ESG, and what strategies can they use to overcome them?
Bridging Market Gaps in ESG Ratings – What challenges do businesses face in securing credible ESG ratings, and how can rating support services address these gaps?
Differentiation in ESG Solutions – In what ways can technology simplify ESG compliance and reporting processes?
The Role of Strategic Partnerships – How do collaborations with major banks and regulators contribute to the acceleration of ESG adoption?
The Future of ESG Investing & Technology – What emerging trends are likely to shape ESG investment over the next 5-10 years?
What is your advice for organisations in Asia as far as pursuing and progressing on their ESG initiatives? Who should be part of the ESG process?

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On World Backup Day 2025, the importance of robust data backup strategies for organizations in Asia becomes increasingly evident as businesses face a surge in cyber threats and data loss incidents.

It is tasked not only in implementing advanced backup solutions but also in fostering a culture of data resilience within their organizations. By prioritizing comprehensive backup protocols, these leaders ensure that critical data remains secure and recoverable, safeguarding against potential downtime and financial loss.

As organizations navigate the complexities of digital transformation, the proactive engagement of IT leadership in backup strategies is essential for maintaining operational continuity and protecting valuable assets in an ever-evolving threat environment.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Qinghong You, Solutions Engineering Lead (Greater China, ASEAN and South Korea), NetApp.

Questions covered.

How is backup evolving beyond just storage (storage is cheap), focusing on data mobility, instant recovery, and AI-driven insights for proactive risk mitigation?
What role does data mobility play in enhancing backup strategies, especially in hybrid cloud environments?

3. How can enterprises enhance backup strategies with an intelligent data architecture to improve anomaly detection, automation, and cyber resilience against ransomware threats?

What are the key considerations for shifting from traditional backup to an intelligent, always-available data infrastructure that minimizes downtime and ensures seamless disaster recovery?
How do modern backup solutions that integrate AI technologies contribute to a resilient data infrastructure?
Technology, regulation and threats continue to evolve, any last advise for CIOs and those responsible for resilience data protection in 2025.

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International Women's Day (IWD) is a global event aiming to recognise women's achievements, raise awareness about gender equality and promote women's empowerment. It serves as a crucial platform for activism, highlighting enduring gender disparities and advocating for equality.

In what is now a tradition at Cxociety, we begin this year’s series with a dialogue with Wendy Lee, senior director at SS&C Blue Prism to get her perspective on women participation in the technology sector in Asia and how the IWD’s 2025 theme of "Accelerate Action" addresses the challenges and opportunities for women in Asia’s burgeoning tech space.

Professionally, you’ve been in the technology sector for much of your career. Is this an active decision on your part?
You have been in tech marketing for some time now, can you share some interesting lessons in your journey?
In the context of women as active participants and leaders in Asia’s technology sector, how would you describe the progress so far?
What are some effective ways for women in tech to network and build professional relationships that can help them access leadership roles in the industry?

5. What is your view on mentorship? What has worked and needs more work in this area?

What role do initiatives like the SG100 Women in Tech play in inspiring and empowering women to pursue careers in technology, and how can similar programs be replicated across Asia?
Aspirations aside, what are the key challenges women face when leading marketing efforts for global tech/AI firms in Asia, and how can they overcome these obstacles to achieve success?
IWD’s 2025 theme of "Accelerate Action" is a call to action to accelerate participation by women in leading the charge. What is your advice for women who want to pursue a career in tech?

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Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) play a pivotal role in guiding organizations through digital transformation, aligning technology with business strategies to enhance competitiveness. As companies increasingly recognize the importance of digital leadership, women are making significant strides in CDO positions.

Recent data indicates that women now represent approximately 20% of CDO roles, reflecting a positive trend towards gender diversity in technology leadership. This shift not only promotes inclusivity but also leverages diverse perspectives essential for driving innovation and success in the digital age.

In this exclusive interview with Shannon Bell, executive vice president and chief digital officer at OpenText, we look at the growing importance of CDOs in the digital transformation of businesses and industries, as well as the role women play in the evolution of the role.

The future of many businesses today is defined by the extent to which they embrace digital. In your view why is this so? Why are organisations being driven to become more digital?
In this digital-first society, what are the qualifications and qualities that make for a successful chief digital officer (CDO)? Do you see an overlap between the roles of a CDO to that of a Chief Transformation Officer? How about Chief Technology Officer?
In your view, are women better suited to be CDOs than their male counterparts? [Please elaborate]
What systemic barriers do women face in advancing to CDO positions within Asian companies?

a. What role does corporate culture play in either facilitating or hindering women's progress to CDO roles?

How can women leverage their backgrounds in marketing and customer engagement to transition into CDO positions?
How important are female role models in the tech space for aspiring women leaders?
What is your advice for women aspiring to become leaders? Likewise, what is your advice for male leaders in support of future women leaders?

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In 2025, AI and quantum computing are transforming Asia's cybersecurity landscape, reshaping threats and roles. AI enhances defence capabilities but also fuels sophisticated attacks. Quantum computing threatens current encryption methods, necessitating a shift to quantum-safe algorithms.

CISOs will do well to prioritize AI and quantum literacy to navigate these challenges. They must invest in post-quantum cryptography to safeguard against "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks and ensure AI defences are robust against adversarial attacks. Managing expectations while ensuring compliance is crucial as CEOs increasingly rely on these technologies for innovation and efficiency. Proactive strategies are essential for maintaining security and trust.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Paul Tan, head of systems integration at Ensign InfoSecurity, talks about the evolving nature of cybersecurity strategies as technologies like AI and quantum computing accelerate their influence in cybersecurity defence and offense, and redefining the cybersecurity profession.

Given that AI and quantum computing are rapidly reshaping the cybersecurity landscape, what immediate steps should CISOs in Asia take to ensure their teams possess the necessary AI and quantum literacy to navigate this evolving threat environment?
In what ways are you observing AI being leveraged by both cybersecurity defenders and malicious actors, and what proactive measures can CISOs implement to stay ahead of these dual-use applications?
Considering the potential vulnerabilities of AI-driven security systems to adversarial attacks like data poisoning, what strategies can CISOs employ to ensure the robustness and resilience of their AI defences?
As quantum computing threatens to render current encryption methods obsolete, what is your recommended timeline for organisations to transition to quantum-safe cryptographic algorithms, and what are the key challenges in implementing these systems?
With the advent of quantum computing, how should organisations reassess their strategies for protecting sensitive data against "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks, and what role does post-quantum cryptography play in this? Hybrid cryptography
How do CEOs' and business unit leaders' high expectations for AI and Quantum computing impact the CISO's role in managing expectations, integrating these technologies into operations, and ensuring regulatory compliance?
Let's recap: given what we know about AI and PQC, what is your advice for CISOs in 2025?

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In 2025, the landscape of technology adoption is transforming rapidly, with AI and automation at the forefront of this evolution. As organizations strive for greater efficiency and innovation, the roles under the Chief Information Officer (CIO) have become pivotal in navigating this shift.

The AI market is evolving toward monetization and widespread adoption, focusing on resilience, workforce transformation, and managing regulatory changes. Priorities are being driven toward ethical AI integration, explainability, and advancing modernization, as organizations aim for responsible, compliant, and future-ready AI implementation.

IDC predicts that Asia/Pacific businesses leaders will demand up to 80% success rate of generative AI (GenAI) adoption by 2027.

"The adoption of AI and GenAI in the APJ region is driving a notable shift in business strategies and value creation. Companies are leveraging AI to boost efficiency and enrich customer experiences, opening doors to fresh growth opportunities," says Vinayaka Venkatesh, Senior Market Analyst, Data & Analytics, IDC Asia/Pacific.

What will AI and GenAI look like in 2025? FutureCIO is pleased to be joined by Kalyan Madala, director and APAC Field CTO, IBM Software, Asia Pacific on the topic of enterprise AI values: From +AI to AI+ in the Asian Century.

1. Architecture

Challenges: What are the key architectural challenges we face in integrating AI and automation into our existing enterprise systems, and how can we overcome them?

Opportunities: How can we leverage AI-driven tools to enhance our architectural design processes, and what specific benefits can we expect in terms of efficiency and scalability?

Risks: With the increasing reliance on AI in architecture, what potential risks do we face regarding data privacy and compliance, and how can we mitigate these risks?

2. Development & Engineering

Opportunities: In what ways can AI enhance our coding and testing processes, and how can we measure the return on investment from these advancements?

Challenges: What hurdles do our development teams encounter when implementing AI and automation in the software development lifecycle, and how can we address them?

Risks: As we automate more development tasks, how do we ensure that quality and security are not compromised, particularly with the rise of AI-generated code?

3. Operations & Reliability

Opportunities: How can AI enhance our incident response and system monitoring capabilities, and what specific tools should we consider in our strategy?

Challenges: What operational challenges do we foresee in maintaining system reliability as we adopt AI-driven automation tools, and how can we prepare for them?

Risks: What are the potential risks of over-reliance on AI for operational decisions, and how can we ensure human oversight remains effective?

4. Data & Analytics

Opportunities: How can we leverage AI to uncover new insights from our data that were previously unattainable, and what processes should we put in place to act on these insights?

Challenges: What are the key challenges in ensuring data quality and governance as we implement AI-driven analytics tools, and how can we address them?

Risks: What risks do we face regarding data bias in AI models, and how can we implement strategies to ensure fairness and transparency in our analytics processes?

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Imperatives for transformation tend to circle around modernising processes and systems to enable for more agile operations able to adjust to the increasingly unpredictable nature of day-to-day whether we mean unplanned downturns or new opportunities that at times seem to come out of nowhere.

With market volatility, digital disruption and regulatory uncertainty appearing to be the norm rather the exception in 2025, finance leaders will be hard pressed to accelerate transformation initiatives up and running fast.

At the heart of this transformation lies data intelligence—a critical enabler of strategic decision-making, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance. As organizations across Asia pivot toward data-driven finance, CFOs are leveraging advanced analytics, AI, and unified data strategies to secure competitive advantages while addressing regional challenges.

To learn more about data intelligence, we are pleased to be joined by Lavan Verma, head of FP&A and Data Intelligence – APAC at ManpowerGroup.

How do you define data intelligence?
What is data intelligence in the context of an organisation (as viewed from the Board and C-suite and operations)?
How does this translate in the world of the finance function?
What is/are needed to have data intelligence in the finance function (technology, process, etc)?
What are the benefits data intelligence brings to its practitioners? (viewed from a career perspective)
What are the potential challenges for the CFO and finance team in the execution and delivery of data intelligence?
Any best practice in the design, execution and performance of a data intelligence?

We have seen technology evolved rapidly in the last couple of years. What are your thoughts on how these technologies will influence finance in the years ahead?

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In 2025, Agentic AI is poised to transform the business landscape across Asia, driving unprecedented innovation and efficiency. As organizations increasingly adopt AI technologies that mimic human-like decision-making, the focus will shift from basic automation to the establishment of agentic capabilities.

Companies will harness AI to optimize operations, enhance customer experiences, and foster data-driven strategies. Emerging trends will include the integration of AI in traditional industries, a surge in data governance initiatives, and an emphasis on ethical AI practices.

This evolution will empower organizations to navigate complex challenges and seize new opportunities in an ever-evolving market.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we talk to Don Ong, head of innovation at Advantest, on how Agentic AI will change the game of business innovation in 2025

Don, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Establishing Agentic Capability: What steps should organizations take to establish a true agentic capability that allows AI to learn and adapt from internal processes?

Facilitating Information Flow: How can CIOs effectively facilitate and control the flow of information between human teams and AI agents to enhance collaboration?

Capturing Analogue Data: What strategies can organizations employ to capture data from analogue processes, ensuring that Agentic AI has access to comprehensive information for learning?

Data Cleaning and Consistency: What are the best practices for cleaning and organizing data to ensure that Agentic AI can deliver meaningful insights and value?

Measuring Data Quality: What metrics should organizations use to evaluate the quality of their data?

Training Agentic AI: What methods can organizations use to train Agentic AI effectively using their own data?

Overcoming Data Silos: How can CIOs address data silos within the organization to create a unified data infrastructure that supports Agentic AI?

Challenges of Agentic AI: Where do organisations fail in their understanding and implementation of AI?

Recap: Steps that an organisation needs to prepare for the Agentic AI.

Final thought: Your advice for the non-IT people as regards Agentic AI and its value to the employee, the business

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The future of finance is set for transformative changes driven by technological advancements and evolving market needs. By 2025, finance professionals can expect increased automation, enhanced data analytics, and greater emphasis on sustainability and governance. These trends will significantly impact how CFOs, accountants, and controllers operate within their organizations.

The integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into financial processes promises to streamline operations and improve decision-making. Concurrently, the growing focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors will influence investment decisions and corporate strategies, requiring finance leaders to incorporate these considerations into their financial planning and reporting. As the landscape evolves, finance professionals must remain agile and forward-thinking to thrive in this dynamic environment.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Andrew Harding, CEO, CIMA, to share with us his observations on Architecting an agile finance function in the age of AI

How has the roles of management accounts evolved following the pandemic, and in particular the growing adoption of AI and automation in finance functions by 2025?
What challenges will finance professionals in Hong Kong face as they adapt to new technologies and regulatory requirements?
How can finance leaders in Hong Kong effectively balance innovation with regulatory compliance in a rapidly changing financial landscape?
What skills will be most essential for accountants and controllers to succeed in the future finance landscape in Hong Kong?
What strategies should finance professionals take to enhance their value in and around functions like forecasting, risk management, planning and budgeting?
In your opinion, how critical is it for finance teams to integrate ESG factors into their reporting and decision-making processes?
How should finance leaders prepare for potential shifts in global economic conditions that may impact Hong Kong’s positioning in the world market?
What role does CIMA play in supporting finance professionals in Hong Kong to navigate these upcoming changes?
Can you share examples of best practices in management accounting that have led to successful transformations in finance functions?

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A chatbot is an Artificial Intelligence program that chats with you. The 1960s saw the first chatbot. It was called ELIZA and was developed by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum. Six decades later, we have ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot joining the likes of Alexa and Siri.

While chatbots use pattern matching and natural language processing to interpret user inputs and choose the right responses from a set of pre-programmed options, AI agents engage in more complex, multi-step interactions that may span different platforms or services. AI agents take the next step from chatbots moving the needle of engagement between human and machines.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by David Irecki, chief technology officer for Asia Pacific and Japan at Boomi to walk us through the realities of AI agents – what you and I need to know, separating hype from reality.

Define AI agent as understood by most users in Asia (both tech and non-tech)?
What key factors differentiate AI agent hype from reality for organizations?
Since you brought it up, how can businesses ensure high data quality for effective AI deployment?
Scale out issues have been a recuring topic when RPAs came out and it may be part of the challenge with AI. From your experience, what common pitfalls should organizations avoid when adopting AI agents?
One of the promises of AI is improving productivity – at least this is the hope. In what ways can AI agents drive productivity and cost savings in specific industries? Any pitfalls to avoid?
How can AI agents enhance customer experiences across different sectors?
How can businesses maintain accountability and governance while leveraging AI agents effectively?
This 2025, what is your advice for lines of business, finance, IT and security work together to design or architect or transform processes so they can avail of the promise of AI agents without introducing unnecessary risks in the process?

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In 2025, the integration of AI into the finance function in Asia has the potential to reshape operational frameworks and decision-making processes. Current industry research suggests that AI technologies are gaining traction among finance professionals navigating a complex landscape marked by rapid change.

At FutureCFO, we will likely see finance practitioners dabble in emerging technologies in the quest to enhance real-time decision-making, optimise invoice-to-cash and source-to-pay workflows, and allows CFOs to prioritise strategic initiatives over routine tasks.

Emerging trends such as autonomous finance, predictive analytics, and the application of AI in fraud detection are becoming vital components of this transformation.

Organisations that effectively harness these innovations are expecting to see marked improvements in efficiency, facilitate more rapid adherence to evolving compliance regulations, and remain competitive in a fast-evolving market.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we will delve into the practical implications of AI in the finance in 2025. Joining us on this edition of PodChats for FutureCFO, is Charlie Cheah, managing director for Esker Asia.

Interview questions for the podcast interview.

As of end of 2024, what do CFOs and finance leaders in Asia think about AI for use in the finance function?
What emerging trends in AI should CFOs be aware of to maintain a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving financial landscape of 2025, particularly regarding compliance and risk management?
How do you see AI impacting advancements in robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline invoice-to-cash and source -to-pay processes for finance leaders?
How can financial leaders effectively integrate AI technologies into their existing systems while fostering a culture of innovation and adaptability within their teams?
How should CFOs evaluate on-going investment strategies around AI? Any suggestions on how to futureproof such investments?
What are the implications of autonomous finance on traditional finance roles, and how should CFOs prepare for these changes?
Anything else?

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As Asia's enterprises prepare for the dynamic landscape of 2025, workforce modernisation emerges as a critical priority. The rapid evolution of technology, shifting employee expectations, and the need for agility demand that functional leaders—especially CHROs and COOs—reassess their strategies.

By addressing key questions about workplace evolution, leadership roles, technological integration, and organisational culture, businesses can position themselves to thrive in a competitive environment.

In this PodChats for FutureCOO, we are joined by Shan Moorthy, CTO for APAC at Workday to share his views on how organisations can futureproof their workforce modernisation efforts.

Questions for Workforce Modernisation

Describe the workplace of 2024 in Asia and how it has evolved over the years?
How has the role of the CHRO and the COO evolved during this period? How have these changes impacted the relationship between the CHRO and COO?
What role does technology play in workforce modernisation efforts? How can organisations ensure that its HR technology meets current and future business needs?
Given these technologies will become increasingly embedded in workflows, what metrics can leaders use to measure the effectiveness of its workforce modernisation initiatives?
What will the workplace look like in 2025 and what is your advice for functional leaders to prepare for this future?

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As organizations in Asia prepare for 2025, the landscape of work is undergoing significant transformation. According to Gartner's 2025 HR Priorities Survey, a staggering 87% of HR leaders agree that shifting business needs necessitate continuous transformation within their organizations.

This imperative extends beyond HR, influencing all functional leaders who must adapt to a rapidly evolving environment characterized by technological advancements, changing workforce dynamics, and heightened expectations for organizational culture.

In this context, it is crucial for leaders across all functions to engage with the pressing challenges of leadership development, workforce planning, and change management.

By addressing these critical areas, organizations can foster a resilient and agile workforce capable of navigating the complexities of the future.

In this PodChats for FutureCOO, Ms. Isabelle Claus (KLAUS) Teixiera (TEISERA), Founder and Managing Director, at Business and Human Development Consulting, shares tips to guide functional leaders in aligning their strategies with the evolving demands of the marketplace, ensuring they are well-equipped to drive sustainable success in 2025 and beyond.

How would you describe the HR landscape in 2024? What has been most interesting, most difficult and most rewarding issues of 2024?
A common recognition by IT and finance leaders is the issue of talent shortage. I imagine this is not limited to these two functions. In 2024, how did HR leaders in Asia meet these challenges?
Leaders tell us that change management is an ongoing issue for them. Why is that so?
What strategies can HR implement to create a strong organisational culture that aligns with the company’s business goals?
Coming into 2025, how can HR leaders enhance workforce planning processes to anticipate future talent needs and capability gaps?

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In 2025, the role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in Asia will continue to evolve from traditional financial stewardship to a strategic leadership position. As businesses face rapid digital transformation and economic fluctuations, CFOs are expected to integrate advanced technologies like AI and big data analytics into financial decision-making processes.

This shift enables them to provide real-time insights and drive value creation. Moreover, CFOs will play a crucial role in sustainability efforts, aligning financial strategies with corporate social responsibility. By fostering cross-functional collaboration, they will enhance resilience and innovation, ensuring organizations navigate the complexities of the Asian market effectively.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Izzad Shamsudin, chief financial officer at KPJ Healthcare Berhad to share with us his observations, experiences and learnings in his journey towards becoming a chief financial officer.

Name the top 3 pathways to becoming a finance leader.
Name 3 essential skills beyond technical expertise.
How do you navigate key career transitions?
Briefly describe the changing landscape of finance leadership. What has been most challenging?
What, for you, has been the most important strategy for success in the C-suite?
What, for you, will be interesting to expect in 2025?
What is your advice for other finance leaders in 2025?

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With its unprecedented speeds, lower latency, and ability to support a greater number of simultaneous connections, WiFi7 may well be the answer to Asia’s rapid urbanization and the increasing adoption of IoT devices, offering businesses the capacity to support seamless operations and improve collaboration across various sectors.

CIOs and heads of infrastructure must recognize the strategic implications of integrating WiFi7 into their connectivity strategies. Higher data rates and advanced features like Multi-Link Operation (MLO) can significantly enhance user experience, leading to improved customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

By addressing key considerations—such as security, budget impacts, and staff training—leaders can effectively harness WiFi7 to not only meet current demands but also unlock new business models and opportunities for growth in an increasingly connected landscape.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, Sanjiv Verma, vice president of RUCKUS Networks, APAC, CommScope, discusses key considerations for infrastructure heads looking to tap WiFi7’s promises.

What are the specific business needs that Wi-Fi 7 promises to address within organisations in Asia?
How will the increased capacity of Wi-Fi 7 affect existing network infrastructure?
Provide 1 or 2 best practices for ensuring seamless integration of Wi-Fi 7 with existing applications and services.
What potential challenges should we anticipate during the transition to Wi-Fi 7?
What security measures should organisations implement to protect our network while rolling out Wi-Fi 7?
How will the deployment of Wi-Fi 7 impact the IT budget and resource allocation?
What training will be required to manage and maintain a Wi-Fi 7 network?
What is the projected ROI for upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 compared to keeping what is in place today?
How can businesses leverage Wi-Fi 7 to create new business models or improve existing services?
Can you share views on what we can expect around connectivity in the next 2-3 years?

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Financial transformation has emerged as a critical imperative for organizations in 2024, driven by the need to adapt to rapidly changing economic conditions, technological advancements, and evolving business landscapes.

Coming into 2025, as CFOs face pressure to do more with less while driving growth and maintaining compliance, they are turning to digital solutions and holistic approaches to reshape and modernize financial processes. This transformation goes beyond simply adopting new technologies; it requires a fundamental rethinking of how finance functions operate and contribute to overall business success.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Ms Giselle Arellano-Geronimo, vice president- head of finance, accounting and procurement for Shearwater Health, as she walks us through what it takes to become a transformative finance leader in 2025.

What is a transformative leader? Do you consider yourself one?
In your view, can one be a transactional leader and be an equally transformational leader?

a. Who is your one role model for a transformational leader?

What metric should one use to gauge whether we have what it takes to be a transformative leader?

a. List must have and nice to have qualities.

In building the next generation of leaders, what do you look for as qualities/traits worth building upon?
How do you nurture people to become transformative leaders (even if they are not aware and may not necessarily have the initial desires to be one)?

a. How would you address resistance to become one?

Speaking of opportunity, do you agree that everyone, at all levels of an organization, can be transformational leaders for their teams/colleagues?
In closing, what is your advice for others listening to this PodChats on the topic of becoming a transformative finance leader in 2025?

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Contrary to their predictive decline in value, a 2024 Forrester report noted that among global infrastructure hardware decision-makers, 61% said that their firm uses a mainframe. Of those that use mainframes, 54% indicated that their organisation would increase its use of a mainframe over the next two years”.

With 71% of Fortune 500 companies still using mainframes, advancing technologies and evolving business drivers in 2024 highlight the challenges posed by neglecting mainframe modernisation that can lead to operational inefficiencies and risks, making it imperative for decision-makers to act decisively in embracing transformation.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Praveen Kumar, Vice President for Asia Pacific, Rocket Software, who will pontificate on the importance of mainframe modernisation as a business-critical priority in 2025.

How can CIOs align their mainframe modernisation efforts with the organisations’ broader digital transformation strategy, especially as they integrate AI technologies?
What specific benefits can be drawn from modernising mainframe systems regarding operational efficiency and cost reduction?
How should CIOs and HR leaders address the skills gap associated with legacy programming languages as they transition to more modern platforms?
What strategies can they implement to smooth migration from legacy mainframe environments to cloud-based solutions?
How can CIOs and CISOs leverage AI to enhance the performance and security of modernised mainframe systems?
What role do external partners play in facilitating mainframe modernisation, and name one approach to help select the right ones?
What metrics should CIOs use to measure the success of their mainframe modernisation efforts?

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As we move deeper into the digital age, the significance of cybersecurity cannot be overstated, particularly in Asia, a continent characterized by its diverse cultures and rapidly evolving economies. By 2025, fostering community cybersecurity readiness will be crucial for several reasons, including protecting economic stability, safeguarding cultural heritage, and enhancing social cohesion amidst the growing threats posed by cybercrime.

Sharing with us his views on just how organisations can do their part to raise community cybersecurity readiness, we are pleased to be joined by Matthias Chia, director of Strategy at the SANS Institute.

What is the SANS Institute in the context of cybersecurity?

How would you assess the level of awareness and interest in cybersecurity among communities in Asia?
In what ways can technology companies collaborate with educational institutions to enrich cybersecurity training?
How can we measure the impact of community engagement in improving cybersecurity awareness and practices?
What strategies can we implement to motivate young people to pursue careers in cybersecurity?
Do you think there is, today, adequate and equitable access to cybersecurity training for all youth, especially in underserved communities?
Recalling NIST’s efforts to partner with public and private organisations, can you elaborate on the role strategic partnerships play in enhancing cybersecurity resilience within local communities?
At the national level, what is the role of public-private partnerships in strengthening national cybersecurity efforts?
We are coming into 2025, any call to action for businesses, governments, and the communities of Asia in general on how everyone can contribute to raising community cybersecurity readiness in 2025?

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Gartner defines privileged access management (PAM) as tools that provide an elevated level of technical access through the management and protection of accounts, credentials and commands used to administer or configure systems and applications.

Available as software, SaaS or hardware appliances, PAM tools manage privileged access for both people (system administrators and others) and machines (systems or applications).

Gartner defines four distinct tool categories for PAM tools: privileged account and session management (PASM), privilege elevation and delegation management (PEDM), secrets management, and cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM).

It is widely expected that in 2025, PAM will be shaped by advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation, enabling more proactive and adaptive security measures. As regulatory compliance becomes more stringent across various industries in Asia, organizations will be compelled to adopt robust PAM solutions to safeguard sensitive data and ensure accountability. The convergence of hybrid work environments and cloud technologies will also necessitate re-evaluating PAM strategies, emphasizing the need for flexible yet secure access controls.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Phil Calvin, Chief Product Officer, Delinea, shares his views on some of CISOs' approaches when modernising PAM strategies for a security-first world.

How have PAM tools and strategies evolved in the last two years following hybrid work, the shift to the cloud, and more recently the heightened interest in AI, ML and automation?
For those that have already started to embed AI, ML and automation into their PAM strategies, what has worked and not worked?
Any lessons learned when it comes to integration AI and ML into existing PAM implementations?
What metrics should CISOs use to measure the effectiveness of their PAM solutions and practices?
Given the heightened interest around data privacy and protection, but disparate guidelines and frameworks, what steps should CISOs/enterprises take to ensure compliance with regional regulations concerning privileged access?
How can CISOs ensure that their PAM solutions are scalable as the organization grows?
What role does zero-trust play in PAM strategies and how do you see zero trust evolving in 2025 to PAM implementations?
How do you see enterprises leveraging identity governance to strengthen their PAM initiatives?
Our topic is modernising PAM strategies for a security-first world, what’s in store for Privilege Access Management in 2025?

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As Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2024 unfolds, it is critical for organizations, especially in Asia, to emphasize the tangible business value of cybersecurity investments. With cyber threats becoming increasingly sophisticated and pervasive, cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue; it is a fundamental aspect of business resilience and growth.

Demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) from cybersecurity initiatives can help secure ongoing support from stakeholders, drive informed decision-making, and foster a culture of security within the organization. By clearly articulating how cybersecurity investments protect assets, ensure compliance, and enhance customer trust, CISOs and CIOs can align security strategies with broader business objectives.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Steve Wilson, chief product officer at Exabeam, offers his take on how to demonstrate the business value of cybersecurity investments.

Key Questions for CISOs and CIOs

What is the current practice for quantifying the ROI of cybersecurity investments?
Is it possible to leverage cybersecurity investments to gain competitive advantage?
What metrics can be used to measure the effectiveness of cybersecurity programs?
What is a quick win in cybersecurity and what strategies can be implemented to demonstrate quick wins in cybersecurity?
How can CISOs/CIOs align cybersecurity goals with overall business objectives?
What is the most effective way to communicate cybersecurity risks to non-technical stakeholders?
What frameworks or standards can CISOs/CIOs adopt to benchmark their cybersecurity efforts?
What partnerships or collaborations can enhance an organisation’s cybersecurity capabilities?
We are coming into 2025, how can CISOs/CIOs ensure that their cybersecurity investments are scalable and future-proof?
What is your vision in your role as chief product officer for Exabeam?

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Cybersecurity resilience refers to an organization's ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents while continuing to operate effectively. This resilience is not merely about having robust security measures in place; it also involves fostering a culture of security awareness and agility within the organization. As businesses undergo transformations—whether through digital transformation, mergers and acquisitions, or shifts in workforce dynamics—cybersecurity strategies must evolve concurrently.

The challenge lies in ensuring that security protocols do not hinder operational agility. Organizations must be able to pivot quickly in response to market demands, technological advancements, or unforeseen disruptions while maintaining a strong security posture. This balance is crucial for minimizing risks and protecting against potential cyber threats that can exploit vulnerabilities during periods of change.

Key Considerations for Achieving Cybersecurity Resilience

To navigate this complex landscape, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and security professionals must consider several critical questions:

Mark Jobbins, Chief Technology Officer & Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan, Pure Storage

Given us a state of the cybersecurity landscape in Asia in 2024.
How should a CISO define cybersecurity resilience?

a. What is agility in the context of cybersecurity from the perspective of a CISO?

How should CISOs assess and prioritize risks associated with rapid changes in technology or business operations?
What security frameworks and standards should organisations adopt to ensure compliance while remaining flexible, and without compromising agility?
How can organisations integrate security into their agile development processes without slowing down innovation (or creating unnecessary friction between operations, development and security teams)?
With the threat landscape continuing to escalate threat and both sides (attackers and defenders) having access to the same technologies, how should CISOs architect the company’s cyber resilience strategy to stay ahead of the threat?
Balancing agility with security during periods of significant change, as a Chief Technology Officer, can you share your views/expectations around security and resiliency in 2025?

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In today's digital landscape, fostering a security-aware culture is paramount for organizations in Asia. CIOs and CISOs play a crucial role in embedding cybersecurity into the organizational ethos. This involves not only implementing robust security measures but also promoting continuous education and awareness among employees.

By cultivating an environment where security is a shared responsibility, organizations can better mitigate risks and respond effectively to threats. Encouraging open communication about security practices and integrating them into daily operations enhances resilience.

Ultimately, a proactive security culture empowers employees to act as the first line of defense against cyber threats.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Ben King, VP for Cybersecurity Trust & Culture at Okta shares his perspective on how to foster a security-aware culture.

Ben, welcome to PodChats for FutureCISO.

Where are enterprises today in Asia-Pacific, when it comes to creating and maintaining an acceptable level of security awareness among staff?
What, for you, is a security-aware culture?
Does it make sense to have a one-person and what role should leadership play in promoting a security-aware culture?
How do organisations measure the effectiveness of their current cybersecurity training programs?
What strategies have worked (not worked) to engage employees in cybersecurity awareness initiatives?
How can organisations integrate security awareness into onboarding for new employees? Is this a job for HR? How and at what point should CIOs and CISOs get involved?
What are the challenges organisations will face in fostering a security-aware culture in a diverse workforce and where hybrid workplace is the norm?
What best practices can we adopt from organisations that excel in security culture?
What metrics should organisations use to track and evaluate improvements in security-aware culture?
Do carrots work better than sticks when it comes to foster a sustained security-aware culture?
Coming into 2025, we can security to continue to take importance for all organisations and functions. What is your expectation in the development of security-aware cultures?

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As we enter a new era defined by rapid advancements in generative AI, the landscape of cybersecurity is evolving at an unprecedented pace. These powerful tools, capable of creating content and automating tasks, present both opportunities and significant risks for organizations across Asia.

With the potential for misuse in generating deepfakes, phishing attacks, and automated malware, cybersecurity leaders must prioritize robust strategies to safeguard their digital environments. Emphasizing a proactive approach that includes continuous monitoring, employee training, and the implementation of AI-driven security solutions will be crucial. In this dynamic environment, fostering collaboration between technology developers and cybersecurity professionals will ensure that the benefits of generative AI are harnessed responsibly, allowing organizations to thrive while minimizing vulnerabilities.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Terry Ray, Data Security CTO and Fellow at Imperva, shares his perspective on how to secure the new frontier with generative AI in 2025 and beyond.

We’ve heard snippets of warnings. Perhaps you can elaborate more on the potential risks associated with the misuse of generative AI among organizations in Asia?
Can you share one or two best practices for assessing the effectiveness of existing security measures against AI-driven attacks?
In Asia, how do you see regulations and compliance requirements evolving concerning generative AI and data security?
For organisations in Asia regardless of size, what remains as key challenges with the rise of AI as a cybersecurity tool to protect against cyberattacks?
What are available options for organisations to ensure the integrity of data used to train generative AI models?
Specific to data protection strategies, what role will generative AI play in incident response plans?
What incident response case studies exist that highlight generative AI threats, and what can we learn from them?
Speaking of phishing, malwares and hyper targeting, what ethical considerations should CIOs and CISOs account for when deploying generative AI in security operations?
How will the adoption of generative AI affect organisations’ overall cybersecurity budget and resource allocation?
Any final thoughts for AI in cybersecurity in 2025?

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CIOs face the challenge of balancing transparency with the competitive edge of proprietary AI models. This requires a strategic approach to communicate AI practices without compromising sensitive algorithms. As global AI regulations evolve, especially in Asia, CIOs must adopt flexible compliance strategies and foster a culture of adherence to both local and international guidelines.

Choosing between custom solutions, vendor partnerships, or off-the-shelf software presents unique pros and cons. Custom solutions offer tailored benefits but require significant investment, while off-the-shelf options provide quick deployment with less flexibility. Regardless of the choice, prioritizing high-quality, unbiased data is essential for ethical AI outcomes. Implementing robust monitoring processes can mitigate biases in AI decisions. To address the talent gap, CIOs should invest in training programs and collaborate with educational institutions, ensuring their organizations possess the necessary skills to navigate the complexities of AI implementation effectively.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Ser Yoong Goh, head of compliance at Advance.ai Group helps us navigate the complex landscape of AI implementation.

How should a CIO/compliance balance the need for transparency with the competitive advantage of proprietary AI models and algorithms?
Given the evolving state of AI regulations and guidelines in Asia and globally, how will CIOs ensure ongoing compliance as the landscape shifts?
Is it better to build custom AI solutions in-house, partner with external vendors, or use off-the-shelf AI software? What are the pros and cons of each approach?
How are/should CIOs ensuring AI models are trained on high-quality, unbiased data that respects user privacy and data rights?
What processes should be in place to monitor for and mitigate unintended biases or errors in AI-driven decisions?
Given the pervading talent crunch/gap, how should CIOs address the need to have the right talent and skills in-house to successfully implement and manage AI systems? What works in terms of acquiring or developing this expertise in-house?
Mel: Can you share your views on AI guardrails?

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As one of the most populous and rapidly developing nations, Indonesia faces unique sustainability challenges, from managing its natural resources to addressing social inequalities. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles have become integral to the country's long-term growth and development strategy, as businesses and policymakers recognize the need to balance economic progress with environmental protection and social responsibility.

At the forefront of this movement are chief financial officers (CFOs), whose role has evolved beyond traditional financial management to encompass strategic decision-making and risk mitigation.

In Indonesia, CFOs are now expected to be sustainability champions, integrating ESG factors into their financial planning and reporting processes. This includes identifying and mitigating ESG-related risks, allocating resources towards sustainable initiatives, and communicating the company's ESG performance to stakeholders.

By aligning financial objectives with sustainability goals, Indonesian CFOs can help their organizations maintain a competitive edge, attract investment, and contribute to the country's broader sustainability agenda.

Joining us today on PodChats for FutureCFO is Yohanes Jeffry Johary, former CFO and now managing director at OCS Indonesia.

Questions:

Is sustainable growth a new initiative (in 2024) or something that has been a priority for many businesses in recent years? How is sustainable growth related to the other priority: cost efficiency?
Do you think the CFO is the best leader to drive the two goals: sustainable growth and cost efficiency? What qualifies a CFO to lead these two goals?
What would be the key metrics (financial and non-financial) that a CFO must focus on to drive sustainable growth and cost efficiencies?
How would CFOs integrate new initiatives like ESG and sustainability while driving positive sustainable growth and improving cost efficiency?
Name one key emerging strategy that CFOs can adopt to drive sustainable growth and cost efficiency in today's rapidly changing business environment?

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The Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2024 highlights four dynamic areas: autonomous AI, developer productivity, total experience, and human-centric security and privacy programs, encompassing 25 groundbreaking technologies.

While some of these innovations are still in their infancy, often lacking proven use cases and the expertise to implement them, they present both a challenge and an opportunity for CIOs and CTOs. The question arises: why should leaders invest their attention and resources in these nascent technologies? And in particular, how should CTOs and CIOs approach these technologies in their quest to drive innovation, growth and profitability?

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Arun Chandrasekaran, Distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner, to share with us his perspectives on the business value of AI and other emerging technologies.

Arun, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Autonomous AI:

Are there specific business processes or functions where autonomous AI could have a significant impact? How do you map this to other efforts like autonomous finance?
Concerns around AI ethics continue to rise (and mature?), can you suggest guidelines that the organisation can use to guide/govern the deployment of autonomous AI systems?

Boosting Developer Productivity:

What tools and practices can CIOs adopt to streamline software development and reduce time-to-market?
How do we balance speed with quality in the development processes, without dropping the security side of DevOps (DevSecOps)?

Total Experience:

5 Do organisations pay attention to partner and employee experience?

Are there any pain points in current interactions that need improvement?

Human-Centric Security and Privacy Programs:

What technologies can enhance an organisation’s security posture while respecting user privacy?
Is it possible to build a security-aware culture across the organisation? How do you ensure this practice is sustainable as organisations through generations of employees, customers and partners?

Any advice for CIOs, CTOs, and CFOs regarding how they should approach these emerging technologies to extract business value?

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When speed is of the essence, budgets are limited, resources are strained, and the risks for failure are high, the collaboration between CFOs and CIOs may spell the difference between growth and profitability, or the end of the road for the company.

As organizations navigate digital transformation and rely heavily on data for decision-making, the partnership between these two roles has the potential to significantly enhance operational efficiency and strategic alignment.

CFOs bring financial acumen and risk management expertise, while CIOs contribute technological insight and innovation. Together, they can leverage technology investments to drive shareholder value, improve data governance, and optimize business processes. This collaboration is essential not only for successful project execution but also for fostering a culture of agility and responsiveness within the organization.

How to make this work sustainably is the subject of this special edition of PodChats for FutureCFO and FutureCIO. Joining us to share his perspective on the topic is Andrew Seow, Regional General Manager, South East Asia and Greater China, Rimini Street.

Looking back, have these personas worked well together in the past? Why or why not?
What is the secret to getting the two personas, each with its own strengths, weaknesses and priorities, working together effectively?
Not all IT projects, including digital transformation, are guaranteed to work the first time every time. How should each leader approach these projects to minimise failures when such becomes inevitable?
If there is a clash, how should the two roles approach the differences to come out with a solution that is mutually beneficial for the two roles and the company as a whole?
Who is the best intermediary when faced with an escalating clash of personas?
Can you list three actions critical to achieving a strong, and lasting, CFO-CIO partnership?
What is your expectations for 2025?

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The National Institute for Standards and Technologies defines cyber resiliency as the ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse conditions, stresses, attacks, or compromises on systems that use or are enabled by cyber resources.

According to the Veeam Ransomware Trends 2024, APJ edition, leaders in the region are increasing their budgets for cyber prevention and detection by 6.3%, while spending on recovering technologies will rise by 6.2%. The figures are double the forecasted IT budget increase of 3.5%, according to Gartner.

As organisations in Asia up their cyber readiness postures, it may be critical to revisit some of the issues, challenges, opportunities and options, that organisations will need to address as they look to improve their cyber resilience.

Beni Sia, general manager and senior vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan at Veeam Software joins us on this edition of PodChats for FutureCISO.

Whose job is cyber resilience? We often hear of breaches. In practice, who is held accountable for failure to achieve cyber resilience?
Give us a state of cyber resilience of enterprises in Asia as of August 2024.
Given the state of awareness around cyber threats (and presumably measures taken to mitigate these risks), where are the top three vulnerability points for most enterprises in Asia?
How are enterprises addressing these vulnerabilities? Is this sufficient?
What can enterprises do better to further lower the cost/risks of attacks like ransomware? Conversely, what are they doing not too well thereby being less effective than on paper?
How can we leverage emerging technologies without introducing new vulnerabilities?
I am aware that cyber resilience, including data resilience, cannot be achieved solely through one’s efforts – that this is a collaborative effort by many, if not all. How can the CISO ensure that they are not introducing new vulnerabilities by engaging with others –
In the digital economy, businesses rely on external partners, parties, regulators, and security experts out there.
Finally coming into 2025, what is your advice for CISOs, and other members of the C-suite and board, to ensure the effectiveness of their strategies, frameworks and practices not just against ransomware, but against all threats both internal and external?

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The convergence of AI and ERP offers the potential to overcome traditional barriers to efficiency and accuracy in financial management, enabling Asian companies to compete more effectively on a global scale.

AI-powered ERP systems can help address regional challenges such as complex regulatory environments, diverse currencies, and rapidly changing market conditions by providing more agile and responsive financial tools.

However, challenges such as data security concerns, the need for specialized AI talent, and cultural adaptation to AI-driven decision-making processes may require careful navigation.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Sunil Wahi, Vice President of APAC Solution Engineering, Applications at Oracle, to talk about Intersection of AI and ERP for Business Success.

How can finance function leverage AI-driven cloud ERP tools to provide timely, strategic insights that drive accurate decision-making in the rapidly evolving Asian markets?
How can we ensure the seamless integration of analytics, machine learning, and AI into the organization's core technology stack while maintaining data integrity and security?
In what ways can finance enhance the organisation’s business resilience against regional disruptions through advanced AI-driven planning and forecasting?
How can finance address the skills gap and cultural challenges associated with implementing AI-powered financial systems in our diverse Asian workforce?
What measures should finance take to ensure compliance with varying regional regulations while leveraging AI for financial reporting and risk management?
How can finance optimize current supply chain and procurement processes using AI-ERP integration, considering the complexities of Asian markets and trade relationships?
What strategies can finance employ to maximize the ROI of our AI-ERP investments?

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As the role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) continues to evolve, the need for a strategic approach to talent management has become increasingly crucial. In today's rapidly changing business landscape, finance leaders must focus on financial performance and ensure their teams are equipped with the skills and mindset to navigate future challenges.

A sustainable talent management strategy is key to building a pipeline of skilled professionals committed to the organization's long-term success. Just what those strategies are is why we are here today.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Vignesh Kannan, vice president, of business process services with the Everest Group.

How real is the talent crunch in the finance function (can you regionalise to Asia)?
Why do we struggle with talent acquisition and retention (particularly post-pandemic)?
What new skills/behaviours will be needed in the finance function? (answer: storytelling)
To what extent will tech, data, and compliance skills impact the talent crunch?
Name a proven strategy to creating a balanced approach in recruiting, onboarding, training and up-skilling finance talent.
Should finance leaders encourage experimentation among finance teams and do so without introducing friction or uncontrolled risks?
Name an effective approach for the finance team to collaborate on finance talent management with HR.
What advice to share for finance leaders/professionals for the coming years?

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McKinsey says artificial intelligence (AI) adoption (globally) increased dramatically in 2024 after years of little meaningful change. Marketsandmarkets forecasts the AI market to reach US$407 billion by 2027, experiencing substantial growth from its estimated US$86.9 billion revenue in 2022. A Forbes Advisory survey reveals that 64% of businesses believe that AI will help increase their overall productivity. Now its all well and good to try out a technology and get it to work in a department or business unit. But scaling it so that a large percentage of your workforce can use the technology effectively and efficiently is another story.

Scaling AI in the workforce involves integrating artificial intelligence technologies to enhance productivity, streamline processes, and create new job roles while addressing potential challenges related to human experience, trust, and job displacement.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Ricky Kapur, head of APAC for Zoom, shares his views on how CIOs can lead their organisations as they scale AI in the workforce.

In Asia, how do you see enterprises, led by the CIO, are arming their workforce with AI-assisted tools to improve productivity and well-being?
What strategies can organizations use to ensure AI integration does not undermine trust and empathy in the workplace?

3. How can businesses address the potential for AI to perpetuate systemic bias in the workforce?

What are some effective methods for fostering a culture of learning when introducing AI tools?
How can companies ensure data privacy while using AI-driven feedback loops for workforce insights?
How can companies balance the benefits of AI with the need to maintain human connections?
Our topic is scaling AI in the workplace. Can you cite a couple of best practices for ensuring properly scaling their AI initiatives? Any pitfalls to avoid?

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IDC predicts by 2025, the cloud will surpass on-premises infrastructure as the primary location where operational data is stored, managed, and analysed for 65% of A2000 organisations.

The rapid growth of data and the increasing complexity of managing it in the age of AI and hybrid cloud environments present significant challenges for organisations. As AI adoption accelerates, enterprises must rethink their data storage, management, and processing strategies to support performance-intensive workloads like generative AI.

Faced with mounting pressures to support growth and profitability, how should CIOs architect their IT strategy so that it is able to adapt to changing market conditions, nearly unpredictable technology innovations, and yet to be ironed out regulations around data privacy, security and ethical practices?

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Matthew Hardman, APAC chief technology officer for Hitachi Vantara, to share with us his views on crafting meaningful data strategies for the AI-native enterprise.

[Setting the scene] Where are Asian enterprises today around data management?
[Data management] How can we streamline data management processes to handle the increasing volume and complexity of data?
[Performance] How are enterprises addressing the need to minimise operational latency while improving data movement in hybrid cloud environments?
[Operations] What’s the right balance between on-premises infrastructure and cloud services?
[Security] How can CIOs ensure data security and compliance across different cloud environments? (multi-public and private plus edge)
[Compliance] Given the difference in national laws relating to data use, how should CIOs prioritize data governance across borders?
[Scalability vs sustainability] What data strategies can we adopt to balance the need for scalability with sustainability goals in our AI and cloud initiatives?
[The future] Given all the unpredictability that lies ahead, ahead suggestion for CIOs?

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Zero trust adoption in Asia has been gaining momentum, albeit with varying levels of progress across the region. While 76% of global organisations have begun implementing zero trust strategies, with 35% claiming full implementation, the Asia Pacific region shows a disparity in adoption rates. Organisations are motivated to adopt zero trust primarily to improve overall security, enhance user experience, and foster cooperation among security teams.

Zero trust segmentation emerges as a viable option for enhancing cybersecurity postures, as it addresses the challenges posed by dissolving network perimeters and the increasing complexity of IT environments.
As Asian companies continue to grapple with cybersecurity challenges in 2024, zero trust segmentation offers a promising approach to fortify their defences against evolving threats.

John Kindervag, chief evangelist at Illumio and creator of the zero trust security model, joins FutureCISO to share his views on the following:

You are credited with creating the concept “zero trust”. What was the inspiration for this?
14 years on, where do you think organisations, regulators and security vendors are as it relates to zero trust?
Let’s go into zero trust segmentation. What is zero trust segmentation?
What are the key challenges CISOs and CIOs face when implementing zero trust segmentation?
What are the potential downsides of over-segmenting a network?
How can zero trust segmentation be integrated with existing cybersecurity frameworks?
Are all segmentation network technologies equal and what questions should CISOs/CIOs/network security teams be looking at to ensure that whatever solution they take is right for their environment?
What is your advice for CISOs/CIOs concerning zero trust and network segmentation?

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The rapid advancement of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has ushered in a new era of technological innovation, offering unprecedented capabilities in content creation, problem-solving, and dare we say decision-making.

However, this transformative technology also presents complex ethical challenges that must be navigated with utmost care and responsibility.

As GenAI systems become increasingly integrated into various aspects of our lives, fostering consumer trust rises in importance. Organizations are thus being asked to prioritize transparency, accountability, and ethical governance to ensure GenAI is developed and deployed in alignment with societal values and expectations.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we cover key topics that are coming to the fore in the race to harness the value of AI technology without losing our humanity in the process.

Proactive measures, such as mitigating biases, protecting user privacy, and engaging diverse stakeholders, are crucial to building public confidence and maintaining the integrity of these powerful technologies.

By embracing ethical principles and establishing robust frameworks, we can harness the immense potential of GenAI while safeguarding the well-being of individuals and communities.

Helping us explore the ethical boundaries of GenAI is Philip Madgwick, Regional Vice President, Asia, Alteryx.

Transparency: How can we ensure transparency in our genAI systems to build trust with consumers?

Data Privacy: What measures are in place to protect consumer data used by genAI technologies?

Bias and Fairness: How do we address potential biases in genAI algorithms to ensure fairness across diverse Asian demographics?

Regulatory Compliance: Are our genAI practices compliant with Asia’s varying data protection and privacy laws?

Ethical Standards: What ethical standards guide the development and deployment of our genAI solutions?

Accountability: Who is accountable for decisions made by genAI systems, and how is this communicated to consumers?

Security Measures: What security measures are implemented to safeguard genAI systems from misuse or malicious attacks?

Cultural Sensitivity: How do we ensure our genAI applications are culturally sensitive and respectful of Asian values?

Innovation vs. Ethics: How do we balance the drive for innovation with ethical considerations in the use of genAI?

Consumer Education: How do we educate consumers about the benefits and risks of genAI?

Finally, what is your advice for enterprises looking to deploy genAI to reduce risk and improve success in adopting/benefiting in the use of the technology?

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Gartner discourse with finance leaders reveal that these very same leaders see a future for finance that is digital, scalable and data-rich. At FutureCFO conferences around Asia, a common thread keeps coming up in discussions about digital transformation, delivering value and becoming partners to the business – the importance of upskilling finance teams. Gartner says CFOs must redefine the digital function to attract and retain the next generation of finance talent.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Ms Giselle Arellano-Geronimo, Vice President, Head of Finance Accounting & Procurement at Shearwater Health.

In reviewing today’s finance teams via-s-via an organisation’s digital transformation and the call for finance to enhance its value to the organisation and its shareholders, in your view what areas do finance professionals do well today?

a. What are the key skills that our finance team needs to develop to better understand and drive business value?

How can we leverage AI and other advanced technologies to enhance the team’s financial analysis and decision-making processes?
How can we identify and address skill gaps within our finance department to ensure we have the necessary capabilities?
What strategies can we implement to ensure that our upskilling efforts align with our overall business strategy and goals?
How can we foster collaboration between finance and other business functions to maximize the value derived from upskilling?

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The proliferation of synthetic identities, which are fabricated identities created by combining real and fictitious personal information, has fuelled a surge in fraud across various industries. These synthetic identities are often used to open fraudulent accounts, obtain credit or loans, and engage in other illicit activities. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has exacerbated this issue, enabling criminals to generate highly realistic fake identities with ease, including fabricated names, addresses, and even biometric data like facial images and voice recordings.

Organizations must adopt advanced techniques, such as behavioural analytics and biometric authentication, to detect and prevent synthetic identity fraud effectively. Failure to address this threat could result in substantial financial losses, damage to reputation, and erosion of customer trust.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Johan Fantenberg, Principal Solutions Architect, APJ, Ping Identity, to walk us through what synthetic identity is, how it is evolving with AI assistance, and measures CISOs can implement to counter the rising threat.

What are synthetic identities, how are they created, and who (businesses/industries) are threatened most by these?
Given all the experiences against fraud, all the technologies available today including AI-driven identity management solutions, and measures like AML/KYC, why should synthetic identities remain a concern for enterprises?
Why is it challenging to detect synthetic identities during the account creation process?
How can an organisation protect against synthetic identities created through the combination of legitimate and fake data?
How can behavioural assessment and bot detection techniques be used to identify and prevent synthetic identity fraud?
Who should be in charge of strategies to combat the threat of synthetic identity?

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For years, we’ve been told that consumer behaviour is changing and that businesses must adopt or go out of business. PwC says the pandemic accelerated workforce transformation even as digital adoption became one of the central tenets of our lives.

Fast forward to 2024, we see a workforce that demands empowerment from their employers. Talent has reached new levels of mobility and workers know this.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, we look at how technology is reshaping the workforce, and in particular those at the frontlines. To give clarity on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, we are joined by Steven Kramer, CEO and Co-founder, WorkJam.

Define for us frontline workforce?
How has this frontline workforce evolved from before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and now post-pandemic?
WorkJam worked with Forrester on a study in 2023 that revealed digital transformation initiatives were not reaching the frontlines. Can you elaborate more on the research findings?
What are the true business costs/ consequences of poor frontline employee experience (EX) to businesses, particularly in industries like retail, healthcare, manufacturing and logistics?
What tends to be the characteristics of organisations that have more mature digital frontline practices versus those that have low awareness or maturity? Can you highlight industries, particularly in the Asia Pacific region that has higher or lower maturity?
The Forrester study was done from late 2022 to 2023, what has changed since then? What are the main drivers for the digital transformation of the frontlines today?

a. What impedes companies’ adoption of frontline operationalization technologies?

What is the number one motivation for companies to invest in employee communication, scheduling, task management and learning?
What are some of the tangible business benefits (top and bottom lines) for customers/employees? (Dollars and Hearts)
Who should drive this frontline transformation?
What are your thoughts about AI and its use in technologies for the frontline?
What is your advice for organisations that want to put frontline transformation as an imperative? In addition to the CEO driving this, how should the organisation come together to make it happen?

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The Singapore Parliament passed the Cybersecurity (Amendment) Bill (the Bill) on 7 May 2024, amending the Cybersecurity Act 2018 (the Act). The Act is Singapore’s legal framework for the supervision and maintenance of national cybersecurity by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), setting out measures to prevent, manage and respond to cybersecurity threats and incidents, and the Bill seeks to extend the scope of the Act over new technologies and business models that have emerged over the past few years.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Gaurav Keerthi, head of Advisory and Emerging Business at Ensign InfoSecurity, shares his views on what the amendment bill means to organizations in Singapore, and perhaps to those that operate in the ASEAN region.

Can you give us a background of the CSA-proposed Cybersecurity Amendment Bill? What are the main regulatory changes proposed and new requirements?
What will be the projected effects (both positive and negative) of this new law on Singapore enterprises? [Singapore CCOP]
Outside of the banking and financial services industry who follow stringent cybersecurity regulations, what kind of enterprises (type of businesses) will be most affected by such regulatory changes?
Speaking of compliance, what steps can enterprises take to comply with new requirements and regulations? To what extent will the amendments require changes in how organisations currently cybersecurity practices?
Singapore has led the ASEAN region when it comes to cybersecurity readiness. How do you see these developments in Singapore influencing other regulators in ASEAN?
Finally, what is your advice for CISOs and CIOs as it relates to processing cybersecurity regulations in the years to come?

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Gartner predicts more than 70% of government agencies will use AI to enhance human administrative decision making by 2026. Machine learning, analytics and generative AI will mature over the next two years and combine into a suite of tools that will support improved government service delivery.

Gartner VP analyst Todd Kimbriel says government CIOs must find new ways to meet citizen demands for modern, accessible and resilient services, by focusing on sustainable and scalable technology.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Keith Nelson, senior industry strategist for the public sector at OpenText, to share us his views on how to put the smart in government services.

What is Artificial Intelligence in the context of government/public services?
Name some use cases among early adopters of AI in the government/public sector.
What will be the primary challenges of government CIOs in the AI adoption journey?
Some governments (in Asia and around the world) are drafting AI governance frameworks. Can you name three best-in-class frameworks to date?
Gartner’s Dean Lacheca says “a lack of empathy in service delivery and a failure to meet community expectations will undermine public acceptance of GenAI’s use in citizen-facing services.” Do you agree or disagree with this assessment? How should governments go about addressing this?
In the AI adoption journey, should governments focus on deploying AI on backend processes first or citizen services?
What is your advice for government CIOs as they look to adapt/adopt AI-centric solutions and practices in the delivery of government services?

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Despite early apprehensions about an economic recovery in 2024, we continue to see continued investments in digital transformation initiatives by the financial services sector in Asia. We continue to see digital services rising on the back of maturing understanding and adoption of technologies like analytics, cloud and mobility. Targeted outcomes continue to be efficiencies, convenience and accessibility.

However, some innovations like artificial intelligence and even digitalization bring with them new risks in areas like cybersecurity, operational resilience and ethics.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Joseph Lo, Head of Enterprise Platforms at Broadridge, who will share his views on what he sees are key financial services transformation trends in Asia in 2024.

Give us a state of the financial services industry (FSI) in Asia today? To what extent has digital transformation become the norm for these?
How are FSIs balancing the aspiration to go digital against the need to deepen customer connection?
As banks evolve (and mature in their use of technology), some risks get amplified. How are banks addressing the risks that come as a result of going digital/modernization?
The FSI is one of the most regulated sectors. How do FSIs push the boundaries of innovation using emerging technologies like AI while recognizing that any new innovation needs to be aligned with regulation.

5. Speaking of technology, there is genuine interest in adopting new technologies like AI. How should FSIs, particularly those with legacy systems and technologies in place, safely address the issue of integrating new technologies with legacy ones, while minimizing any potential disruption?

In recent years, we’ve seen a spate of disruptions at major banks in Asia. A number of these due in part to technology and/or process issues. Are systems and processes today so complex, they are leading to unplanned disruptions? What can be done to minimize/mitigate these?
What do you see will be key issues and trends that CIOs need to be aware of in 2024 and beyond?

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The CIMA Foundation says “disaster don’t discriminate, but people do”. The journey to gender parity remains obstructed by a myriad of factors including culture, bias, misconceptions and attitudes. But if the Paris 2024 Olympics is any indication of the possibility, we may have hope that someday, there will be parity between the genders across the finance function, if not the rest of the enterprise, all the way to the C-suite and the Board.

The 2024 International Women’s Day theme of inclusion may be an appropriate starting point in the journey towards parity. Joining us on PodChats for FutureCFO is Marisa Azman, regional chief financial officer for ENGIE South East Asia, for her perspective on the topic.

Looking at the finance function today, how have women participation across the function evolved?

a. What are the three most common barriers faced by women in corporate finance?

Is gender diversity a real cause for concern in the finance function?
In which areas are women least visible/prominent and why? (unconscious bias)
Our topic is Filling the Gender Gap. In your experience where are women finance leaders excelling, and how should these successful professionals hone the next generation of women professional leaders?
Can you share an inspirational story of a woman leader in finance?
Going forward, how can/should organisations measure progress towards gender equality?

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The accelerated digitalisation of business processes arising from the pandemic of 2020-2022 has proven that humans are resilient, responsive and creative when the situation calls for it. In ASEAN, 8 out of 10 members are in some stage of implementing a national ID program.

How will these developments, on top of developments around identity security, and AI in security among other things.

In recognition of Identity Management Day, FutureCISO spoke to Chern-Yue Boey, senior vice president, Asia-Pacific, SailPoint, on the latest trends impacting identity management strategies in 2024.

What is identity management? (identity security)

a. Why is identity management important to organisations, and to security professionals?

In recent years, how have organisations evolved in their adoption of identity management?
In your opinion, what factors influenced how organisations adopt identity management?
Speaking of looking back, what were the three most important challenges organisations faced in keeping their identity management strategies/practices in step with changing regulations, practices and technologies?
(Speaking of what we don’t know or know little of) With AI now making its influence felt across many parts of the organisation, how should security professionals revisit identity management strategies to reflect the growing influence of AI?
What is your advice/view on how security professionals should bring AI into the cybersecurity practice in 2024 (and beyond)?

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A Gartner 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey revealed that even before ChatGPT, one-third of CIOs say their organization had already deployed artificial intelligence(AI) technologies, and 15% more believe they will deploy AI within the next year.

Recognising the high expectations CEOs and business unit leaders have on AI puts a heavier burden on the CIO to manage expectations and the reality of integrating an emerging technology into existing operational processes – ensuring that in the interim nothing is disrupted and the company remains compliant with existing regulations.

But deciding how best to proceed means factoring AI into business value, risk, talent and investment priorities? In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Simon Ma, senior director & regional manager for ASEAN at Freshworks, offers his take on how CIOs can best manage AI deployment across the enterprise.

What is your assessment of AI adoption in ASEAN in 2024?
As I understand it, business leaders are expecting much from AI. How should CIOs respond to this perhaps hype-driven expectation of the technology?
In ASEAN, what are the most challenging aspects CIOs will face as they put in place (and execute) their AI roadmap?
Any recommendation for how to integrate AI into existing technologies? And scale AI where it is deemed most impactful?
Speaking of change, given the current worker concerns about AI potentially replacing jobs, any suggestions for how CIOs, HR and functional leaders ensure adoption of AI?
Every new technology will likely have areas of hiccups, including AI adoption. Any suggestions on how to respond to such hiccups?
Looking ahead, beyond the AI hype, what are the trends for CIOs to prioritize in 2024?

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PodChats for FutureCIO: Fast tracking the people side of doing business in Asia

Finding and retaining talent poses significant challenges and opportunities in Asia and around the world. One of the main challenges is the increasing competition for skilled professionals in the global job market. As economies grow and industries evolve, the demand for highly qualified candidates often exceeds the available supply. This talent shortage can make it difficult for companies to find, attract and retain the right talent for their specific needs. Additionally, cultural and language barriers, as well as differences in labour laws and regulations, can further complicate talent acquisition and management processes.

These challenges present opportunities for companies to explore innovative solutions such as the Employer of Record (EOR) model. An Employer of Record is a service provider that acts as the legal employer of workers on behalf of client companies. This model can help organizations fulfill their talent needs anywhere in the world by leveraging the EOR's expertise in navigating local labor markets, compliance requirements, and administrative tasks. By partnering with an EOR, companies can access a global talent pool, streamline their hiring processes, and ensure compliance with local employment laws. This not only expands their reach but also enables them to focus on core business activities while leaving the complexities of HR and employment administration to the EOR. Ultimately, the Employer of Record model offers a flexible and efficient solution to finding and retaining talent on a global scale.

Jim McCoy, CEO of Atlas HXM reveals the nuissances organisations will face in the quest to acquire the right talent anywhere in the world, and how EORs like Atlas fill those needs.

How would you typify or describe the international expansion activities of APAC companies? Are there any distinct trends that you can observe in markets like Hong Kong, China, or Singapore?
In terms of challenges. So for enterprises that are on expansion mode, whether global or regional, there's almost always a shortage, crunch in skilled people. With the hybrid work environment, has it complicated the model of acquiring or are using an organization such as yours, the EOR, to fill in the roles that they need?
In terms of similarities, or differences in how enterprises in markets like, like Hong Kong, or Singapore, or the less developed markets, like Malaysia, for example, as they start to look at these expansion strategies that they have, are there any unique elements, traits that you're noticing that are unique in the sense that it's unique to Asia, or it's the doesn't matter whether it's a European company trying to expand even within the same region?
Are there any emerging risks that as an organization, Atlas, encounters these days, as you try and employ become as you already are for other organs for your clients, that you're observing in the market now?
On technology – you mentioned automation, partly to help with the process, but you still need to have the human interface in there. These days, there's a lot of chatter around AI, for example. And of course, automation is starting to mature a little bit in software automation. What technologies have you observed are becoming more prominent in us as augmenting IE or supporting your atlases business, globally oriented?
When you onboard a new client or new customer, what's the most challenging aspect of onboarding a new client to the Atlas way of doing business?
So you said, if you have a large multinational customer, client that's expanding the market. And they have existing systems and processes in place where in terms of talent management, and it doesn't sync very well with the way you've set up? How do you negotiate or make the two compatible?
what's your biggest challenge these days? As you know

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In Asia, the importance of inclusion in enhancing customer experience cannot be overstated. With its diverse population comprising various ethnicities, cultures, languages, and traditions, creating an inclusive environment is crucial for businesses to effectively cater to their customers' needs and preferences.

By embracing diversity and fostering inclusion, companies can better understand the unique perspectives and requirements of their customers, leading to more personalized and tailored products and services.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we look at how inclusive practices play a significant role in building trust and loyalty among customers in Asia. And how by incorporating inclusive strategies in their operations, businesses can tap into new market segments and reach a wider customer base.

Ultimately, prioritizing inclusion not only enhances the overall customer experience but also contributes to the long-term success and sustainability of businesses in the diverse and dynamic market landscape of Asia.

Joining us on PodChats for FutureCIO is Ms Jacqueline Guichelaar, SVP & GM, Customer Experience, APJ & GC, Cisco.

The IWD2024 theme is inclusion. How would you relate “customer experience” and inclusion?
Specific to IWD2024, to what extent does this sense of belonging, relevance and empowerment exist in your organisation? In your role? In the society/community you live in?
What is the most prevalent obstacle to inclusion (narrowing to CX)?
Drawing from your experience, what can learn in terms of achieving inclusion (narrowing to CX)?

5. Your role has two faces: internal (marshalling your team) and external (customers and partners) How will you inspire inclusion (in your function/in the enterprise)?

How do you plan to elevate your commitment to inspiring inclusion?

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KPMG asserts that with all the focus around modernization and/or transformation over the last few years, there is growing recognition that perhaps employees are feeling exhausted. They’re facing one modernizing initiative after another—or multiple initiatives simultaneously—often with competing timelines and priorities.

This is known as digital transformation fatigue, and it’s a growing trend as companies grapple to keep pace with constant change.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Peter Man, General Manager, Red Hat Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, to get his perspective on overcoming digital transformation fatigue.

Why are we seeing digital transformation (DX) fatigue?
What are the signs and symptoms of DX fatigue?
What are the most common causes of DX fatigue?
Name some proven metrics for identifying and measuring DX fatigue particularly on employee morale and productivity?
Name three strategies to prevent or minimize DX fatigue in the workplace?
Speaking of leaders, what role does leadership play in addressing this DX fatigue?

7. Insert Melinda question here

Into 2024, we anticipate continued acceleration, if not updating, what steps do you recommend leadership implement to counter the development of DX fatigue?

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IDC predicts that in 2024, 50% of APAC cities and states will pilot GenAI to improve efficacy in community outreach and customer service, procurement, staff recruitment and training, and software development.

The latest IDC FutureScape report predicts that AI and automation technologies will remain central to tech investment initiatives.

According to Dr Lily Phan, Research Director, Intelligent Automation at IDC Asia/Pacific AI is needed to lower operational costs, reduce staffing pressure, revamp end-user experience, and democratize decision-making power. The adaptability and efficiency offered by AI and automation solutions can provide the technologies that can mitigate staff shortage and economic challenges," she added.

With AI hype still high, Asia-Pacific businesses that are dipping their finder into the technology, they must ask themselves: how do they move beyond experiments and unlock real business value with AI?

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by David Irecki, director of solutions consulting for APJ with Boomi, to share with us his views on the “secret path” to practical AI.

What is the problem that organisations will face as they implement AI?
What do we mean by “practical AI”?
Can we use this practical approach generative AI to accelerate current digital transformation initiatives?
What happens when an organisation is integrating AI into their transformation journey only to realise it's not as easy as marketing makes it out to be?
Looking ahead, what key considerations should businesses prioritize to "future-proof" their AI initiatives and remain competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape?
This 2024, what are your expectations around AI including how it is evolving, and the approaches organisations are taking to operationalise the technology into current and evolving business processes?

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A GitHub report on the growth and impact of AI on software development, including claims pf a 55% faster coding when using an AI-assisted automation tool. GitClear published a separate report to determine how AI Assistants influence the quality of code being written.

Just as important, as development teams start to include automation tools in the development cycle, how can they maintain control over the quality of the software, including keeping code secure.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Kelvin Lim, Senior Director of Security Engineering, Synopsys, to talk about navigating the complexities of AI-generated code.

Give us the state of in-house software development today.
How is software development evolving in response to the rise in AI-generated code?
What are the primary security vulnerabilities inherent in AI-generated code?
What are the key considerations that teams/organisations should consider when integrating AI-generated code into their software?
How will AI-generated code impact DevSecOp cycle? (report Stanford 2022 – development teams code written by GenAI is less secure)
Given the rapid pace of tech innovation, what do you anticipate in the future evolution of GenAI and its implications for software development practices?
Ask Mel – data poisoning impact AI code generation.
What is your advise for use of Gen AI?

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Mordor Intelligence estimates the Asia-Pacific data centre market at around 14.27 thousand MW in 2024, predicting it to reach 23.20 thousand MW by 2029. JLL projects continued increase in rank density particularly among hyperscalers in response the growing demand for computational power.

With sustainability and climate change high on the agenda for many businesses, a multi-prong challenge of data centres is meeting customers’ net zero emissions goals, and their own targets. What can data centre operators do to save energy while keeping equipment operating on optimum environments?

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Terry Miaolo, VP & GM, APAC, OVHcloud, to talk about operational strategies to meet sustainable data centres.

Please give us a State of the Data Centre in Asia today.
Focusing specifically on the operational aspects of data centres, what are the key environmental issues that all data centre operators must overcome?
We’ve seen Governments in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and almost everywhere around the region, including Australia, proposing, if not accelerating national AI strategies. For data centre operators, particularly in Asia, how are they responding to this demand? At the same time, how do you see them fine-tuning their operations so that they can remain on point when it comes to their own net zero emissions targets?
For data centre operators and hyperscalers, what is your recommendation for them to stay ahead, and on course around sustainability practices, while at the same time supporting new business needs and new opportunities such as AI?
What does OVHcloud bring to the table?
For data centres wanting to be more sustainable, what can be their first practical step towards their sustainability journey?
Since we're talking about data centres, the ability to operate them more efficiently and all that, anything that you think we should include?
With the proliferation of new data centres to meet the demands, introduced by a greater need for AI and sustainable operations, what's your forecast like for the data centre market? What will it look like in 2024 and going ahead?

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126 business emails (per person) go out daily or 124.5 billion work emails get sent and received every day. The Email Statistics Report of Radicati Group claims that customers are most likely interested in interacting with a brand from the email notifications they receive from brands instead of using email as an interpersonal communication tool, showing value in emails outside of the usual open and reply rates.

At 62.86%, email remains the preferred communication channel among businesses. According to Statista, people check their work emails 172 minutes a day while Harvard Business Review claims professionals check their emails an average of 15 times a day.

With so much information, undoubtedly, many business-critical and with the proliferation of tools to illegally tap or hack those messages, how are companies such critical assets?

In today’s PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Robert Holmes, group VP of sender security and authentication at Proofpoint to talk about once such approach to protecting such assets.

In the context of today’s business environment, what is a DMARC? It sounds very technical. What does it mean for the non-technical expert? Why should they care?
In your view, what is the percentage of emails currently using this DMARC protocol?
How do we prepare for this evolving digital landscape?
When it comes to emails, who is in charge of border controls?
Is incorporating DMARC going to be an expansive initiative?
With AI a force for good and bad, can we rely on DMARC alone to protect email?
What is your message to technology, security and business leaders in 2024?

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Artificial Intelligence continues to drive discussions across the enterprise. From the Board down to the workforce. C-suites are being asked to drive not just the discussion but strategies on how to best tap the technology before the competition does.

Gartner warns that AI poses unique challenges for governance that must be directly addressed to mitigate risks and take advantage of opportunities. How are organizations developing AI governance frameworks, and what benefits and challenges have they experienced around AI governance?

To give us greater clarity on how organisations can safely tap AI now and into the future, we are joined by Ms Heather Gentile, Executive Director of Product watsonx.governance, IBM DATA AND AI.

What is AI governance?
What has given rise to AI governance?
What is involved/included in AI governance?
Who should be involved in drafting/managing an organisation's AI governance strategy?
Are all AI governance approaches equal? (i.e., can enterprise use the same template to build their AI governance?
What are the critical components of an enterprise-grade AI governance?
Can you cite notable learnings for C-suite leaders and the Board in the pursuit of an AI governance strategy?
Where does AI ethics fit into an organisation’s AI governance strategy?
Can you elaborate on the urgency to build an AI governance framework?
What does IBM bring to the table when it comes to AI governance?
How would an organisation approach vendors, like IBM, to better plan and manage their AI governance strategy?
What is your advice for C-suite leaders when it comes to AI governance into 2024?

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From the greek word authentikos, authentication, the act of verifying an identity, continues to evolved. Depending on the context, authentication might involve validating a person’s identity through identity documents, verifying the authenticity of a website with a digital certificate or determining the age of an artefact by carbon dating or ensuring a product is genuine.

For decades passwords have been the most popular mode of authentication when accessing computing resources including applications and data. However, in recent years, its effectiveness has been called into question given its susceptibility to phishing, brute-force attacks and insider threats.

Today, it is widely recognised that passwords, even the use of multifactor authentication, alone are not enough to secure users, networks and systems.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Johan Fantenberg, Principal Solutions Architect, APJ, Ping Identity, to talk about how technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence maybe be influencing the evolution of authentication.

Johan, welcome to PodChats for FutureCISO.

What are the different types of authentication that have a potential to displace or augment current password methods?
Set a baseline: What is passwordless?
What are the challenges with going passwordless?
How do you address concerns about the feasibility and practicality of implementing passwordless security solutions across different industries and sectors?
Is there a role for AI in the passwordless security marketplace?
How should CISOs incorporate AI-embedded practices and technologies to enhance their security posture?
Can you cite examples of passwordless authentication?
You mentioned FIDO 2 Alliance early on.
Cost of deploying passwordless authentication technology.
Looking ahead, what trends do you foresee shaping the future of cybersecurity, particularly in the realm of authentication and access management?

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It can be argued that business leaders and organisations face major shifts in the workplace, not the least of which are inflationary pressure on both employer and employee budgets, increased tension over return-to-office mandates, shifting legal and societal landscape concerning DEI initiatives, as well as the impact of client change.

On the topic of sustainability, Gartner says in 2024 organizations will begin to highlight and promote direct climate change protections as a key part of their benefit offerings. Just how will organisations address the concerns of employees while complying with shifting regulations around sustainable business practices, as well as execute and sustain their own net-zero strategies?

Can we finally harness the data we are collecting about employees, customers, business partners, and government regulations to create an environment that is supportive of everyone’s interests?

Joining us today on PodChats for FutureIoT is Haran Shivanan, CEO of iviva.

Describe the modern workplace in the digital present (post-pandemic).
The concept of a more efficient, more user-friendly work environment has been around for years. What is different about the situation facing employers and employees today?
How do you see sustainability and commitments to net zero impact how businesses plan and operate their work environments?
How can landlords and building operators support tenants’ sustainability objectives?
Property consultant Knight Frank says 2024 will continue to favour tenants as companies prioritise optimising space. What is your advice for landlords and building operators?
What questions to ask when evaluating the technology/solutions towards achieving?

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The WEF Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2024 reveals a divide between those who are resilient and those who aren’t. Emerging technologies will only widen this gap. Vivek Gullapalli, global CISO for APAC at Check Point Software Technologies opines that in the digital world, most “everything is highly interconnected, with the seemingly singular exception of cyber security, which remains locked in isolation, and bridging this gap will be critical to business success.

In this PodChat for FutureCISO, Check Point Software Technologies’ president for APJ, Sharat Sinha, summarises the region’s cybersecurity landscape, its leaders’ concerns and some options for moving forward.

How has cybersecurity in Asia evolved since the end of the pandemic?
As I understand it, cybersecurity is now an all-of-enterprise concern. And yet, different personas view their involvement and responsibility differently. Among leading organisations in Asia, what is the best practice when it comes to ensuring participation in cybersecurity matters?
Given the increased concern around escalating costs (particularly in the use of cloud and now AI), how should CISOs work with CIOs and CFOs to better manage the rising cost of cybersecurity?
Given the many options and pathways to securing the business, what is your advice for CISOs and Boards looking at their cybersecurity options in 2024 and beyond?

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A 2023 Deep Instinct report claims that the increased adoption of emerging technologies like generative AI is a cause for concern among cybersecurity professionals with 46% concerned that AI will increase their organisation’s vulnerability to attacks.

Stress levels are also increased among 55% of respondents to the study, with 86% of respondents who have experienced an increase in attacks over the past 12 months attributing the attacks to the use of generative AI.

To help understand how CISOs and SOC leaders can raise the level of efficiency through insights, we are joined by Nick Lim, VP of APAC for Tanium.

In your view, what are the hurdles to SecOps efficiency?
Do you see AI (identify which AI variant) can improve SecOps efficiency? Briefly describe how.
How does an organisation integrate AI into SecOps without adding further risks with the runaway use of AI tools like GenAI?
What are the top 3 areas to consider before bringing AI into SecOps?
Summing it up? How do you see AI transforming SecOps?

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Securing IoT in the enterprise is complex because of the varying of IoT devices and their diversity in form, function and purpose. While some IoT devices like smart devices may have some form of memory and computing, therefore operating system, others like sensors and telemetry modules merely capture data and pass this to other technologies in the workflow.

It is this diversity of form, function and technology, and the proliferation of multiple standards or protocols that has limited the ability of IT and security teams to integrate the security of IoT technologies into the enterprise.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is the convergence of connectivity and security helping organizations to achieve a consistent security posture by implementing a decentralised concept where security is provided directly at the source, with the management of all involved components done in the cloud.

SASE promises to bring IoT into the security framework of the organisation. Amit Bareket, VP for Secure Service Edge at Check Point explains the possibility in the following dialogue with FutureIoT.

What are the top challenges faced in OT security in 2024?
What are the key components of OT security?
Should OT security be outsourced? (not sure if relevant to the overall story)
For a long time, the security of operational technology has been kept out of the IT’s portfolio. Given the recent rise in attacks against critical and industrial systems, do you see a convergence of IT and OT security and who will lead the charge?
How does IoT fit into SASE (and vice versa)?

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The Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2024 paints a grim picture: there is a growing inequity between cyber-resilient organisations and those that are not. Among 120 executives attending the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting on cybersecurity, fewer than one in 10 respondents believe that in the next two years, generative AI will give an advantage to defenders over attackers.

It doesn’t help that cyber-skills and talent shortages continue to widen, with 52% of public organisations citing this lack of talent and resources as the biggest challenge when designing for cyber resilience.

In the race to develop the next generation of tools and techniques, FutureCISO spoke to Gil Shwed, founder and CEO, of Check Point Software Technologies, for his thoughts on the next evolution of cybersecurity.

In your view, what are the three biggest developments in cybersecurity in 2024?
How will these developments impact cybersecurity practice and profession in the years ahead?
With the maturing of AI, is it time to practice offensive cybersecurity?

a. How will this offensive strategy impact the CISO’s team in the performance of their duties?

There is an expectation that AI will be embedded in many of the critical business applications. How will this impact SecOps? Any suggestions for CIOs and CISOs to ready their respective teams for this inevitability?

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While the underrepresentation of women in cybersecurity is starting to improve – 20% in 2019 compared to 10% in 2013, that trend isn’t translating in the higher echelons of cybersecurity power. An Altrata report estimates that only 16% of CISOs are women.

FutureCISO spoke to Rupal Hollenbeck, president of Check Point Software Technologies, on the long road for women in cybersecurity.

What is your view of women representation in the cybersecurity space?
Estimates put women professionals in cybersecurity at 24%. What is driving this inequality in representation in the cybersecurity space?
What needs to happen to encourage greater participation of women in the cybersecurity space?
For women aspiring to enter the security space, what characteristics must they hone, qualifications do they need to build?
What personal risks should those interested in pursuing a CISO career keep in mind?
Any advice for those interested in pursuing a career in cybersecurity?

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In 2023, the desire to benefit from tech-driven innovation got a boost in the arm, thanks to the perceived potential of emerging AI technologies. Arguably one of the most talked about tech in 2023 was artificial intelligence, specifically Generative AI.

Forrester predicts that enterprise AI initiatives will boost productivity and creative problem-solving by 50% in 2024, and the benefits promised cut across all functions in the organisation, including operations, marketing and sales, customer service, finance and of course IT.

But exactly how these functions will benefit from Gen AI will likely depend on how well the technology is understood, what types of use cases are adopted, and how well employees embrace the enterprise applications that will eventually be deployed.

What is clear is that the Gen AI honeymoon is fast nearing its end as C-suite leaders get a better handle on the risks that come with unbridled use of the technology.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Leslie Joseph, a principal analyst at Forrester, answers some of the most perplexing questions that GenAI brings to the table.

What do most organisations in Asia, and its leaders, understand when it comes to generative AI?

a. How would you compare how leadership and the rest of the company feel about GenAI?

Some contend that GenAI has the potential to democratise data analytics? Can you elaborate on this?
GenAI is still relevant young. How do you see hardware, software and solutions evolving as AI and ML techniques mature?

a. Is the infrastructure of today ready to support the evolving AI technologies?

What measures/safeguards are needed to ensure responsible use of GenAI? (Level 100?)
Do you see GenAI leading to IT team burnout?
What is the future of GenAI? How do you see it driving the future?

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Mary Johnston Turner, research vice president for the Future of Digital Infrastructure — Agenda at IDC says the majority of organizations globally expect to rely on interconnected, hybrid, and multi-cloud strategies for digital infrastructure in the coming years.

In Asia, we are already observing the hosting of business applications and data in the cloud becoming the norm for many organisations. As the trend continues, these same organisations will have to decide whether they can continue to run applications originally designed to run on traditional on-premises infrastructure or to optimise these to run in the cloud.

Gartner defines cloud-native as something created to optimally leverage or implement cloud characteristics. Such applications share the same cloud characteristics including scalability and elasticity, shared, metered by use, service-based, and ubiquitous because they are built from the ground up as internet technologies.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we delve deeper into the value proposition of cloud-native initiatives, why organisations pursue this and how they do so cost-effectively when the mandate is to continue operating a hybrid environment.

Helping us to shed light on key considerations for C-suite leaders on the topic is Vishal Ghariwala, Senior Director and CTO, Asia Pacific, SUSE.

Define for us what SUSE means by cloud-native initiatives.
Given that the observable trend in APAC is to take the hybrid approach, why would an enterprise pursue cloud-native initiatives?
What strategies can IT leaders employ to foster innovation amidst a highly distributed and heterogeneous Cloud Native IT landscape?
A Forrester-HashiCorp study revealed that in Asia Pacific organisations find a shortage of cloud skills, as a major barrier to pursuing multi-cloud strategies.

a. Is this IT talent shortage real in Asia?

b. Within the realm of mission-critical, end-to-end cloud-native architecture, what are the issues CIOs/HRs leaders find as a struggle in identifying, recruiting and retaining these particular talents?

With technology evolving rapidly, how can IT leaders boost the interoperability and adaptability of their cloud-native solutions?
In light of rising security breaches, what can IT leaders do to enhance the security of their cloud-native solutions?
It's 2024, what are your top 3 recommendations for how C-Suite leaders can unlock the value of Cloud-Native initiatives?

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In 2019, Singapore announced a national blueprint that would direct the use of AI to transform the economy.

The government reports that since then 150 teams have been working on research and development, and 900 startups are exploring new ideas with AI.

In December 2023, the government followed it with version 2 with a central theme of “AI for the Public Good, for Singapore and the World.”

To help us understand what this means for businesses in Singapore, we are pleased to have with us Lian Jye Su, chief analyst with Omdia.

Briefly describe for us what is the overall aim of Singapore’s National AI strategy.

a. The NAIS 1.0 was launched in 2019 to establish Singapore as a leader in developing and deploying scalable, impactful AI solutions, in key sectors of high value and relevance to our citizens and businesses by 2030. How have things changed since then?

For business leaders, what are the opportunities this NAIS present to the industry and the company?
For the CIO, how active should he or she be involved in crafting architectures and roadmaps that would support/enable the organisation’s interpretation of the NAIS?

a. What are the challenges that CIOs must raise to the C-suite and Board as it relates to rising up to the call to support Singapore’s NAIS?

Given the level of interest that business leaders in Asia/Singapore have on AI, what questions should the CIO be asking to (a) themselves; and (b) to the board/C-suite that will help guide the AI deployment for the company?
What can other economies from Singapore’s approach to becoming an AI hub?
Many emerging technologies take time to get adopted. However, what is maybe unique with AI is that it is fast evolving. How should CIOs architect an AI strategy where the technology is evolving probably faster than the use cases can be identified, tested and integrated into existing systems?

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For decades custom applications were the norm. It allowed organisations to create applications that were designed to the very minute requirements of the business. Of course, the downside is that these applications require more time to build, most likely more expensive to maintain, have questionable transparency practices being applied, and someday run the risk of the original developers no longer being around to maintain them.

With the growing popularity of citizen developers using low-code or no-code platforms, is there a value for custom applications?

Joining us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Ankit Gupta, practice director at the Everest Group, to shed light on the future of custom applications.

Define for us what we mean by custom applications.
Custom application/coding has decades of practice, particularly during the heady days of mainframes and monoliths. How has it evolved during the era of SaaS and cloud computing?
To what extent do business leaders require IT to continue with custom development (to cater to the perceived uniqueness of business processes) vs using SaaS solutions?
How will standardising on SaaS impact the application team?
What will the adoption of low-code/no-code – the democratisation of programming – mean for the future of application development?
How do you see AI impacting application development?
Do we still need custom applications in 2024? What conditions?

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Generative AI may have hijacked its top strategic predictions for 2024, but Gartner says CEOs must empower a single responsible executive, such as the CISO, to tackle the challenge of misinformation across the organization. By 2027, 45% of CISOs’ remits will expand beyond cybersecurity, due to increasing regulatory pressure and attack surface expansion.

Silvia Ihensekhien, the director of information security and risk management at Swire Coca-Cola, discusses the strategic imperatives for CISOs in 2024.

What cybersecurity strategy has proven to be most effective in 2023?
What is the single most significant learning (for you) in 2023?
As a cybersecurity professional, name one thing that keeps you awake at night.
As a cybersecurity professional, what are your top 3 tips/recommendations for staying relevant in your role as viewed from the perspective of (a) your peers; (b) the company; and (c) the industry?
As a cybersecurity professional, which technology is your biggest concern this 2024 (as it relates to cybersecurity)?
What do you see will be the top 3 challenges of the CISO/cybersecurity profession in 2024?

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Fragmentation, uncertainty and volatility are constants. Anywhere you go in Asia (and the world) these are the same constraints that businesses and their leaders face in the race to remain of value to customers, partners, shareholders and employees.

As we begin the new year, how will the constants of 2024 redefine the environment that CFOs, the finance team, and the rest of the organisation must swim in? We invited Adam Scriven, practice leader for finance consulting at KPMG to share with us his perspective on the role of finance in driving strategic imperatives in 2024.

From the CFO perspective, what is value creation and how is this being achieved by the finance function?
How do you see the finance operating model evolving to meet the future needs of the business?
Given the ongoing challenge of staffing across the finance function, and the job security apprehensions concerning automation and AI, how should the CFO strategize the introduction of AI and automation to deliver on the promises of operational efficiency and effectiveness, while supporting team cohesion?
Some in the enterprise may see the finance function as a black box outputting reports and recommendations. Is there a proven approach to transparency and data/information integrity?
VUCA will continue to exert its influence enterprise-wide. What is KPMG’s recommendation for creating a cost-effective and resilient finance function?

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In recent years, the role of chief financial officer (CFO) has never been more challenging as it is fulfilling for those who hold this position. From geopolitical uncertainties to changing market dynamics, from technological innovations that are paving the way for new business models, and from calamitous weather disturbances that are reminding business leaders about the importance of addressing climate change today for a sustainable future tomorrow, the CFO has an important seat in directing the future of the company, the industry and society.

Recognising the differences in regulation and market dynamics, FutureCFO has approached CFOs from around Asia to discover their learnings, experiences and approaches in handling the myriad challenges that they face in 2023 and their expectations and plans for 2024.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, Hongrui (Max) Mo, chief financial officer for Asia at MET Asia, for his perspective on the changing role of the CFO.

In describing the CFO’s role in 2023, where is the focus/priority or priorities this year?
Do you see a trend among CFOs to outsource certain finance functions to keep the team lean?
For 2024, what do you anticipate will be the expectations of the CFO and the finance team?
Among the many priorities of the CFO/finance team in 2024, which in your opinion, will be most challenging?
Of the many technologies available to finance, which for you offer the greatest value to the function and the company in 2024?
I understand that talent remains an issue even within the finance function. In your view, which functions within finance are most challenging to fill/retain?
For those looking to build a career in finance, what is your recommendation?
What are your expectations for 2024?

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There are many words to describe the economic environment of 2023 and dull is definitely not one of them.

2023 remains a particularly challenging period for many CFOs who must grapple with two local wars, one in Eastern Europe and the other in the Middle East, and their impact on supply chains, escalating cyberattacks, rigid labour markets, efforts to adopt sustained ESG strategies in response to climate change, and the business impact of adopting or not adopting fast enough emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

With 2024 just around the corner, we have invited Ho Kok Yong, CFO Program Leader, Deloitte Southeast Asia, to share with us his views around innovations, lessons learned in 2023 and what CFOs and finance leaders can expect in 2024.

What were the three most distinctive challenges for the CFO and the finance function in Asia in 2023?
Name three lessons learned in response to these challenges.
Coming into 2024, what does Deloitte see will be critical issues/challenges to the finance function and CFO?
What is your top prediction for 2024 (as it relates to the CFO and finance function)?
What are Deloitte’s recommendations/advice to finance leaders to meet these challenges?

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In a joint Harvard Business Review and Google Cloud report 97% of business leaders surveyed believe that democratising access to data and analytics across their organization is important to business success. The same study revealed that only 60% of these leaders believe their organization is very effective at giving employees access to data and analytics tools.

With business leaders now seeing greater autonomy in deciding their technology directions, this may have led to the rising adoption of low-code and no-code methodologies for developing applications. Both approaches use visual programming and automation to create software solutions rather than relying on the IT team to write the code for them.

FutureCIO has covered the economic benefits of low-code and no-code back in September 2020. This time around with the growing influence of artificial intelligence, we look at how AI may impact the use of low-code and no-code approaches when it comes to business applications.

Returning to PodChats for FutureCIO is Leonard Tan, regional director for Singapore and Greater China, OutSystems.

Where are we at as regards low-code/no-code adoption/integration in Asia in 2023?
What have been the positive AND negative consequences of low-code/no-code use to the application development teams? [get access to this OutSystems study]
How do you see AI impacting the future of low-code/no-code use in the enterprise? Please view from the perspective of (a) enterprise citizen developers and the IT function; from the (b) developer team to (c) security.
How should the CIO balance the benefits and risks of AI-powered low-code/no-code platforms?
2024 is here. What is in store for low-code/no-code platforms, and how should the CIO and the enterprise view these developments as part of the overall business transformation?

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Gartner’s VP analyst, Bart Willemsen says technology disruptions and socioeconomic uncertainties require a willingness to act boldly and strategically enhance resilience over ad hoc responses. He posits that “IT leaders are in a unique position to strategically lay down a roadmap where technology investments help their business's sustenance of success amidst these uncertainties and pressures.”

Interestingly, five of Gartner’s top 10 strategic predictions for 2024 have an AI influence on them.

Forrester cautions that AI is not the only dynamic that will define 2024. It predicts that the AI hype of 2023 will give way to a year of practical exploration.

Sumir Bhatia, president of the Infrastructure Solutions Group at Lenovo Asia Pacific, joins PodChats for FutureCIO to explore with us how AI will power the growth objectives of businesses in 2024.

How can AI be utilized to enhance productivity and efficiency in various industries to support economic growth in 2024?
In what ways can AI be leveraged to identify and capitalize on new business opportunities and market trends to create new business models?
What are the potential risks and challenges associated with integrating AI into business growth strategies, and how can these be mitigated?
In what ways can AI be harnessed to streamline decision-making processes and drive strategic growth initiatives for businesses?
How can AI be utilized to drive innovation and R&D efforts, leading to the development of new products and services for sustained growth?
Coming into 2024, as the CEO and the rest of the C-suite call for integration of IT into the current technology roadmap, any recommendations for the CIO and his or her IT team to consider as they look to bring in AI without disrupting business as usual?

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In a blogpost on Finextra, Thomas French, a senior financial industry consultant on fraud at SAS writes that routine investment in the best technologies to detect and prevent fraud and other financial crimes is no longer a “nice to have” but a matter of necessity.

As fraud-as-a-service inflames the industrialisation of fraud, it may be time for organisations in Asia to reconsider the value proposition of AI in the fight against fraud. To help shed light on the potential of the concept, we are joined by Mike Foster, president and CEO of SymphonyAI Sensa-NetReveal.

How much of money laundering today inadvertently flows through banks?
What role can AI play in automating the process of monitoring and analysing large volumes of financial data for potential money laundering activities?
Any examples of how AI is being used today in mitigating risks at financial institutions (in Asia)?
What are the potential (a) limitations and (b) challenges of using AI to combat money laundering in the banking sector?
What are the ethical considerations and potential biases associated with using AI in AML efforts at banks?
What is your advice for CIOs, CTOs, CROs and Compliance Heads evaluating AI as a solution to enhance their anti-fraud/money laundering measures?
2024 is just around the corner, how do you see regulators and the financial services industries in Asia stepping up their use of AI in the area of fraud prevention?

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Talent shortage continues to persist in many parts of the world including Asia. In Singapore, for example, the shortage of accounting staff is most felt by small accounting firms that struggle to compete with the Big Four accounting firms.

A Gartner survey of finance function employees revealed some interesting conundrums faced by both employers and employees in the finance function. Joining us today on PodChats for FutureCFO is Ms Shannon Cole, senior director analyst, research, in the Gartner Finance practice, to shed on the results of the survey and what the CFO, HR and heads of finance might want to consider to improve the odds of finding and holding on to their talent.

What are the top takeaways from the survey?
Would you say that these five attrition drivers are as much a result of the legacy way of work of the roles (in finance)?
What can be learned from finance leaders who have excelled in their careers?
Despite apprehensions around the inclusion of emerging technologies like AI into work processes, how should professionals striving to build a career in finance take advantage of these technologies to boost their career prospects?
For HR and finance leaders, what should they do to modernise the finance processes to ensure improved employee morale?
2024 is just around the corner, any last-minute advice for those seeking to build a career in finance?

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Digital transformation, automation, and artificial intelligence are all connected through their shared goal of optimizing business processes and decision-making capabilities. Together, they have the potential to bring about significant advancements that were once considered unattainable.

Add to all this development, the notion of autonomy in AI and what do we have? A technology that can act without human intervention, input or supervision.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Greg Statton, Sr. director of AI solutions, Office of the CTO – Data and AI, Cohesity who will guide us in our discussion on autonomous AI agents and the value these bring to the enterprise.

What is an enterprise autonomous AI agent? (emphasis on enterprise)

a. How is it different from generative AI and retrieval-augmented generation?

What are the benefits of autonomous AI agents?

a. How does it change the workflow for functions that can use the technology?

How will autonomous AI agents interact with humans?

a. How do you see humans collaborating with autonomous AI agents?

What are the risks that come with autonomous intelligence?
How do organisations and their CIO/IT teams ready their technology stack and data for being compatible or ripe for the deployments of autonomous AI agents?
When an organisation decides it wants to introduce autonomous AI as part of its workflow, who is in charge and what skillsets does the person need?
What are some use cases autonomous AI agents today, and how might this progress in 2024?
As CIO/CDO, how do I budget for autonomous AI agents?

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As economies in Asia move towards some semblance of post-pandemic normal, one observable trend is the continuing shift away from traditional cash and cheque methods of payment to a diverse landscape that includes digital wallets, digital currencies and innovative fintech solutions.

Propelling this growth of non-cash transactions is a consumer base that is becoming accustomed to cross-border transactions, e-wallets, instant payments, and QR-code-based solutions. With the Asian Development Bank forecasting the digital economies of the Asia-Pacific region to be worth up to US$1 trillion, how should CFO of corporate entities approach the evolving payment landscape?

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, Edward Metzger, vice president for payments efficiency at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, shares his perspective on capturing opportunities under an evolving payments landscape.

Before we go into the future, let’s first look at the recent past and current situation. How has the payments landscape changed over the last few years, especially after the pandemic?
All of that is great if you are the consumer and merchants. But what about corporate entities? What is the impact of instant payments in terms of how CFOs manage the finances of the organisation?
Given this direction towards instant payments, what are the key challenges that CFOs must grapple with as their organisations move to adopt these instant payment solutions?
Efficiency remains a high priority for CFOs. What does the CFO need to put together as they look to service providers like LexisNexis Risk Solutions?
Coming into the new year, what technology trends and regulations will have the most significant impact on companies?
How should CFOs rise on these trends while supporting growth targets?
How about regulations, are there any trends that will arise as organisations adopt instant payments?
What is your advice for CFOs as they optimise these new trends?

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It is said that the best-run organisations prioritize cybersecurity spending as a business decision first. Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Data Security 2023 reflects the increasing dominance of this approach. As key technologies needed for assessing and quantifying cloud risk mature, we see the continuing emergence of new technologies purpose-built to protect against emerging threats that inevitably arise along these new technologies.

One such is data immutability – a concept that grew in prominence with the invention of blockchain technology in 2008. The concept has since gained traction outside of the confines of its origin including in data protection and cybersecurity.

So, what is data immutability? How does it impact organisations under regulatory compliance?

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Martin Creighan, vice president of Asia Pacific at Commvault, sheds light on the topic.

What do you mean by data immutability?
Why are organisations evolving towards data immutability?
How can AI be used to detect and prevent ransomware attacks and enhance data immutability within an organization's data infrastructure?
In what ways can AI be utilized to identify and flag any attempts to alter immutable data, thus providing a defence against ransomware attacks?
How can the integration of AI and data immutability technologies help organizations recover from ransomware attacks and ensure that their data remains secure and unaltered?
What are the potential benefits of combining AI-driven threat detection with data immutability to mitigate the impact of ransomware attacks on an organization's data assets?
2024 is just around the corner. How do you see AI and data immutability evolve in terms of adoption or integration given that cyberattacks will continue to rise in velocity and ingenuity?

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In the WW C-Suite Tech Survey by IDC, 59% of respondents acknowledged that digital initiatives are now co-owned by C-Suite/LOB. More and more c-suite roles are gravitating around technology and CIOs are rising, more than ever, to the call of technology leadership.

Together, they are modernizing their organizations digital core and scaling innovation. Asia/Pacific Japan’s c-suites top tech investments include GenAI, automation and cybersecurity, while top CIO technology priorities include IT and cloud operations, cybersecurity and compliance, and hardware and software support, among other things.

FutureCIO recently spoke to Linus Lai, vice president for Digital Business and Trust, IDC Asia/Pacific, to get his perspective on a number of technology trends and their impact of the enterprise in 2024.

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Clifford Stoll, author of The Cuckoo’s Egg, an investigation into the hacking of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that led to the capture of hacker Marcus Hess, famously said: “Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don’t let anyone else use it and get a new one every six months.”

The paper, How Effective is Multifactor Authentication (MFA) at Deterring Cyberattacks? concludes that implementing MFA leads to a 99.22% reduction in the risk of compromise across the entire population, and a 98.56% reduction even in cases where credentials have been leaked.

To be clear, MFAs can be hacked. Roger Grimes, defense evangelist at KnowBe4, published a 41-page ebook in which he details over 12 ways to hack MFA but that’s for another podchat.

In this Podchat, we revisit the continuing evolution in password use, and the potential influence of artificial intelligence on both sides of the identity protection fence. Andrew Shikiar, executive director with FIDO Alliance, joins us once again, to walk us through key findings in the Online Authentication Barometer and what this means to use in Asia.

FIDO was founded in 2012. Twelve years on, why are organisations/users still relying on passwords to access systems and data?
How has generative AI reshaped the cybersecurity landscape, particularly when it comes to identity access management?
How can passwordless authentication methods, like biometrics or passkeys, help protect against AI-driven cyber threats?

a. What makes them (passwordless authentication techniques) more secure than traditional password systems?

Are there any specific industries or sectors that are particularly susceptible to AI-fueled scams?

a. Why are these organisations at greater risk from AI-fueled scams?

How can they benefit from implementing passwordless authentication to enhance their security posture?
2024 is just around the corner. What can we expect as regards how organisations secure access to data and systems?
As more enterprises use cloud, how should CISOs and CIOs engage their cloud service providers as regards the use of passkeys and other authentication technologies?

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Forrester predicts that 2024 will usher in the era of intentional AI where gimmicks and technical experimentation of GenAI will give way to more focused and strategic initiatives.

With us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Fred Giron, VP, senior research director at Forrester to help us under how to transition AI from hype to intent.

Forrester sees AI as enabling organisations to pivot into leadership roles. There have been other technologies that we predicted to transform organisations. What makes AI different?
Given the disparity in the level of maturity of markets in Asia, including low levels of data literacy and the scarcity of experienced local staff, how do you see organisations outside of large and MNC companies, capitalising on the potential of AI?
Realistically, what would need to be done (or to happen) for local enterprises to start their AI journey? [click mouse]
Speaking of risks, in many parts of Asia, regulatory frameworks around the use of AI have yet to be set. Will this present adoption challenges for local players in regulated sectors like healthcare and financial services? [click mouse]
Technical debt continues to be a growing concern among non-IT leaders in organisations. Do you see AI adoption as further driving organisations into debt they can’t afford?
Are there any proven approaches to better managing costs (technical debt) without giving up on the AI dream of a better future?
Any guidance for business leaders looking to balance the benefits and risks associated with emerging technologies like AI, even as they aspire to capture the promises of these yet to be field-tested in commercial environment solutions? [click mouse]
2024 is just around the corner. What are your predictions for AI use in the coming year?
Do you see AI taking over jobs?

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The Global Data Centre Outlook report from JLL suggests that the mass adoption of cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) is driving exponential growth for the data centre sector.

The report posits that the demand for data centre capacity to support AI is growing rapidly, with most research reports indicating that the global data centre market for AI is expected to grow at CAGR 25%+.

Eric Hui, Director, IOT Business Development, Asia-Pacific, Equinix shares his perspectives on the impact of the artificial intelligence boom on data centres in Asia.

How is Generative AI impacting the data centre (DC) industry in Asia?

a. Please identify the top 3 opportunities.

What are the technological requirements—design, location, etc.—for AI-ready DCs? What changes should DC operators implement to support the demand? [Segment between hyperscalers and colocation DCs]
What are the top 3 challenges in developing AI-ready DCs in Asia, and how do you see the industry managing the (a) challenges and (b) opportunities?
How well placed is the DC [hyperscalers and colocation DCs] industry to achieve sustainable growth?
DCs have gone through several revolutionary waves: the internet, virtualization, and the cloud. What is the future of DCs? [2024-2026]
How do you see security issues/concerns impacting data centre developments?

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The Future of Asian & Pacific Cities Report 2023 entitled, Crisis Resilient Urban Futures, describes countries and cities across Asia and the Pacific as struggling to recover from the health and socioeconomic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the effects of climate change continue to ravage the region.

The report offers guidance for policymakers to address severe disruptions and long-standing development challenges in cities for a sustainable urban recovery in Asia and the Pacific.

The problems and challenges of governments and city developers is nothing new. But with new technologies and lessons learned from other countries, Asia may yet to reap the benefits of not being the first mover.

Jacques Beltran, VP for Cities and Public Services, Dassault Systèmes, shares his views on smarter ways for modernising urban development.

Give us a state of city growth in Asia.
Prior to sustainability becoming the buzzword, what were the top priorities of urban planners?
How significant is the impact of climate change on cities in Asia?
What mindset is needed to make cities sustainable for the long haul?
Beyond mindset, do we have the technologies and skilled/experienced people available/ready to make the change towards more sustainable urban development?
Can we go into a little bit of detail in terms of what technologies are available today for urban planners?
Describe the challenges urban planners face in Asia in the coming years. What can we learn from global cities when it comes to sustainable development?

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Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Jen Easterly warns that AI is “the most powerful capability and weapon of our time”. She wasn’t being coy nor flippant about it. Calling on software vendors to stop building insecure-by-design products that maximise profits over safety, she commented that “So far the cost that we’ve paid for speed over security is pretty steep but not existential,” Easterly said. She fears that AI will be different.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Kunal Anand, CTO, Imperva, to discuss how AI is impacting cyber tactics and strategies from both sides of the fence.

What does AI look like when deployed as part of a cyberattack?
Should we be concerned that AI adoption, including its variants, may be too fast for governance and security processes to keep pace with?
Any recommendation for how to better keep AI adoption trends in line with an organisation’s ability to manage its risks?
Given that AI will eventually be embedded, if not driving, some cybersecurity processes, how can security teams remain relevant, and of value, to the organisation?
You are a CISO and a CTO at Imperva. What is the benefit of having both titles, and how do you balance the priorities of each role?
In 2024, what will be the unique threat we can expect to see in Asia? And how to counter/mitigate the threat?

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In Formula One races, the expression, timing is everything’ carries significant meaning. Drivers and teams need to know exactly how fast the cars are running at certain points around the track. It is a sport where timing is everything and nothing can be left to uncertainty.

The use cases for accurate timing have been around for decades. Timing is what enables communication systems to work, time is essential for global navigation systems to function, and timing is what makes automation possible.

SiTime is a precision timing company supplying industries with oscillators – devices that generate oscillatory currents or voltages by non-mechanical means. Quartz crystals have been used in timekeeping technology including clocks, watches, compute rs and other devices that keep time.

On 19 September 2023, SiTime announced the SiTime Epoch Platform – designed to solve the most complex timing issues in electronics and claiming to disrupt 100-year-old quartz-based technology.

The SiTime Epoch Platform is a micro-electromechanical system-based, oven-controlled oscillator that delivers an ultra-stable clock to datacentre and network infrastructure equipment. SiTime claims that over time the Epoch technology will be extended to other high-growth electronics markets, such as aerospace and defense and industrial controls among others.

FutureIoT spoke to Piyush Sevalia, executive vice president, marketing, SiTime, to discuss precision timing and its significance across a wide expanse of use cases.

What follows is a discussion on the significance of SiTime’s Epoch announcement, and how it changes things when it comes to precision timing.

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The 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report claims that IoT malware globally was up 37%, resulting in 77.9 million attacks compared to the 57 million attacks during the same period in 2022. The IoT malware attack volume in Asia rose to 23 million, up 130%.

The Nokia 20203 Threat Intelligence Report claims that 60% of attacks against telecom mobile networks are linked to IoT bots scanning for vulnerable hosts for use in distributed denial of service attacks.

Steve Scheurmann, regional vice president for ASEAN at Palo Alto Networks joins us today to help us understand how organisations can better mitigate against these escalating OT/IoT cyber risks.

Many say the weakest link is humans. I'd argue that it's these IoT devices that have been quietly sitting in the business perimeter.

What is the impact of unmonitored and unsecured IoT devices on a system’s cybersecurity, and why is it one of the biggest cybersecurity challenges across ASEAN?
Why do the majority of ASEAN organisations (82%) see value in having a common team that looks after IT and OT infrastructure and systems? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
What factors are driving organisations’ focus on securing IoT/OT in their future cybersecurity strategies?
What are the specific cybersecurity concerns related to 5G-connected IoT devices, and how do organisations plan to address them?
What steps should organisations take to mitigate cybersecurity risks related to OT? Who should get involved?
Coming into 2024, more devices and sensors will get added into the enterprises. What is your advise for operations, IT and leadership to better improve the overall organisational security posture?

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Change is the new normal. Disruption is a natural state anywhere in the world today. How should established organisations address these new conditions, discover new opportunities in the new normal, and transform to lead the shift?

Business model transformation focuses on changing the way a company creates, delivers and captures value.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Ying Shaowei, chief scientist at NCS, shares his views on disrupting the foundations of business models and operations.

It is my opinion that some of the new technologies we are seeing today are not designed with the current business model in mind. While some of the solutions have pre-defined problems they want to solve, getting from concept to production is fraught with risk. How can leaders minimise risks and wastage (of effort, resources and time)?
What is the role of governance in the business model of the future?
Can innovation and governance evolve together as the business model takes shape?
What is the role of leadership in business model innovation?
There are leaders who think first-mover advantage is a do-or-die objective. When does first-mover make sense?
What is more important as a metric for business success (in the context of innovation)?
Coming into 2024, what advice would you offer to leaders dealing with the challenges of adapting to evolving business models and operations?

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A 2023 Beyond Identity survey of 1,010 cybersecurity specialists one in six had worked for companies that experienced an AI-fuelled cyberattack, with 59% seeing this in phishing attacks and 39% in malware. The good news (maybe) is that 40% said it took less than 24 hours to detect the attack and respond accordingly.

Arguably, the more concerning of the trends highlighted in the report is that 75% of those surveyed believe AI will continue to be used in these cyberattacks and that the vulnerabilities will persist because of a lack of human oversight (57%).

Jeffrey Kok, vice president of solution engineers for Asia Pacific and Japan at CyberArk, joins us on this PodChats for FutureCISO to offer, we hope, counter-tactics against artificially intelligent ransomware.

Is AI being used as an accelerant for ransomware attacks?
Given that threat actors can recognise data encryption and exfiltration, what should CISOs and security teams update their approach to make strategies and policies more effective against AI-powered ransomware?
Would AI make for an effective ransomware negotiator? How to make this happen?
What is the future of ransomware?
Our topic is counter-tactics against artificially intelligent ransomware, so how do you stay ahead of ransomware (extortion) irrespective of the technologies?

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One of the characteristics of the recent decade is an increasingly connected global community with some events that occur in one region that would impact other parts of the world. In the business community, a recurring theme of the digitalisation era is improving the engagement with the customer.

One of the revelations of the COVID pandemic is just how reliant we are on ecosystems of suppliers and partners to support the new customer engagement paradigm.

In this PodChat for FutureCISO, Geoff Schomburgk, the Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific and Japan at Yubico, will lend his insights into how we can maintain a trusting relationship digitally and online.

When we think of ‘online relationships’, people tend to think about it in a traditional sense but why should businesses and its employees be wary of their online relationships with suppliers, service providers or even customers?
Speaking of digital identity, are online service providers generally expected to keep our accounts and personal data secure?
In the security space, the term security perimeter. How does Zero Trust negate the shortcomings of traditional authentication methods?
Why are you encouraging a call to action aimed at the providers of online services that they should be doing more to keep their online services safe and secure from predators?
How secure are passkeys based on FIDO2 standards?
What does the broad move towards passkeys spell for businesses and end-users in Asia Pacific?
What are some key hurdles to a passwordless future, and how could they be overcome?
In your opinion, why and how should industries and organizations in Asia Pacific see a wider adoption of and access to passkey security?
What are the major tech companies doing to make us change how we protect our online relationships?
For CISOs, any best practices for introducing and even demanding from suppliers the use of passkeys? How can they get buy-in from CIOs, IT and the C-suite?
2024 is around the corner. What is your expectation of the security landscape?

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Fraud, stock-price manipulation, damage to reputation and the brand, sextortion scams that sabotage employee morale, misinformation and disinformation. These are five deepfake scams that Forrester VP and principal analyst, Jeff Pollard warns organisations have to take seriously now before these become weaponised against enterprises.

Joining us on PodChats for FutureCISO is Jonas Walker, Director of Threat Intelligence, Fortiguard Labs at Fortinet to help us prepare our systems and processes for the eventual arrival of Deepfake.

In corporate security lingo, what is a deepfake?
Is it easy to create a deepfake version of someone?
We understand deepfakes to scam individuals and Financial Institutions as well, are there any new deepfake scams one should be vigilant about?
Is it foreseeable that someone can authorize the use of his or her deepfake persona for use in various purposes to make campaign calls and to record messages, authorizing someone’s signature and having it reproduced?
What kind of education, in your opinion, can help the digital and non-digital savvy citizens in spotting deepfake scams, given the sophistication level?
You mentioned that police. Will regulations to clamp down Deepfake apps be the only way to go to go in the future?
What’s in store for enterprises in 2024?

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In the report, The Emergence of Offensive AI, Forrester revealed that 80% of cybersecurity decision-makers expected AI to increase the scale and speed of attacks and that 66% expected AI to "conduct attacks that no human could conceive of."

When asked to identify which risks they are most concerned about when weaponized AI becomes mainstream, 75% cited system/business interruption while 74% pointed to IP or data theft.

Here to share with us the findings of the Cybersecurity: 2023 Board Perspective report, is Yvette Leijins, Resident CISO for Asia Pacific and Japan, Proofpoint.

We are coming into the first-year anniversary of the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI. Only months ago, business leaders, even political leaders, are praising the arrival of generative AI or ChatGPT. Why the near-sudden change in tone?
If GenAI is deemed so risky by the Board, why are 70% of organisations surveyed by Gartner exploring GenAI innovations?
Despite 97% of boards believing cybersecurity budgets will increase, why has this still not translated to preparedness?

a. Are organisations spending these budgets correctly on security awareness or is there an overreliance on cyber insurance?

Supply chain attacks – such as the MOVEit incident – are projected to cost businesses almost $46 billion by the end of 2023, yet only 26% of boards view this as a concern. Why are boards still complacent, and what can they do to shore up defences?
When Uber’s former chief security officer was found guilty and sentenced to probation for his role in covering up a 2022 data breach, personal liability became a top concern for boards and CISOs. How far should personal liability extend, and what do CISOs need to consider when having these conversations with boards?
Rounding out our PodChats, what are your expectations for 2024?

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Continuity's State pf Storage and Backup Security Report 2023 reveals that on average there are 14 security risks found in a typical enterprise storage and backup system. Out of the 14 risks, 3 are high or critical risks.

In the past two years, online backups were frequently targeted as part of ransomware attacks. This led to data being deleted or made otherwise unusable to prevent recovery of now-encrypted primary data. Our recommendation is to maintain an immutable, preferably offline copy of backups and test them regularly to ensure viability.

The report concluded that there remains a lack of hardening both in backup environments and storage systems themselves.

Pure Storage CTO and VP for APJ Matthew Oostveen joins us on this podchat to help us fix storage vulnerabilities and backup misconfigurations before they happen.

Can you name common prevailing myths around Storage, Backup, And Data Recoverability?
Can you identify the three most common storage vulnerabilities in Asia including perhaps backup misconfigurations that leave organisations vulnerable to cyberattacks?
Why are organizations failing to address data backup security risks?
Traditionally backups and recovery fall under the CTO. Given the rise in cyberattacks targeting backups, why should the CISO get involved in data backups?
Will the adoption of AI and ML tools in backup and recovery processes simplify or strengthen an organisation's security posture?
Can you provide 3 tips to enhance backup and recovery processes to reflect the hybrid workspace that is the norm today?
2024 is almost here. What's your expectations as it relates to backup and recovery technologies and practices, and your advise for responsible members of the organization as it relates to keeping of threats and staying in line with what's available or coming?

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Coined in 2019 by Neil McDonald, Gartner defines single-vendor secure access service edge (SASE) offerings as those that deliver multiple converged-network and security-as-a-service capabilities, such as software-defined WAN, secure web gateway, cloud access security broker, network firewalling and zero trust network access.

In today's hybrid multi-cloud environment where touchpoints comprise of fixed and mobile, virtual and physical, what is the value proposition of SASE?

I had the good fortune of meeting Kunal Jha, Regional Director for Asia, Netskope and I took the opportunity to get clarity on the value proposition of SASE in a hybrid, multi-cloud environment.

What follows is the dialogue I had with Kunal during his visit to Hong Kong.

What problems does SASE solve?
When do I need a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)?
Does SASE make VPNs obsolete?
How has SASE evolved in the hybrid cloud and hybrid work environment?
Are all SASE solutions created equal? What to look for?
How does SASE enable business agility?
Can you avoid vendor lock-in with SASE?
Some say that delivered as a cloud is the single point of failure of SASE. Is this true?
What does a successful SASE deployment look like?
Where does SASE fit in an organisation that has decided to deploy zero trust?
In this hybrid cloud environment, would a SD-WAN or CASB approach make better sense to securing the enterprise?
What is a cost-effective approach to integrating SASE into an existing network environment?
What advice would you offer CIOs/CISOs as regards SASE?

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We continue to hear that digital transformation remains a priority for many business leaders in Asia. That said, transformation means different things to different functions within the organisation. Yes, there are common themes like enhancing customer experience, improving productivity and greater collaboration not just among employees but even business partners.

But outside of the rhetoric about the holistic benefits to be achieved with transformation, it falls on the CIO to introduce changes in either technology or workflow to facilitate the transformation.

In today's PodChats for FutureCIO, we are pleased to have Carter Busse, chief information officer at Workato walk us through the realities of automation integration.

Gartner says when it comes to digitalisation, 60% of organisations are struggling to scale digital initiatives. This gap between the desire of leadership to digitalise the business (87%) and making it a reality is widening. Why is that?
How can enterprises get to the next level in their digitalization journey using automation to expedite transformation efforts?
What are some key challenges faced by enterprises in automating complex workflows and processes and how can they overcome them?
Drawing from your own experiences, what key learnings can you share for other CIOs tasked with the same responsibility?
While the principles and technology behind automation are universal, how automation is applied to each department is likely going to be different, and possibly the experiences of affected staff will differ depending on culture and openness to new ideas.
As a CIO, what was your approach to minimising tension in the process of introducing automation in workflows/integrating new ways of work into existing operations?
Following the near-universal interest around ChatGPT, how do you see AI supporting both the modernisation efforts of the organisation? Any best practices for the CIO?
Coming into 2024, what do you envision will be the bigger challenges and priorities for CIOs?

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The Gartner report, Emerging Tech Impact Radar: Artificial Intelligence in Banking, reveals that 67% of banking institutions (surveyed) are currently using artificial intelligence in their operations. Use cases for adopting AI include enhancing automation efforts and driving efficiency, improving customer service, reducing operating costs, and boosting data analytics to support data-driven decision-making and personalisation.

When OpenAI launched ChatGPT back in November 2022, little did we anticipate the interests the technology would draw from across the spectrum of industries, users and regulators. Beyond the use of ChatGPT to enable more human-like virtual assistants, what lies ahead for financial institutions in the journey towards the democratisation of AI?

Here to talk to us about the possibilities of AI in financial services is Jan Cenkr, Group Chief Information Officer of Home Credit.

How has artificial intelligence and big data transformed financial services?
From your experience, what are the most promising use cases for artificial intelligence and big data when it comes to the provision of financial services?
What are the differences you see between consumers in Asia and Europe in terms of digital adoption? Why do you think this is the case?
Are there any best practices that financial services companies should adopt in their use of AI?

a. Do you see regulation impeding the adoption of emerging technologies like AI?

With the rise of ChatGPT and large language models (LLM), how do you think AI will continue to transform the finance industry?
How do you think the role of a CIO has evolved over time to support business priorities?
What is your advice for CIOs and C-suite executives who are looking to drive digital adoption in Asia’s emerging markets?

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Artificial intelligence has been immortalised in movies with hits like "Bicentennial Man", "Upgrade" and its namesake "Artificial Intelligence" by Steven Spielberg.

These days AI is getting a revival in the enterprise following OpenAI's launch of Chat Generative Pre-trainer Transformer on 30 November 2022. The large language model-based chatbot, more popularly known as ChatGPT, is making a lot of buzz in the boardroom, at conferences and almost everywhere imaginable.

But as with other emerging technologies, generative AI carries as many risks as it offers opportunities. In today's PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Sanjay Deshmukh, senior regional vice president for ASEAN and India at Snowflake to help us better understand how to secure Generative AI for enterprises.

What are the top 3 pros and cons of letting loose Generative AI in the enterprise?
Speaking of security, given that GenAI is still evolving, how can the CIO/compliance officer mitigate the potential risks associated with this technology?
Does your approach of taking the LLM to the data necessitate the need for a sizeable compute infrastructure on the part of the enduser organisation?
How do you get around local/national data sovereignty regulations if the condition for an enduser to use your LLM technology is to have the customer's data reside in your platform – which could be outside the borders of the customer's country of operation?
For leaders tasked with supervising the adoption of GenAI, how should they balance the desires for innovation, vis-à-vis the opportunities and risks that come with something that is still evolving?

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Only a few years ago, IT teams and their security counterparts worked in separate silos. But as organizations face escalating threats and breaches, there is a burning need to converge IT observability and cybersecurity. The single biggest driver of this convergence is the need to share critical data to help security teams improve cyber resilience.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Alvin Tan, Singapore-based regional vice president for Tanium, shares his perspectives on the importance of observability as viewed from the lenses of the CIO and CISO. We will also cover approaches IT and security teams need to consider in the race to achieve cyber resilience in the digital economy.

1. Perhaps before we begin our conversation, it is important for our audience to understand where your organisation is coming from. Can you briefly describe for us what is Tanium?

2. What is observability from the perspective of the CIO/CISO as it relates to security? Where do these roles converge (and diverge) on the topic?

3. Define endpoint protection in the context of the hybrid way of work.

4. What is unified endpoint management (UEM), and where does it sit in the technology stack?

5. How does UEM help an organisation meet its resilience goals post-pandemic?

6. What are the proven steps to modernising endpoint management strategies?

How effective/reliable is real-time security?
Given the evolving nature of threats and the security solutions to tackle these, how can CISOs/CIOs optimise their approaches to security?

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The 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey noted that even before ChatGPT, one-third of CIOs say their organization had already deployed artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, and 15% more believe they will deploy AI within the next year.

But deciding how best to proceed means factoring AI into business value, risk, talent and investment priorities.

John Hillery, managing vice president in Peer and Practitioner Research for the Gartner CIO Research Group, recommends CIO createa a succinct AI strategy document that synthesizes their vision and potential benefits, audits and mitigates risks, captures KPIs, and outlines best practices for value creation.

In today's PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Hemanta Banerjee, vice president of public cloud data services at Rackspace Technology to offer his take on AI design and integration considerations for CIOs.

What do leaders and users in Asia know about artificial intelligence (AI) as applied to the business is done? (compare misconceptions vs realities)

2. Given that AI is still relatively new:

a. Where is the starting point for understanding the value of AI to the business?

b. When (and where) is the right moment to introduce AI in the workflow?

c. How do I ensure I am able to integrate into the current business process/workflow/technologies without disrupting how work is done?

Given that a business is comprised of multiple functions that operate independently of each other but share a common business objective (drive customer value, generate revenue, grow). Following an AI PoC, how would you scale AI across the rest of the organisation?
What would be the next step in the discovery process of what AI can be to my business?

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Alan Turing, a British polymath who explored the mathematical possibility of artificial intelligence, suggested that humans use available information and reason to solve problems and make decisions. He pondered the question: why can’t machines do the same? This has become the logical framework of his 1950 paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence which discussed how to build intelligent machines and how to test their intelligence.

73 years later, our fascination with the possibilities of AI has seen companies spend US$136 billion in 2022 alone. Grand View Research forecasts spending on AI to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.3% from 2023 to 2030.

Perhaps a sign of things to come is the US$300 million (dollars) that McDonald's spent to acquire a Tel-Aviv AI start-up, Dynamic Yield, presumably to provide a more personalised customer experience using AI.

To help us navigate the possibilities that AI promise is Srinivasan CR, chief digital officer with Tata Communications.

Srini, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Describe the current state of AI adoption in Asia Pacific and why it's critical for businesses to implement AI.
Name one critical challenge businesses will face in their AI journey.

a. Data maturity is a requisite

b. How far is Asia in their data maturity

Name one strategy, organisations need to prioritise to build momentum and scale their AI efforts.
Name one business and operational value that edge computing offers (as a key advantage) for organisations implementing AI.
What is the most exciting trend you are looking forward to materialising in 2023/2024?
What should the CIO do to help materialise the value of AI?

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A digital adoption platform (DAP) is a software layer integrated on top of another software application or website to guide users through tasks and functions. Digital adoption platforms aim to help new users quickly learn how to interact with a website or application or assist returning users in learning newly added functionality. This improves onboarding for new users and drives the adoption of new features that may otherwise go ignored.

These tools are also commonly used to train new employees on software used in-house. Some DAP offerings are made specifically for other popular software applications, with companies making multiple DAPs tailored for certain products. However, many digital adoption platforms are customizable and can integrate over any application necessary. Because of this, digital adoption platforms are also a popular customer self-service software option.

Joining us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Vivek Behl, digital adoption officer from WalkMe to share his perspective on Overcoming resistance to digital transformation adoption.

Vivek, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Organisations going through digital transformation are not necessarily achieving desired outcomes, with some unwilling to adopt a new way of doing work. What's the rationale for that?
Can a digital adoption platform be applied to greenfield applications and existing applications?
In your experience, what drives an organisation to incorporate a DAP into its tech stack? Is it the organisation’s intention to digitally transform, or is it implemented upon hindsight when organisations realise that both existing and new employees are not adapting to their existing work applications?
In implementing a DAP, we're effectively introducing a new layer of software on top, doesn't that introduce latency in terms of how the application performs and the backend?
Identify some of the most common challenges in terms of matching expectations with the realities when it comes to implementing the DAP and executing the digital adoption plan.
Beyond the alignment session that you mentioned as part of the process for onboarding the digital adoption platform. Can you name any other best practices for ensuring a successful adoption of the DAP?
For CIOs trying to decide on the digital solution or approach to take, what questions should they be asking?

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Rockwell Automation's 8th annual State of Smart Manufacturing Report reveals that the number one obstacle manufacturers face in 2023 is balancing profitable growth without sacrificing quality. The study also reveals a greater emphasis on accessing data’s true potential, and increasing the adoption of technology to build resilience, enable agility, and increase sustainability.

Gartner says two key challenges in the race to implement smart manufacturing strategy revolve around technology, commercial availability and data integrity, and aligning supply chain and factory on smart manufacturing benefits and plans.

Gartner cautions that as automation of data and information flows expands beyond the factory, the need to manage supply chain convergence grows. For smart manufacturing, this means evaluating the processes used in logistics, planning and sourcing, and customer service against those used in manufacturing operations, and designing cross-functional performance metrics to assess total value generated for the customer.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Thomas Lai, vice president and general manager, APJ at Boomi, to elaborate on how data can help manufacturers thrive against future adversity.

Thomas, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO

Describe the current state of digitalisation across Asia's manufacturing sector?
Can you name some industrial modernisation challenges and opportunities?
How will technology modernisation help manufacturers leverage data analytics to improve operational efficiency for their logistics?
Manufacturing environments typically are heavy in the use of operational technologies, including IoT. How should CIOs approach the integration of OT and IT technologies?
How can integration platforms help manufacturers remain resilient and thrive amid disruptions and uncertainty?
What is your advice for CIOs evaluating integration platforms in the quest to modernise the manufacturing process?

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Without a doubt, Artificial Intelligence is now a topic of interest among CFOs. How to properly channel this interest into the finance function remains to be seen.

Gartner says: To build an AI-driven finance organization for the future will require a combination of technical and business skills that many finance teams do not have today.

In today's PodChat for FutureCFO, we are joined by Mark D McDonald, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner Finance Practice, to share with us his views on how finance should embrace AI.

Mark, welcome to PodChats for FutureCFO.

What do finance professionals think AI can do for them?
Should they embrace AI with caution?
What are the long-term implications of AI for the finance function?

a. Gartner expects future finance teams to look more like software development organisations. Why is that?

b. [AI-generation workforce]

How should the CIO and traditional development respond to this?
What is Gartner's recommendation regarding how the CFO and finance team approach the adoption of AI into the function? Where do they start?
Will AI-driven finance lead to an autonomous finance function?
For finance teams that have adopted RPA, what knowledge/understanding should they carry forward when leveraging AI?
What is your advice for CFOs to best leverage AI for the finance team?

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In an autonomous finance function, processes and activities are partly governed and majority operated by self-learning software agents that optimize front-, middle- and back-office operations.

According to Shannon Cole, senior director analyst, research in the Gartner Finance practice, opinesthat many CFOs are ill-equipped to identify and address the rapidly evolving digital skills needed in finance.

She added that expertise in traditional finance topics, while valuable, does not prepare leaders to train staff to execute on capabilities, such as deploying bots, machine learning, and AI algorithms.

Gartner says CFOs have ambitious plans to reach a state of autonomous finance within the next three to six years that will require a significant reshaping of finance team structures to achieve.

In today's PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Charlie Cheah, Asia Managing Director for Esker to share with us his perspective on how CFOs and finance teams can chart their path to finance automation.

Gartner says Autonomous Finance is central to the future of the finance function. What are some of the challenges for retaining employees, suppliers and customers?
Can you elaborate more on how AI-driven technology impact the daily work of the employees?
How do you see customers & suppliers benefiting from AI-driven solutions?
What is positive sum growth and how does it impact an organization’s ecosystem?
To sum up, how can companies ensure competitiveness against technologies offered to their employees, suppliers and customers?
Before we conclude our podchat, any recommendations for our listeners on how they can perhaps apply positive-sum group to their operations?

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Network security consists of the policies, processes and practices adopted to prevent, detect and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-accessible resources.

According to the 2023 Global State of Cybersecurity Study by Infoblox, the average organisation in Singapore experiences 54 security incidents per day. It concludes that there’s growing frustration with current tools to handle such a volume, especially when these same organisations struggle to instil sound corporate cyber hygiene practices.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joining by Jeff Castillo, Senior Regional Director, Southeast Asia, Infoblox, to share how organisations can address the gaps in network and security system.

Jeff, welcome to PodChats for FutureCISO.

1. Where are the gaps in network and security systems?

a. Why do these gaps persist? What is contributing to this practice?

2. Name three common outcomes when these gaps remain in place.

3. Name three best practices for fixing these gaps.

4. Given that most organisations will likely have a heterogeneous environment, including cloud and on-premise as well as edge, what is your recommendation for a more holistic approach to minimising such gaps in the future?

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George Leung Siu-kay, CEO of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, reveals that companies in Hong Kong are struggling with an emigration wave that has pushed turnover rates above 20%, with the loss being felt especially keenly in their middle ranks

While helping, increasing salaries alone should not be seen as a cure-all for the situation, as not every organisation can afford to battle a wage war.

For heads of departments and HR left to contend with the aftermath of staff departures, challenge assessing what's been left, what may have been taken intentional or otherwise, and how to move quickly to business as usual.

With us on PodChats for FutureCIO is Dagmawi Mulugeta, senior threat research engineer for Netskope APAC.

Dagmawi, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

The Great Resignation and recent tech layoffs saw people leaving their jobs voluntarily and involuntarily. What remains is the data utilised by them. Is it safe?
How can companies manage data security in the wake of employees leaving?
What kind of security threats await organisations from disgruntled employees?
The role of privacy and threat to organisations; monitoring potential leavers. Are companies breaching privacy laws through such monitoring?
What are the other challenges facing companies in the wake of mass layoffs as well as new people coming in?

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History tells us that the ideals of customer experience can be traced to the development of market research as a method of improving advertising in the 1920s. The practice spread to other sectors following World War II the boom of consumerism.

So nearly a hundred years has passed with much experience and an abundance of technology, we must ask: have we achieved the pinnacle of customer experience best practices?

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Ms Maxie Schmidt, vice president and principal analyst with Forrester, to shed light on Customer experience measurement – what is it and how to excel in it.

Let's start with a baseline: What is customer experience (then and now)?
What has brought about this loss of connection to the customer? Does it have to do with our greater reliance on technology?
Among the CMOs we speak to, the term customer experience framework has now become part of the vocabulary. What is a customer experience framework?

a. Where does this framework fit in a customer experience transformation effort?

So start with a vision, and build a framework from there, to guide your customer experience strategy.
You wrote in a blog that low measurement maturity is a challenge for customer experience leaders. Why do you think so?
For many marketers we speak to net promoter score seems to be the tool to use when it comes to measuring customer experience. Is this true?
On the topic of CX measurement:

a. How does an organisation which metrics should form part of their measurement toolsets?

b. In your experience, do best-in-class marketing organisations have these tools and practices as part of their customer experience strategy?

c. On average, where do most organisations struggle when it comes to executing customer measurement strategies and achieving desired customer experience strategies?

d. How does an organisation know what best practices fit their organisation's business model?

How would the customer experience leader sell the idea of customer experience transformation to the C-suite and board?
For an organisation serious about customer experience measurement, what is the bare minimum that needs to be addressed?
Understanding that customer experience is the realm of the CMO, what can the CIO/CTO and IT team do to help support/realise the goals of customer experience?
According to Forrester Research, does this cool connection between marketing, the customer experience team and IT, is it prevalent?
What needs to happen to make this cool connection a reality in existing organisations?
What is your advice for the different heads that work together to achieve the desired customer experience?

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According to Forrester, a customer experience (CX) leader, is in charged of aligning the organization around customer value. From the C-suite on down, the customer experience leader needs to advance customer-centricity — evaluating experiences from the customer’s point of view.

Forrester says this approach drives loyalty and growth. But rallying the necessary level of focus and alignment is tough, to say the least. It requires persuasiveness, adaptability, and determination to move the needle and realize your CX vision.

To help us better understand how to design experiences that drive loyalty, we are joined by Vasupradha Srinivasan, senior analyst, Forrester.

1. Describe loyalty in the digital era.

2. What are marketers doing to acquire this loyalty? And is the effort worth it?

3. What constitutes great customer experience?

4. How does customer experience drive loyalty? (is there such a thing as perpetual loyalty?)

5. What comprises design experiences that drive loyalty?

6. Given that customer expectations will evolve over time, is it possible to create a customer experience design architecture that is able to change with time (without having to do a massive uplift)?

7. Recap: What is your advice for customer experience leaders on driving loyalty through customer experience?

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In the meantime, however, CISOs need to acknowledge that is important to the board. This means not only showing how the cybersecurity program prevents bad things from happening. But perhaps more importantly, how cybersecurity improves the enterprise’s ability to take risks effectively. Even better, how to use cybersecurity as a competitive advantage.

Gartner recommends CISOs get ahead of the change to promote and support cybersecurity to the board and establish a closer relationship to improve trust and support.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, Alex Tilly, head of Threat Intelligence, APJ at Secureworks, offers his take on how CISOs can take cybersecurity to the board, and secure buy-in in the process.

Define for us what is a security culture? Why and how important is having a security culture in today's digital world?
Who should lead the adoption of a security culture in the organisation?
Gartner predicts that by 2026, someone sitting on the board will likely have cybersecurity expertise. In the here and now, however, how would you describe the relationship between CISOs and board? Do they recognise that they need each other?
From the CISO's perspective, can you name steps that the CISO needs to work on to build a foundational relationship with board? What works and what hasn't?
Can you share some tips for creating a board presentation agenda that will help CISO establish his or her role as a trusted and credible leader?
Conversely, what must the board do to help establish/acquire the trust of the CISO (and the rest of the executive suite)?
Advise to boards, security professionals and C-suite as regards to the cyber threat landscape in 2023 and beyond.

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Digital transformation is easy to say, arguably hard to implement and failures continue to occur even as we learn from our own experiences and those of others. Why is digital transformation difficult? Some argue it is because transformation refers to a change to something that's core to the business. That it is not only about using new technologies and optimizing processes, but it encompasses all aspects of a business from the backend to the front and everything in between.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we will look into one aspect that is characteristic of the digital transformation of the last three years – the proliferation of the use of cloud infrastructure and the associated technologies that use it.

To help us understand this better, we are joined by Arron White, GM and VP of Sales APJ for Nutanix.

Aaron welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

The findings of the 5th Annual Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) reveal a notable increase in the use of mixed infrastructure, which spans private IT infrastructure (both on-premises and hosted), public clouds, and edge locations. The increased diversity is driving IT pros to seek a unified place to manage and secure their applications and data.

How would you compare this year's report to previous years? What stands out?
Most organizations use more than one type of IT infrastructure, and nearly all agree that having a single platform to manage them all would be ideal. Q: Is a single pane of glass to manage it all even possible given the proprietary nature of how cloud is implemented?
Data security and management considerations drive IT infrastructure choices. Q: Given the many choices and options for how organisations can secure and manage the infrastructure and the data, how do you see CIOs and the IT team taming this complexity?
Cloud cost control ranks as a top IT management challenge. How do you contain cloud costs without adding more costs?
The Enterprise Cloud Index noted that 97% of respondents have begun using open-source Kubernetes orchestration. Q: Are we seeing the end of virtual machines? Is this rise in containerisation going to lead to container sprawl? How do you bring back control while supporting business goals?
Sustainability is now an IT priority. Q: Given all the different priorities from simplification, to security, and now sustainability, how do you tie this all together without losing sight of business goals?
What is the overarching message 2023 Annual Enterprise Cloud Index?

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PodChats for FutureCIO: How a data-driven strategy enables AIA to deliver on its customer promises

The COVID-19 crisis continues to have a significant impact on individuals, society, businesses and the wider economy across the globe. The insurance industry has not escaped its impact, but insurers have responded quickly to the crisis. Deloitte says as the broader economy recovers and responds to the pandemic, insurers will face several challenges but also see many new opportunities in the medium to long term.

As organisations move to become more data-driven, we asked AIA Group's Abhishek Sharma, lead for Big Data Transformation at AIA Group, will share with us AIA's journey towards becoming a data-driven business.

What are some data and AI trends in the life insurance sector in Asia?
What are some new and emerging customer and business trends that require the repivot of the insurance sector?
How is AIA leveraging data as the new business driver and resource to transform the traditional life insurance sector in Asia?
What is AIA’s transformation strategy in today's economic climate and how can the approach recession-proof the business?
How has the repivot given rise to new data-driven models for the sector e.g., models leveraging AI, metaverse, gamification, blockchain etc?
What are key business metrics that support how data and AI have benefitted AIA?
What are the considerations and challenges of setting up and integrating data-driven models at scale into AIA’s business?
Any advice for organisations looking to transform and modernise their data strategy?

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The cloud infrastructure and platform services (CIPS) market consists of standardized, highly automated offerings in which infrastructure resources such as compute, networking, and storage are complemented by integrated platform services (managed application, database, and functions as-a-service offerings).

Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 50% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives. Industry cloud platforms enable a shift from generic solutions to platforms designed to fit the specifics of the user’s industry.

In the race to the cloud, organisations are discovering for themselves just how 'not simple' things are in the cloud. The near ease at which organisations can now connect to the cloud and acquire the resources they need to run the business also introduced new challenges including security, scalability, compatibility and interoperability, and compliance.

And like creatures of habit, businesses want to be able to customise the cloud to suit their business objectives – further introducing complexity and additional costs.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Matthew Swinbourne, CTO Cloud Architecture for APAC at NetApp, to walk us through we can turn this growing cloud complexity into a competitive advantage

How have cloud architectures changed since 2020? What is/are driving this change?
When viewed from the perspective of operations and business, is there (among C-suite and operation leaders) an understanding of how this complexity will hit back on the organisation in general?

a. Who is best qualified to lead organisations out of this complexity?

What is the role of the CTO?
Why should CTOs care about how complex cloud architectures have/are become/becoming?

a. How should CTOs work with CIOs to realise the business goals?

How can the CIO work with business and operations leaders ensure user buy-in and adoption of applications and processes?
Drawing from the NetApp study on complexity, what are your recommendations given your role as CTO?
How should leadership navigate the web of emerging technologies without losing sight of business goals and objectives?
AI – what have we achieved so far?
Single pane of glass – are we there yet?

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Gartner says the endlessly expanding digital footprint of modern organizations is introducing new security challenges. The pandemic response has accelerated hybrid work and the digitalization of business processes in the cloud.

2022 showed us what sustained big game ransomware attacks, including multiple attacks on the digital supply chain, deeply embedded vulnerabilities, and increasing attacks on identity systems, can do to vulnerable organisations.

When coupled with the shortage of skilled security staff at all levels, in almost any part of the world, you have to ask: how did we survive 2022, and can we thrive in 2023?

In today's PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Omer Grossman, global chief information officer for CyberArk, to hopefully shed light on how we can architect security for an unknown future.

You recently attended the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit (2023). From your perspective what is the key learning from the Summit?

a. What are the top 3 concerns pre-occupying CISOs, heads of security and CIOs?

In 2023, has the role of the CISO changed much? Can you identify if any – the most significant change (priority) in the role in 2023 compared to previous years?
As your role at CyberArk is an internal one, how do you work with the security team and the CISO, and the rest of the C-suite, and the Board when it comes to the security of CyberArk?
AI is with us now (albeit still maturing) whereas quantum computing is still 5-10 years away. How are these two technologies impacting how cybersecurity technology and practices?
Is there such a thing as futureproofed cybersecurity strategy?

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A database is a collection of structured information, or data, typically stored electronically in a computer system.

A data architecture is a framework of models, policies, rules and standards that an organization uses to manage data and its flow through the organization. Given how and where data today is created, consumed and managed, you have to wonder whether the approaches to data, data architectures and databases are still effective in today's hybrid, multi-cloud approach to doing business.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Karthik Ranganathan, co-founder and CTO, YugabyteDB to get his view on the state of data, data architectures and databases, and more importantly, how do we futureproof our database strategies in today's complex, run-from-anywhere digital society.

Define data architecture and how does it relate to an organisation's database strategy?

a. Where is the impact to database strategy most significantly?

Given that in Asia, we will likely have a hybrid approach to how organisations choose to run their business applications – on-premises public and private cloud (with a mix of SaaS, on-premises off-the-shelf software, and in-house developed software).

a. And allowing for regulations on data sovereignty, how should CIOs and CTOs architect their database strategy?

b. What is your recommendation for a metadata management strategy where you have heterogeneous databases?

How to choose the right database, and is there such a thing as one database for all use cases?
For organisations that choose to be cloud-only, given that they will likely be using multiple SaaS applications – not to mention data protection strategies – what should be the approach to deciding which data architecture and database strategy to consider?
The rise of democratised data is predicted to force enterprises to reinvent their data architecture frameworks. What (How) should CIOs and data architects consider as regards to their enterprise data architecture to futureproof against evolving business needs?
How do you solve/provision for the lack of skills in the market today?

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The explosion in cloud computing adoption, including compute, storage, connectivity, has led to some finance leaders asking what are we doing.

Costs of public cloud IaaS and PaaS can quickly get out of control. The spend variability and absence of capacity constraints, coupled with an increased user autonomy, require new cost governance models that organizations do not possess.

Gartner analyst, Lydia Leong comments that there is no reasonable ROI on FinOps (and certainly no sensible business case for building a FinOps team). That said, she cautions that "doesn’t mean that the organization shouldn’t manage their cloud finances. It just means that they don’t need to manage their cloud finances in a way that’s meaningfully different from the way that they’ve historically managed IT spending in their on-premises data centre."

To shed light on the topic of FinOps, we are joined by Paul Whiten, Emerging Sales Specialist - Cloud Services, APAC for Red Hat. You can think of him as Red Hat's cloud Advocate.

Paul, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Why does FinOps matter? What problems does it solve?
What is the composition of the FinOps team?

a. Can you scope out the principal roles and responsibilities of the FinOps team?

How do you see DevOps and FinOps supporting each other?
What skills / experiences are needed to be part of the FinOps team?
Is FinOps a one-time execution?
How do I get started selling the FinOps story to management?
How do I make sure FinOps is able to sustainably meet its mandate?

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We are all familiar with the concepts of risks and uncertainty. Risk is a quantifiable element of doing business, whereas uncertainty is something we'd like to be prepared for but often challenging to quantify.

Events of the past three years, including those occurring now, have exposed us to both and while we can't absolutely predict uncertainty, we can at least work towards mitigating the risks that may result from these uncertainties.

In today's PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Jonathan Jackson, director of sales engineering APJ at BlackBerry to share with us his perspective on risk quantification strategies in 2023.

1. What is risk quantification? Is it the same as risk assessment? If not what’s the difference?

2. What conditions require risk quantification? Is it a one-time requirement? Perpetual? What are the triggers for needing to do risk quantification?

3. How does an organisation go about assessing whether they need risk quantification as part of their assessment/management strategy?

4. Are all risk quantification solutions/approaches equal?

5. What questions should they be asking when evaluating a risk assessment solution?

6. Who should be involved in making this evaluation?

a. What is your advice for executives charged with risk assessment?

7. How do you get board buy-in?

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Gartner says businesses are challenged to bring value and innovation wherever their customers are. For CIOs and infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders the focus is on enhancing customer experiences and developing staff and skills while building and operating resilient, sustainable, secure, and scalable platforms and systems.

With CIOs under pressure to innovate while keeping the lights on, how should I&O leaders channel the software development team to support innovation goals while meeting commitments around sustainability, lowering costs and staying secure/compliant?

Joining us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Kai Yuan Neo (Kai), CEO, Rocket Academy.

What does software development look like in 2023?
Name 3 trends that will have the most significant long-term impact on software development.

3. [Depending on #2] low-code/no-code, embedded or AI-assisted DevOps, monoliths move to containers

a. How is Generated-AI altering in-house software development?

i. What is driving this trend? (remote work, cloud/multi-cloud/hybrid, security, governance)

b. Do you see the lack of in-house skills/expertise as impairing the ability of organisations to innovate?

c. What would the next evolution of software development, and what derail the above trend?

Name three effective strategies for evaluating software engineering candidates?

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The Omdia report, Asian IoT Megatrends Report, posits that APAC offers great potential for IoT applications, but fragmentation presents complex challenges for businesses in the region. It also acknowledged that the region lags the rest of the world in year-to-date adoption but at the same time claims that only APAC offers a massive capacity for growth.

The report concludes that with IoT enabled solutions being introduced in various verticals and applications ranging from transportation and logistics to energy and utilities; digitalisation and IoT have become the only path towards a connected future.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, we are joined by Titus Yong, chief executive officer, SPTel, for his perspective on how markets in Asia may be poised to accelerate IoT in the years post-pandemic.

1. What are the main obstacles faced by organisations when it comes to enabling technology and innovation in their processes?

2. Focusing our attention to IoT – what do most businesses know about IoT as it relates to their business operations?

3. When it comes to digital transformation and IoT, are business, operations and technologies connecting the dots?

4. Can you highlight where the disconnects are?

5. What is your general view of IoT adoption in Asia? Where is it more mature and where is there significant opportunities ahead for those willing to adoption IoT?

6. As we start to hear more leaders commit to, and call on their organisations, sustainable practices, how do you see IoT supporting such efforts in the near and long-term?

7. What will be critical considerations for organisations undergoing digital transformation, as it relates to the use of IoT?

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Gartner says application modernization services address the migration of legacy to new applications or platforms, including the integration of new functionality to provide the latest functions to the business.

Modernization options include re-platforming, re-hosting, recoding, rearchitecting, re-engineering, interoperability, replacement and retirement, as well as changes to the application architecture to clarify which option should be selected.

Gartner advises application and software engineering leaders to take charge of reshaping their strategies, tactics and cultures to help their organizations drive business change, enable digital innovation and deliver business value.

To drive business value is to deliver software that meets the functional, operational and economic needs of the business. Building the skills to take advantage of, rather than be swamped by, the relentless pace of technological change, is key to success.

In today's PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Praveen Kumar, vice president for Asia Pacific, Rocket Software, to talk about modernisation in the context of Asia's financial services industry.

The financial services sector has been undergoing transformation and disruption for years now. If you compare the transformation (some call it modernisation) and disruptions before and during the pandemic, what is the same and what is different?
Among the approaches CIOs/CTOs to lead/enable the transformation/modernisation – what has worked and what hasn't?

3. What can CIOs/CTOs draw as lessons from 2020-2022?

In 2023, what do you see will be the top priorities of FSIs in the region?
How do you see IT and the CIO supporting these priorities?
There is a greater call on the CIO to show ROI for IT investments. Given this added pressure, what is a sensible approach for heads of technology?

7. How do you see leadership interests around ESG impacting technology priorities and investments in the years ahead?

Closing our podchat on modernisation, what is your advice to CIOs, CTOs and leadership as regards to how to bring forward modernisation in the context of the uncertainties that we will continue to experience in the years ahead?

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The three years since 2020 saw organisations focus on digitalisation, payment efficiency, security, and cash forecasting.

With continuing uncertainty in 2023, how are CFOs and treasurers calibrating their strategies in the years ahead to reflect desires for growth and profitability, a return to business as usual in the face of unpredictability and market volatility.

Joining us to find better ways to manage capital in times of persistent instability is Kabir Ahmed Shakir, Chief Financial Officer, Tata Communications. Kabir, welcome to PodChats for FutureCFO.

Briefly please elaborate your role at Tata Communications.
As a CFO, what is top of your mind in 2023? (narrow to treasury)

a. How does this compare to the previous 3 years?

b. What did CFOs and treasury leaders learn?

3. In times of crisis, cash is king. Is this phrase still relevant in an increasingly digital world? Have you noticed a significant shift in attitude and approaches as it relates to capital strategies as digital transformation continues to mature? (from 2020-2022)

4.Shifting to M&A, S&P reports suggests that overall APAC saw a decline of 11% in deal volume and 24% in transaction value in 2022. Globally, Morgan Stanley sees muted M&A activities in 2023. PwC says M&A tends to slow during times of uncertainty or market volatility—but those can be precisely the times when valuations become more attractive and opportunity knocks. Are CFOs and leadership being prudent or overly cautious?

We've had three years of muted growth if not declines. Now we have inflationary concerns coupled by continuing instability in parts of the world, including what appears to be the start of a new financial crisis. How do you see CFOs shifting their capital management strategies to reflect the continuing, albeit different kind of, crises in 2023 and beyond?
In your opinion, what will be THREE capital management trends in 2023?

a. To what extent will technology support these trends?

What is your advice for CFOs and those in charge of capital strategies as regards to in 2023 and beyond?

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The IBM Institute of Business Value report, 2023 Global Outlook for Banking and Financial Markets, paints three themes facing banks and financial markets: (1) an uncertain world calls for financial services institutions that can flex as needed; (2) healthier financial performance depends, in part, on business and technology leaders who function as coequals; and (3) the next systemic crisis could be an operational one.

On the fintech side, the bank runs at Silicon Bank Valley and Silvergate Bank and the closure of Signature Bank by regulators suggests not all is rosy for those in the fintech sector as investors put greater scrutiny on fintechs.

On the health and wellness front, the longevity of the pandemic in modern times may have sparked a renewed emphasis on personal well-being, and just as important, the willingness of individuals to use digital technologies to enable this newfound interest.

AGBA describes itself as a "one-of-a-kind wealth and health platform" whose ambition is to help people enjoy wealth and health with the ease they deserve. FutureCIO spoke to AGBA Group Chief Information Officer, Arthur Wong, for his take on the office of the CIO can lead the charge in enabling organisations to lead the transformation post-pandemic.

Click on the podchat player to understand how as CIO, Wong is leading the transformation journey of the group to make sure that the company is able to deliver the services, mostly sourced from its partner network, to the intended consumers of the service.

Please describe the business of AGBA.
As the Group CIO, can you elaborate what role you are playing to support the overall objectives of AGBA.
Which development (business, economic, socio-political) has had the most significant impact on the role of the CIO since 2020?
In 2023, what would be your top goals of the office as the CIO?
What needs to happen for the CIO to be effective in his/her role?

a. What remains the top challenges for CIOs in 2023?

What is your advice for those wishing to pursue a career leading to a CIO?
Can you share a bit what AGBA fintech ecosystem is comprising and why is it so unique and powerful in the market? What are the benefits brought to your stakeholders?
What does AGBA do to manage customer data security and risk control without sacrificing the platform efficiency and scalability?

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“Against a backdrop of unrelenting social and economic pressures, marketing leaders look toward a future where smarter marketing leads to deeper, more valuable connections between customers and brands,” said Andrew Frank, Distinguished VP Analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice.

Gartner says in the years to come marketers will face greater scrutiny over their operations. What strategies should marketers incorporate into their 2023 plans to drive results and regain the confidence of business leaders?

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Lawrence Yip, a seasoned marketing professional for a Singapore-listed industrial and township developer in Asia to share with us insights on CMO strategies that deliver value and trust.

1. Name one lesson from the past 3 years that you think will have significance to the CMO and marketing role in 2023 and beyond?

2. What would you say is the most significant change in marketing following the pandemic?

3. Coming into 2023, how can CMOs turn the threat of a recession into an opportunity?

4. How do you see CMOs operationalizing AI?

5. What skills must the CMO develop further in 2023 to support growth and resilience?

6. To what extent should CMOs depend on technology to support the business?

7. What is your advice for aspiring marketing professionals in 2023?

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Shared services are the consolidation of business operations that are used by numerous parts of the same organisation, or different business units that are part of a conglomerate. In some instances, these shared services capabilities have been honed to the point where they are spun off as independent businesses selling their capabilities to other companies outside of the group.

Just how lucrative is the market? Coherent Market Insights forecasts the global shared services market to reach US$98.17 billion by 2027.

To know more about the opportunities, challenges and what lies ahead for shared services, we are joined by Elmer Sarmiento, director of finance and accounting operations at Personiv.

What is the business of Personiv?

Please briefly describe your role at Personiv.

How has the pandemic influenced/impacted the finance function?

You’ve built a career around shared service. What is driving the demand for shared services particularly in the finance function?

Which finance functions are best suited to outsource and by inference best suited to stay in-house?

If a CFO should decide to opt for outsourcing finance to a service provider, what considerations should be kept in mind?

Among the many technologies available to finance (both old and new), which do you think will have the biggest value to the finance function in the performance of its duties and responsibilities?

What is your advice for finance professionals seeking to build their careers post-pandemic?

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S&P forecasts that Asia-Pacific will achieve real growth of 3.5% in 2023 while Europe and the U.S. will likely face recession. But Asia, being a supplier to the world, will likely not be totally out of the woods.

Technology has made financial reporting easy for everyone involved in the process, from the finance and accounts team preparing reports to the regulators, investors, and others who use those reports. That said, technology is only one aspect of the reporting process.

With reporting regulations continuing to evolve, and market certainty remaining unpredictable in 2023, how should the CFO, finance leaders and, indeed the entire, finance department work to ensure the team is able to meet expectations?

With us today on PodChats for FutureCFO is Ryan Gan, global reporting & statutory leader, Baker Hughes, to talk to us about the continuing transformation of finance reporting.

What is Baker Hughes and your role as global reporting & statutory leader for the company?
Finance reporting – can you describe the work conditions for the finance controller and his/her team?

a. In your view, what have been the most significant changes to the function since the pandemic started?

Gartner says there is mounting pressure to digitize finance. Given the many other priorities on the finance’s plate (for example, accelerating digital business), is digitizing finance (some say transforming finance) still high on the agenda? Why?
Of the many technologies being introduced – AI, data analytics, automation, etc – which do you see are the ones finance will prioritize on in the short-term, mid-term and long-term?
Hybrid/remote work is said to continue in 2023. Given all the learnings of the past 3 years, do you think hybrid work will impact the productivity/efficiency of the finance function?
Moving into 2023, what do you see are the top challenges for controllers/finance?
Drawing from your experience, what would you recommend are top action items in 2023?

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2022 was a colourful year for Asia Pacific with the continuing pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war combining to strain even further the global supply chain of which APAC is a major part.

Into 2023, we remain hopeful that economies in the region will pick up from 2022 and continue their recovery journeys. One of the notable technology trends that saw significant adoption from 2020 onwards is cloud computing. While there was a notable shift in the adoption of this service, FutureCIO discussions with heads of technology, be it infrastructure, software or security, is that on-premises investments are not going anyway anytime soon.

Indeed if there is ever one word to describe the approach many in the region are taking that would be hybrid or some combination of their own infrastructure, including on-premises and private clouds, and outright use of public operated by one of those hyperscalers.

So whatever shape or form it will take, IT infrastructure will remain an important point of discussion, planning and management in the years ahead.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Ms Geetha Gopal, Head of Infrastructure Projects Delivery and Digital Transformation at Panasonic Asia Pacific to share her perspective on infrastructure trends for Asia Pacific in 2023.

Define for us the scope of work of the infrastructure & operations (I&O) leader?
What do you see are important issues facing IT infrastructure managers in Asia?
Given that organisations in Asia are favouring a hybrid model for infrastructure (own, managed and public), how does this setup affect the work of the IT infrastructure team?
How does the I&O team with the office of the CISO to ensure the security of the infrastructure and the data/applications it supports?
Given the growing complexity of the IT infrastructure vs the difficulty of acquiring/keeping the right set of skills, expertise and experience, what will be important to I&O leaders and the team?
Drawing from your experience, what are some best practices for ensuring a smooth working relationship between the CIO, CISO and I&O?
Advise for other I&O leaders in 2023?

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“In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity” Albert Einstein

In times of recession, the often approach taken is cutting corners. Budget cuts can come in the form of delayed expansion, modernisation plans or upgrades, cutting marketing budgets, and in some cases layoffs.

While technology spend is not immune from any budget cuts, arguments arise when the cybersecurity discussions come into play. Given that cybersecurity is a top priority among organisations in Asia-Pacific, and apply this to the reality that economies are headed towards a downward trend, how do leaders decide what to keep, what to leave out for now, when it comes to the protection of the organisation’s digital assets?

Joining us on PodChats for FutureCISO is Adrian Hia, senior regional vice president, ASEAN & greater China at Zscaler.

QUESTIONS:

With the threat of a local or global recession looming, is now the time for the CIO and CTO agree in terms of what investments need to be prioritised for 2023?
How should the CIO and CISO decide – together and separately – which areas make sense to upgrade, keep and defer for when the recession is no longer a concern?

3. Given that we appear to be in a near-constant state of crisis, how should leadership plan their investment strategies, particularly around information technology? And how does one do so while pursuing the digital transformation aspiration of the company?

At the end of the day, push comes to shove, what areas of cybersecurity should be prioritised and what can be left behind for another day?
Topic: How to recession-proof cybersecurity strategies, what is your advice for decision-makers when addressing cybersecurity regardless of the state of the economy or business?
Where does Zscaler fit in our discussion around recession-proofing cybersecurity strategies?

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The chief technology officer, also known as a chief technical officer or chief technologist, is an executive-level position focused on the scientific and technological issues within an organisation. A CTO is very similar to a chief information officer.

It can be argued that the shortening cycle of technology advances coupled with the near-constant uncertainty that is the hallmark of 2022 will continue to be the norm in 2023. And as businesses continue to depend on technology to innovate both externally and internally, what must the chief technology officer do to be effective at his or her role?

With us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Vishal Ghariwala, CTO for APJ and GC at SUSE (SUSA) to share with us his perspective on the makings of a great CTO.

1. What makes for a great CTO? (experience, qualifications, expertise)

2. Describe the role of the CTO in Asia Pacific in 2023? What is the most significant (if any) change in the role since the pandemic?

3. Given the many business goals, how does the CTO juggle between wish lists, priorities, and the reality of constrained budgets?

4. To be effective at his/her role, how should the CTO work alongside other members of the C-suite?

5. What remains the top challenges of the CTO in 2023?

6. What is your advice for those wishing to pursue a CTO career?

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A Cybersecurity Ventures report, Women in Cybersecurity 2022, estimates that women held about 25% of cybersecurity roles globally, up from 20% in 2019 or 10% in 2013.

The forecast looks promising that by 2025, women will hold 30% of cybersecurity roles and 35% by 2031. So there is some progress. However, given the long road ahead, how should we prepare in the current generation of women aspiring for a role in cybersecurity not just to enter the profession but also to prosper and become the leaders they are meant to be?

Joining us today on PodChats for FutureCISO is Ms Mel Migrino, chairman and president of the Women in Security Alliance Philippines.

1. Perhaps to start, you can talk about what is Women in Security Alliance Philippines all about?

2. Having met cybersecurity leaders such as yourself, what one characteristic is common to some of the best cybersecurity specialists you know?

3. What is your view of women representation in the cybersecurity space?

4. What is driving this inequality in representation in the cybersecurity space?

5. What needs to happen to encourage greater participation of women in the cybersecurity space?

6. For women aspiring to enter the security space, what characteristics must they hone, qualifications they need to build?

7. What personal risks should those interested in pursuing a CISO career keep in mind?

8. Any advise for those interested to pursue a career in cybersecurity?

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The impact of the pandemic and the rapid acceleration of digital initiatives in a short time forced organizations to control and manage disruptions to their business. As security and risk management leaders handle the recovery and renewal phases from the past two years, they must consider forward-looking strategic planning assumptions when allocating resources and selecting products and prioritizing services and initiatives. How do security and risk management leaders keep pace with the future of digital in a post-pandemic scenario?

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Sean Duca, VP and regional chief security officer, APJ with Palo Alto Networks to share with us what lies ahead for CISOs and security professionals in Asia this coming 2023.

1. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 60% of organisations will fail to realise the benefits of zero trust. Why do you think this is so?

2. Gartner forecasts that by 2025, 40% of boards will have a dedicated cyber committee and 50% will have performance requirements for C-level?

3. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 30% of nations globally will pass legislation on ransomware. Do you think this is too little too late by then?

4. Onto Palo Alto Network’s own predictions for the coming year:

a. Why do you think the acceleration of 5G adoption will deepen vulnerabilities? (viewed from enterprise)

b. When you say cloud supply chain attacks will disrupt businesses? How can enterprises address new potential vulnerabilities while adopting the use of clouds – public or private?

c. Data sovereignty has been around for decades. Why will intensify in 2023 and how can enterprises comply with evolving regulations on this, while taking advantage of the borderless opportunities accorded by the Internet?

d. The metaverse is nascent at this stage. For organisations looking at this intently, how should they approach the technology?

5. Looking at 2023, what are your top 3 recommendations for CISO and CIOs as they look to protect the enterprise against the unpredictable?

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IoT Analytics says the digital supply chain market is accelerating. The firm identifies eight supply chain technology innovations that are helping to make global supply chains more robust, including AS/RS technology, intralogistics robots, IoT track and trace, AI-enabled software, and supply chain digital twins.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, Matthieu Kulezak, market research analyst at IoT Analytics lists out and explains how these technologies are redefining the future of global supply chains.

1. Define the Digital supply chain.

2. Looking back from pre-pandemic to this period (mid-August 2022), how have things changed regarding digital supply chains?

3. In accelerating digital transformation, which areas of the software have gained relevance in the industry vertical of the supply chain?

4. Which trends are helping in digitising the supply chain?

5. How are companies approaching the topic of cybersecurity in the supply chain?

6. In summarizing everything we’ve discussed, what is IoT Analytics’ recommendations for business, operations and technology leaders?

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Any device that is connected to the internet is susceptible to some form of cyberattack. Apart from the fact that IoT devices inherently have very little built-in security, and that patch management can be difficult because of their physical nature, the interconnectedness of these devices and the subsequent complex environments they are implemented in pose grave security threats across entire networks.

Monitoring is a vital part of every security strategy, ensuring that all classic security tools like firewalls, unusual detection systems or privileged access management (PAM)-tools work flawlessly.

Suitable monitoring solutions can ensure physical security by integrating door-locking systems, security cameras, smoke detectors or temperature sensors into central monitoring. And businesses in APAC should be prioritising this in 2023 to reduce their risk of cyber-attacks and data breaches.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, David Montoya, the global head of IoT at Paessler, talks about the challenges organisations face as they integrate IoT into the operations, and why monitoring may be the best path forward to securing IoT as the converged future of IT, OT and IoT.

Paint us a picture of the security landscape where it involves IoT?

Technologies like IoT, security practices and regulations have evolved, why do IoT continue to be vulnerable?

Is the lack of standards around IoT protocol a problem for securing IoT?

Will this wide range of protocols also hinder the effective use of monitoring tools and services?

As IoT start to connect – be part of the enterprise, how should the CIO, CISO and the COO or head of operations work together to better secure IoT as these connect to the enterprise?

Your thoughts for 2023?

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The workplace of the digital economy can be described as the convergence of old practices with new technologies, with the winner likely to be influenced by any number of factors including staying ahead of the technology curve.

Gartner says that the “future of work” continues to be synonymous with a remote and hybrid workforce. But while this shift is a seismic change for many organisations, it is only part of the equation.

Workforce planning — anticipating future talent needs — is at the epicentre of a future of work strategy and is a top priority for HR leaders. But today’s workforce planning is disconnected from reality and current strategies are ineffective at combating the disruptive landscape. Think: shifting skills, scarce talent, high turnover and a shift in the employee-employer dynamic.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Ethan Li, chief strategy officer at MaivenPoint to talk about the evolving corporate learning for the hybrid workforce.

1. What are the key trends of the hybrid work model in 2022?

2. Why has this model worked so far? If any, what has not worked?

3. What mistakes can we learn from the Great Resignation?

4. We are coming into 2023, how do you see hybrid work evolving?

5. What is your recommendation for leaders to build a positive hybrid work culture?

6. To help our audience understand where you are coming from, what is MaivenPoint?

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IDC says Asia/Pacific organisations continue to refine hybrid working practices and organizational culture to accommodate new ways of working that enhance productivity, security, employee retention and customer satisfaction.

Automated learning and low-no code tools will catalyze employees’ skills training and development and keep businesses to stay relevant in the digital-first economy. At the same time, frontline workers are expected to have more access to technology that allows them to design and implement automated processes.

In the book, Strategy That Works, authors Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi, noted that successful companies narrow the strategy-execution gap by committing to what they do best instead of chasing multiple opportunities. They also build their own unique winning capabilities instead of copying others. In addition, they out their culture to work instead of struggling to change it and invest where it matters instead of going lean across the board. Successful companies also shape the future instead of reacting to it.

A gap exists when expectations are not met. In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Arvind Wang, co-founder, Chairman and CEO at Laiye explains how to narrow the work execution gap.

What is a Work Execution Gap? Why does it exist?
What is the impact of work execution gaps in the profitability and growth of a business?
How does a business narrow the work execution gap? (do not focus on WES here)
How/Why/When/where does a work execution system fit into the narrowing the work execution gap?
Is WES the only way to narrow the gap?
WES is new. As in many new efforts, there is a high risk of failure. How does an organisation adopt WES while minimising the risk of failure?

What is your recommendation to business/HR/Ops/IT leaders looking to narrow the work execution gap using WES?

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A persistent pandemic around the world and global geopolitical conflicts continues to dominate headlines. Navigating uncertainties and managing supply chain challenges accordingly has, out of necessity, become a top business priority.

The Business Costs of Supply-Chain Disruption report by the Economist Intelligence Unit estimates that the disruptions of the past two years are costing companies, on average, 6 to 10% of annual revenues. This doesn’t include reputational costs as companies struggle to maintain supplies of their goods.

The report goes on to say that, as a consequence, businesses are exchanging efficiency for greater resilience. Some are prioritising costlier suppliers in less risky markets.

The EIU cautions that such strategies come at a cost. “But firms are working to mitigate these costs through investments in technology, simplified and regionalised supply chains, and, in some cases, simplifying the design of goods to make components easier to source, as this report discovers.”

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Kuntha Chelvanathan, Partner, Supply Chain, and Procurement Transformation, IBM Consulting, APAC, to provide with some perspective around supply chain resilience and growth amid the continuing uncertainties.

1. For chief supply chain leaders, what are the top three learnings since 2020?

2. How are these learnings translating into change in terms of how supply chain systems and processes are designed and operated?

3. Specific to visibility, define for us what is visibility in the context of the supply chain?

4. Uncertainty will likely continue to be the norm in the years ahead. Given this, how should the CSCO help better prepare the organisation to improve the supply chain’s resilience?

5. What is important to supply chain operations going forward? What are the key imperatives they will focus on?

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Access to low-cost, low-power sensor technology, the availability of high-speed connectivity, the increase in cloud adoption, and the growing use of data processing and analytics are among the key drivers boosting for the deployment of IoT technologies. It also helps that smart city efforts continue to progress.

As Asia comes out of the three-year economic slump because of the pandemic, what lies ahead for businesses? What is the role of IoT in the return to some form of normalcy?

Earlier FutureIoT spoke to Danny Mu, principal analyst at Forrester Research, on recent trends around IoT adoption in Asia and where it will lead us in 2023 and beyond. What follows is an excerpt of that dialogue.

1. Drawing from the Forrester report, State of IoT in Asia Pacific in 2022, where is the concentration of IoT deployment?

a. Why is that?

b. What is driving this deployment of IoT?

2. Which industries are leading the deployment?

a. Compared to other regions outside Asia, how sophisticated (mature) is the level of use of IoT?

3. Within the leadership at organisations deploying IoT, what do you see are the primary motivations?

4. How do you see these IoT deployments impacting other initiatives like transformation, modernisation, etc.?

5. Given that security is a rising concern for businesses, how should enterprises deploying IoT manage the security strategy of the company?

6. As we step into 2023, how should enterprises review IoT deployment strategies to ensure that these initiatives meet expectations?

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Ransomware remains one of the more dreaded cyberthreats of the decade. But for a ransomware attack to be initiative, the attacker must first have your credentials. One such enabler of ransomware operations are infostealers.

According to Secureworks Counter Threat Unit researchers, on a single day in June 2022, over two million credentials obtained by infostealers were available for sale on just one underground marketplace. Check Point estimates that up to 21% of malware worldwide is made up of infostealers.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Alex Tilley, head of intelligence research for Asia-Pacific at Secureworks, to shed light on how to counter the rise of infostealers.

1. What is an infostealer malware? How does it work?

2. Are infostealers prevalent in Asia? What are the motivations? Any difference between the types of infostealer malwares used in Asia compared to elsewhere?

3. How do infostealers work? In what situations (in Asia) are infostealers more successful in this region?

4. We’ve noted the rise in use of VPNs during the pandemic. Will the use of VPN lessen the threat of infostealers?

5. So the increase of MFA and VPNs aside, what are the misconceptions among CISOs, security professionals and users when it comes to combating infostealers?

6. Will the adoption of FIDO2 and passwordless or passkeys help in the fight against infostealers? Do you anticipate cybercriminals finding ways around these?

7. Coming into 2023, what strategies will work best against infostealers? How should CISOs work with CIOs and the rest of the organisation to better secure the business against infostealers?

8. Closing our PodChat, what are your expectations for 2023?

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The role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is growing, and the scope of digital business intensifies. Among board directors, 64% say their organization is trying to significantly alter its economic architecture to put more emphasis on digital (revenues, margins, productivity, etc.). At the same time, 88% say they recognize cybersecurity is a risk to the business.

A great CISO has the ability to assess and prioritize appropriate assets that need to be protected. Understand and prioritize the risks to those assets. Convey those risks in terms that boards can understand to allocate necessary budgets. Identify and implement appropriate controls to protect those assets.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Apol Salud, Chief Security and Digital Officer for Gur Lavi Corporation.

1. How has the role of the CISO shifted in the current environment?

2. When demonstrating business value, what is one of the most important strategies for CISOs to keep in mind?

3. How do you juggle the differing expectations, interests, and demands of leaders in your organisation, as well as users, third-party business partners, regulators, and customers?

4. Coming into 2023, what will be the key challenge facing the CISO?

5. What makes for a successful CISO? What one quality do you think will prove most valuable to a CISO’s future?

6. Where do you see the CISO career moving?

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Shifting customer behaviours amplify uncertainty, burdensome cross-functional collaboration yields worse organizational outcomes, and disruptive market dynamics erode traditional sources of brand value. These are some of the challenges facing heads of marketing as we enter 2023.

Gartner says customer demand and buying behaviours continue to fluctuate unpredictably amid pandemic waves, supply chain disruption, inflationary price increases and geopolitical instability. At the same time, strategic marketing priorities — such as innovation, customer experience (CX) and digital commerce — transcend functional boundaries, becoming enterprise priorities with complex cross-functional execution.

Also, traditional sources of brand value are under pressure amid new forces, including disruptive market entrants, heightened audience expectations and the ease of digital learning about unfamiliar brands.

“As CMOs enter 2023, the current environment demands a relentless focus on customer value, purposeful evolution of the marketing function, and continual optimization of brand value,” said Ewan McIntyre, chief of research in the Gartner Marketing practice. “In order to meet the enterprise mandate of driving growth amid continued disruption, CMOs must act decisively to prioritize their investments and their strategy for the year ahead.”

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Srinivas Gattamneni, chief executive officer with ADA, a data and tech-enabled digital marketing and commerce solutions provider.

1. What is the value of marketing today? As a practice, how has it evolved from marketing practices of 2012?

2. What do you see is lacking among marketers in Asia? (skills, experience, etc)

3. What are the top 3 challenges marketers face as they modernise the practice in Asia?

4. How do you see CIO, CMO and Chief of ecommerce work together?

5. Forrester and Gartner are of the opinion that marketing should put greater focus on creating customer value. How would you interpret this into action items for marketers?

6. Coming into 2023, what are your top predictions for marketing and recommendations for marketers?

7. Are marketing practices today sufficiently open and mature to drive this customer experience?

8. What is the value proposition of ADA?

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The prevalence and severity of mobile-related compromises continues to escalate in 2022. Perhaps even more interesting is that small and medium-sized businesses perceived the risk to be more significant compared to those from larger organisations (73% vs 60% respectively).

On a more positive note, the rise in cyber threat awareness has also seen a rise in cybersecurity budgets among 77% of respondents to the Verizon 2022 Mobile Security Index report.

The research found that companies are now spending more evenly across the give National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIS) Cybersecurity Framework.

With 2023 just around the corner, 77% of respondents expect the budgets to increase in the coming 12 months.

FutureCISO spoke to Don Tan, senior director for APAC at Lookout for his take on evolving mobile security landscape in Singapore and other ASEAN markets.

Click on the PodChat player for more details about the above responses by Tan.

What is the state of mobile security awareness in Singapore and ASEAN?
What are the most common security threats to mobile devices in 2022?
Why is it important to secure mobile endpoints and what does it do beyond perimeter security to help employees to be productive yet safe?
What is a Security Service Edge (SSE) platform and its benefits for organisations?
What is your advice for organisations considering adopting SSE solutions?
When it comes to SSE, is a single source better than best of breed?
In all our discussions on SSE, what does Lookout bring to the table?

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We’ve had two years of experiences dealing with unrelenting uncertainties. Some have come out stronger, others not so much. As we prepare for the new year, we continue to face uncertainties but with expectations that we are better prepared for what lies ahead. Or are we?

With us, today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Amit Walia, CEO of Informatica – a software company best known for its Enterprise Cloud Data Management and Data Integration solutions.

In the Gartner CIO agenda 2023, it is revealed that while CIOs and other technology executives are tasked with delivering on increased digital technology investments, senior leaders feel that their expectations are not being met. Why do you think this is so?

The past two years we’ve seen businesses accelerate transformation initiatives. This is expected to continue in 2023. How do you see these initiatives being pushed forward in 2023?

It is our understanding that we will continue to experience a talent shortage in the region. How should CIOs approach the execution of IT initiatives when skills are in short supply?

We’ve seen organisations shift to a subscription model around technology investments. Do you think the days of custom code on-premises solutions are behind us?

As a CEO of a software company, what worries you the most? What is the next big thing in technology, and how are you preparing your organisation for that?

Coming to the end of our PodChat, we started off with a comment about digital investments not meeting the promised returns. What should CIOs do to resolve this disconnect?

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According to Check Point Research, global attacks increased by 28%in the third quarter of 2022 compared to same period in 2021. The average weekly attacks per organization worldwide reached over 1,130.

Complicating the situation is the talent shortage, especially for experienced cybersecurity professionals. According to the 2022 Cybersecurity Workforce Study by ISC(2) there is a shortfall of 2.2 million cybersecurity workers in Asia Pacific. This means that the current 859,000 security professionals are likely stressed and burnout at their place of work.

It can also be argued that CIOs, CISOs and CHROs are themselves frustrated as they look to fill in missing posts while stressed at trying to keep existing staff from leaving.

In today’s PodChat for FutureCISO, we are joined by Anastasia Tikhonova, Head of APT Research, Group-IB, to shed light on what it takes and means to become a security researcher or getting started as a security researcher.

1. With you as our guest expert, I’m sure our audience it will find our session today most interesting. For starters, what is a Security Researcher?

2. What qualities, characteristics and perhaps credentials does one need to become a security researcher?

3. How do you avoid burnout?

4. For best results, how should CISOs and security teams work with a Researcher?

5. When does it make sense to build your own “Research” team or when to outsource?

6. What is your advice for those interested in a career as a security researcher?

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Hiring and retaining staff is the most difficult task facing CFOs over the next 12 months, according to a survey from Gartner. This is also reflected in CXOCIETY’s FutureCFO summits held in five key markets in Asia including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

Gartner posits that the tight labour market is part of a trifecta of factors including persistent inflation and supply chain disruptions that are set to continue challenging corporate profitability through 2023.

Beyond talent, two other issues among CFOs participating in the Gartner survey forecasting at 36% and cutting the right costs at 35% made up the top three challenges facing CFOs.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Philip Madgwick, Senior Director, Alteryx, Asia, to share with us his perspective on how Asia’s finance leaders can use data analytics to be strategic enablers of digital transformation to drive business outcomes amid continuing uncertainties.

Data-driven has been a term we’ve come to associate with organisations undertaking digital or business transformation.

1. How does fostering a data-driven culture empower the finance team to deliver insights-driven decision-making in an agile and scalable manner, and drive business outcomes?

2. Can you describe the challenges and pitfalls impeding the Office of Finance in its data-driven journey?

3. How can enterprises better equip CFOs and their finance teams to step up as a strategic business partners and navigate the upheavals in the economic market?

4. Can you share three best practices to help guide finance teams as they undertake finance modernisation?

5. Given all the emerging technologies that continue to evolve, what is your prediction and guidance for finance in 2023?

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Exponential technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and automation have sparked the next wave in enterprise transformation, offering both challenges and opportunities for the enterprise.

As enterprises look to embrace these technologies, CFOs and finance organizations are uniquely positioned to take their current roles of stewards of data, algorithms of measurements, and validation of benefits, to bring about the next generation of business – that of the cognitive enterprise.

In an IBM Global C-Suite study, two-thirds of CFOs surveyed confirm that their agenda includes taking an active role in developing strategy, driving growth, reducing costs, managing risks and providing insights.

But about half of CFOs report their finance organizations aren’t as effective as they need to be. Finance needs to engage and weigh in much faster on emerging opportunities.

In today’s PodChat for FutureCFO, we are joined by Sanjay Patil, Executive Partner, Finance and Supply Chain Transformation, IBM Consulting, ASEAN, to share with us his views on action items to accelerate finance transformation.

1. Why is artificial intelligence important to the CFO and the finance team?

2. As finance teams undergo their own transformations, how does AI impact the transformation journey?

3. Gartner says AI adoption in finance is still nascent. What are your recommendations for the CFO (and finance team) ensure that AI benefits are achieved even during the early stages of adoption?

4. What questions should the CFO and finance team asked themselves and IT to ensure that everyone understands what is happening, and thereby minimise risks of unmet expectations?

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Southeast Asia has for decades been an export manufacturing hub to the world competing with another powerhouse manufacturer in the region – China.

But with the US-led trade tension with China, Southeast Asia or the ASEAN region is presented with a golden opportunity to take a bigger slice of the manufacturing demand in the years ahead. Of course, to do this most of the ASEAN member nations must move up the value chain stepping out of the shadows of what is primarily viewed as – a location for low-wage assembly work.

Next-generation Industry 4.0 technologies and mounting pressures on companies to lower their greenhouse gas emissions, meanwhile, are creating new opportunities by changing the game

In line with its rebirth as a more modern manufacturing base, the Boston Consulting Group forecasts that by 2030, the manufacturing industry in SEA will see increase in foreign-direct investment by up to US$22 billion, potentially generate up to US$600 billion, and see and create up to 140,000 new jobs annually.

But what will it take to become the factory to the world?
Chris Lee, regional vice president for Asia Pacific at Rockwell Automation's software business unit joins FutureIoT for a look at how industrial IoT is transforming Asia's manufacturing sector.
Click on the PodChat player for more details on Lee’s observations, opinion and recommendations on how industrial IoT is transforming Asia’s manufacturing sector.

What is the significance of smart, connected factories?
In terms of Southeast Asian as a manufacturing hub, where do we stand?
What are the challenges that Asian manufacturers will face, as they try and adapt these new technologies to their existing operations in the region, including the partners in the ecosystem?
What do you see is the role of government in supporting these manufacturers?
How do you see Asian manufacturers adopting new technologies while complying with ESG requirements as demand for a more sustainable manufacturing practice rise?
How should manufacturers accommodate concerns around cybersecurity?
Is reshoring going to be a concern for manufacturers in Asia?
What are your thoughts on rising inflation in 2023?
What is your advice for Asian manufacturers as they start to look to implement or integrate these new technologies be more competitive, efficient, productive, as a supplier to the world?

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Challenging may be the appropriate word to document the environment that will greet businesses in 2023. We are faced with continuing supply chain shortages, a war in the West that promises to keep energy costs for the immediate future, and rising inflation – not to mention the shadow of a pandemic that mutates too frequently to offer respite for governments, citizens and businesses.

In the book, "Leaders. The Strategies For Taking Charge," economists and authors Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus described the challenges posed to management and leadership by various external factors and what the consequences are for corporate leadership.

VUCA or Volatility, Uncertainty, Complex and Ambiguous was what the US Army War College’s response to the collapse of the USSR. Today VUCA is being applied to many of the conditions we are facing today.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Erik Saito, SVP and GM for EMEA and APAC, Workiva, to share his perspective on Imperatives of a modern CFO's office.

How would you characterise the business climate today?
What does VUCA mean for CFO leadership and strategies?
How would you compare the focus of the CFO pre and during VUCA?
For the finance team, how is VUCA impacting the team in the performance/fulfilment their functions?
How should the CFO (and finance team) adjust how they perform their duties to reflect VUCA conditions?
To what extent do you see technology as enabling the CFO and finance team to continue being effective in times of VUCA?
Any recommendations for the CFO and finance leadership to be more effective in times of VUCA?

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Enterprises are accelerating their adoption of digitalization and agile methodologies, dramatically changing their risk profiles. According to Gartner, many organizations continue to add layers of defence, which in turn increases the complexity of defending against the continued onslaught of more and more advanced attacks.

The 2022 State of the Threat from Secureworks noted that in 2022, ransomware, loaders, stealers, zero-day exploits and cyberwarfare and espionage just kept coming. What is just as troubling is that threat actors are growing in skill and stealth.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Alex Tilley, head of intelligence research for Asia-Pacific at Secureworks, to talk to us about business and CISO preparedness considerations for ransomware attacks.

1. What are the highlights of this year’s 2022 State of the Threat report? In particular, what has changed significantly from the previous year?

2. Specific to Asia-Pacific, what are business leaders and CISOs getting right and wrong when it comes to cybersecurity preparedness?

3. Specific to ransomware, at the operational level, how big of a problem is ransomware for the CISO? In the cases where an organisation has a CISO and experiences a successful ransomware attack, is the CISO typically asked to explain what happened, why it continues to happen, and what to do next?

4. There is growing legislation in some countries to advise organisations not to pay for ransomware. What is your view on this?

5. As we come out of the shadow of the pandemic, how does a CISO help prepare the organisation against ransomware?

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One of the defining characteristics of the digital economy is our increased dependence on third-party organisations. Whether we are manufacturers, retailers, hotels, financial institutions or government, we rely on a network of suppliers and business partners to create and deliver goods and services.

While this interdependence allows us to achieve economies of scale, it also introduces risks to our business.

Consider the case of Japan automaker, Toyota. In February 2022, Toyota shut down operations in Japan after a major plastic supplier, Kojima Industries, suffered a data breach. Kojima had remote access to Toyota manufacturing plants, greatly increasing Toyota’s risk. As a result of the temporary shutdown, Toyota suffered financial and operational losses.

These third-party risks extend all the way to our technology suppliers. Consider the case of SolarWinds and Kaseya – both are trusted names in their industries. When both suffered a breach, the attack cascaded down to their customers.

So how do you protect your business when the potential threat is from outside your control. With us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Siddharth Deshpande, Field CTO, Asia Pacific, Palo Alto Networks, to talk to us about securing the outside from within.

Siddharth, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

What are the hidden risks and threats posed by Third-Party Code?
How can Infrastructure-as-code play a key role in supply chain protection?

a. Misconfiguration vulnerability.

How can code security prevent vulnerabilities and compliance violations in container images?
What is the significance of policy-as-code in the provision of controls built into code?
Most of the modern application code is made up of open-source dependencies. How can the industry build confidence in open-source security?
As organisations pursue cloud-native applications, and work more collaboratively with third-party partners, what is your advice for CIO/CISO and CTO in securing third party applications?

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The latest projections from the Asian Development Bank are that the region is expected to grow 4.3% this year, down from 5.2% in April 2022. It has also lowered its 2023 forecast to 4.9% while inflation forecast has been raised to 4.0% attributing this to higher energy and food prices.

Given the continuing uncertainties we face today and the disruptions that come with these, how should CFOs strategize and lead their organisations to become the disruptors?

With us on this PodChats for FutureCFO is William Foo, Group Chief Finance Officer for LUXASIA to share with us his take of leading as disruptors.

Perhaps to our audience an understanding of where we are coming from as regards this PodChat, describe for us the business of LUXASIA.

What do people get wrong about disruption, innovation and transformation?
How do you become the disruptor and not the disrupted?
For risk-averse leaders, how do you convey a message/proposal that suggests taking a chance on something untested by the company?
Name one strategy that works to create a sustained culture of disruption?
What is your response to a manager that says no to an idea?
How do you overcome barriers to innovation?

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Enterprises continue to mature in the art of acquiring data whether this is structured or unstructured. But having data alone has proven to be no predictor of whether a business is successful at drawing insights from the data.

Gartner says data-driven organizations struggle with increasing data diversity; its producers, consumers and distributed nature; and automation demands to relieve strained resources. As they look at data management solutions, care must be taken to look for solutions that provide agility, resilience and simplicity across the data landscape to increase business impact.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Angel (Spanish) Viña, founder and CEO, Denodo Technologies for his take on the challenges organisations face in their quest to become more data-driven.

How has data management evolved over the pandemic? What lessons can we draw from here?
How can businesses build a strategy to best access and utilize their data as their operations become more complex?
In their best to better manage their data, what challenges will businesses face and Can you cite some typical mistakes organisations experience when managing data?
Given the many different technologies and approaches to data management – for example, distributed vs centralized data management, how does an organisation decide what is best for them?
We expect a slow but positive recovery in the years ahead. What is certain is that uncertainties are here to stay. How can decision-makers best prepare themselves to obtain faster access to high-quality data to make better business decisions?

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Activities like video conferencing, mobile work, cloud computing – all of these have been around well before the pandemic. Before anyone ever coined businesses have been undergoing transformation to reflect opportunities presented at the time. If what we mean by digital is the use of information technology, that too has been around for decades.

What is different though is that in recent years, digital transformation brings initiatives and technologies to support an organisation’s effort to align people, process, and technology more closely towards the company’s core business objectives and future vision.

One thing is clear for many organisations, digital business transformation is not a project or technology or initiative that can be implemented and the organisation moves on to the next. It is a journey that will evolve over time.

With us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Rajesh Nandakumar, head of Information technology, Westpac Institutional Bank Asia for his take how to futureproof an organisation’s modernisation strategy.

Given the responses of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, how do you see your organisation responding to measures to contain costs while adapting to evolving market conditions?
How will these impact your efforts around:

a. Legacy application modernization (including cloud migration)

b. Rollout of new applications

What are common issues you face in your software development cycle as well as software support?
Where do you see low-code application development making an impact in your organization? (i.e., will you look for increased business agility, faster time-to-market, cost savings, better customer support)

a. How will low-code drive your digital transformation and modernization efforts?

b. Where do you see the most impactful use cases for low-code development in financial services? (i.e., how do you see low-code development benefiting your organization most)

c. What kind of applications do you see low-code development most beneficial (e.g. cybersecurity, data modelling/analytics, work process automation, IoT/edge computing, e-commerce applications, mission-critical applications)

d. What challenges/barriers do you foresee from implementing low-code development in your organization?

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The face of retail has been changing since the start of digital transformation. Many traditional retailers have witnessed the rice of Amazon to dominate retailing – change how consumers engage and make purchases.

Alibaba took it to celebrity affair with their annual Singles Day event. But it took the pandemic with its mobile and social restrictions to get more retailers to finally start to changes in how they engage customers.

What is certain at this moment is that the evolution of retailing will continue. In today’s PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by York Yong Yeo, Chief Financial Officer, Decathlon Singapore, for his take on how retailing has changed and possibly keep changing in the years to come.

QUESTIONS
How has retailing changed over the past five years (from the time you joined Decathlon in 2017) – view from the perspective of the CFO?
Among the many challenges, both internal and external, which have presented the most challenges to your role as CFO?
In which areas have you seen the greatest opportunities for Decathlon (specifically) and the retail sector (generally)?
The role and responsibilities placed on the CFO continue to expand. How do you stay focused and not get distracted by the priorities demanding your attention?
Looking ahead, what are the priorities of the CFO of a retailer over the next 1-3 years?

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During the 2022 FutureCFO vSummit series held across Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, one topic that stood out as a point of interest for many of the participating senior finance leaders was around the organisations’ commitment to sustainability goals.

But what about the head of technology? According to Gartner there is an opportunity for the CIO to take a lead role in addressing this demand.

Gartner says “Digital sustainability uses information and technology (I&T) to enable ESG transparency, automation, accuracy, and traceability. Sustainable technology is a framework to improve ESG. CIOs should lead digital sustainability (IT), amplify sustainable technology (OT) and integrate IT and OT.” [Gartner]

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Rajesh Nandakumar, head of Information technology at Westpac Institutional Bank Asia, for his perspective on how the CIO can spearhead the realisation of ESG aspirations.

How is ESG connected to IT (function)?

a. What is expected of the CIO when it comes to ESG?

To what extent is the CIO accountable for ESG's success or failure?
What are the challenges that a CIO must overcome to ensure IT is able to make a positive contribution to successful ESG?
How can CIOs get ahead on sustainability and ESG?

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For most of our online lives, our accounts are protected by a username and password. These protect the data stored in our accounts, including financial, personal and pretty much anything we value both digitally and physically.

As there are many ways to achieve a goal, so too we’ve discovered over the years that cybercriminals are more than happy to expend the effort to hack into our accounts – everything from brute force attacks to outright stealing our passwords through social engineering techniques.

Can we go passwordless? The quest for a passwordless authentication solution is forecast to reach US$53.64 billion by 2030. To dispel the myth and mystery around password or passwordless authentication, we are joined by Geoff Schomburgk, vice president for APJ at Yubico.

1. Before we dive into our topic, perhaps you tell our audience what Yubico is all about?

2. Please describe the passwordless security landscape in 2022? [FIDO 2]

3. What is driving interest around passwordless security? [80% of breach is credential theft, 100 online accounts]

4. How do you apply passwordless security efforts onto the zero-trust initiative?

5. Is passwordless security a long way off from becoming mainstream? [passkey]

6. What needs to happen for passwordless security to become part of everyday computing needs?

7. For the CIO/CISO in terms of reframing their security strategy to incorporate passwordless security?

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According to IoT analytics, the current business sentiment for companies in digital and IoT remains predominantly positive. There is widespread acknowledgement that Covid-19 had an overall positive effect on the accelerated adoption of IoT technologies.

IoT Analytics also reports record levels of VC investments for IoT firms, including acquisitions in the areas of AI and analytics. It is anticipated that despite headwinds like rising inflation and prolonged supply chain disruptions, overall sentiment will continue to be positive as the number of connected IoT devices reach 14.4 billion by the end of 2022.

With this growth, we can expect more targeted and perhaps creative ways of attacking both producers and enterprise-consumers of IoT devices in the years ahead.

To give us an update on the state of security for IoT devices in Asia, we are joined by Satyajit Sinha, principal analyst for IoT Analytics to talk about securing IoT.

Satyajit, welcome to PodChats for FutureIoT.

Give us a state of the security of IoT devices in the context of Asia?
How adequately do you think current IoT ecosystems are secured, especially for unmanaged IoT devices?
Are concerns around IoT security justified? Or Why does the IoT ecosystem require security?

4. What is the strategy that will secure IoT?

5. What are the challenges or roadblocks to securing IoT end-to-end?

6. What are the key differences between traditional IT security and IoT Security?

How much is post-quantum security relevant for now?

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While manufacturing has traditionally depended on software technologies like manufacturing execution systems and enterprise resource planning to keep materials inventory in lockstep with customer orders, innovations around the Internet of Things, analytics and machine learning, and cloud and ubiquitous connectivity are maturing to the stage where we may be seeing the emergence of the long-heralded smart manufacturing revolution.

According to IoT Analytics, for the first time, the average manufacturer will spend more on industrial software than on industrial automation hardware (OT hardware). Are we at the beginnings of software-defined manufacturing?

In today’s PodChats for FutureIoT, Matthieu Kulezak (kiulzak), market research analyst at IoT Analytics offers an update on how IoT is helping the digital transformation of manufacturing.

1. What is IoT software?

2. Looking back from pre-pandemic to this period (mid-August 2022), how have things changed when it comes to IoT software?

3. In the period of accelerating digital transformation, which areas of IoT software have gained in importance?

4. Which software trends are helping in terms of IoT software adoption and development?

5. What needs to happen for organisations in manufacturing for us to see greater integration of IoT software in industrial settings?

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If disruption was the word of the times for much of 2020 to 2021, modernisation was the strategy that underpinned many digital initiatives during 2021, on top of goals like resilience and sustainability.

But as organisations allocate resources to pursue modernisation, Boards and the C-suite leadership are calling for greater scrutiny on the return on investment (ROI) given that economies may be trending upwards, but uncertainty remains.

Among the many technologies that continue to garner sponsorship, both formal and behind backroom discussions, is artificial intelligence. To help us understand how AI is helping accelerate digitalisation and modernisation efforts, we are joined by James Ang, senior vice president for APAC with Dataiku.

1. Before we begin our PodChat, in 30-seconds or less, what makes Dataiku qualified to talk about Artificial intelligence?

2. How does AI enable businesses to accelerate their digitalisation and modernisation efforts?

3. What are the current challenges business leaders face when incorporating AI into their business ecosystems?

4. How should businesses approach their AI strategy?

a. How does one architect an approach that reflects an evolving business/operational environment?

5. (95% AI implementation failure) What are the traps to avoid in the planning and execution of an AI strategy?

6. Given that technology continues to evolve. How does one design an AI strategy that is NOT tied to any specific vendor solution but instead is dynamically aligned to the business?

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“In most enterprises, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of potential sustainability ideas and projects that IT could support. The CIO must make sure the IT organization focuses on those that will drive the enterprise’s sustainability ambitions,” says Simon Mingay, VP Analyst at Gartner.

With ESG scores rising in importance, orchestrating the right technologies and practices will be key to meeting the ESG goals that your organization uses to track and report progress to both external and internal stakeholders.

A good ESG score can improve stock performance, customer engagement and reduce operating costs. A bad one can tarnish your reputation with job candidates, employees, customers, regulators and investors.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Sarah Johnson, APAC digital leader with ERM, to get her perspective on the role of the CIO in delivering on the ESG aspirations of the company.

To frame your expertise on the topic, what is ERM?
How is ESG connected to IT (function)? Does ESG complicate an already complex IT operation?
What is expected of the CIO when it comes to ESG?
To what extent is the CIO accountable for ESG's success or failure?
What are the challenges that a CIO must overcome to ensure IT is able to make a positive contribution to successful ESG?
You spoke of ESG as a team sport. Who gets involved to do what?
You mentioned that ESG does not stand still. It is evolving. How can CIOs get ahead on sustainability and ESG?

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Hybrid and remote work have amplified the impact of distributed and complex IT environments. Running workloads and applications across both cloud and on-premises infrastructure presents challenges when viewed against a backdrop of evolving priorities driven by local market regulatory and maturity, and an IT team that must ensure business continuity without straining available resources.

IDC says as more and more mission-critical workloads move to connected cloud architectures that span public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, enterprises need to invest in the tools that will help them ensure consistent policies and performance across all platforms and end users.

Achieving these will be no easy undertaking as heads of IT face recurring issues including budget, time constraints, and barriers to implementing observability as a strategy to keep pace with hybrid IT realities.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President and CEO of SolarWinds.

1. What does the report, Getting IT Right: Managing Hybrid IT Complexity, tell us about the state of technology that we are in today?

2. IT complexity – is it fair to say that the position we are in today, this complex web of infrastructure, process, people and regulation, is of our own making and we can only point the finger to ourselves?

3. If yes, how should enterprises approach the management of such complex environments?

a. What are the barriers to simplifying the management of IT post-pandemic?

4. What remains the biggest challenge for the CIO in terms of reigning in this complexity?

a. How does he or she get leadership buy-in?

b. How does he or she get everyone else to adapt to what may well be a new way of managing IT?

5. Finally, we are coming to 2023, what do you anticipate will be issues that the CIO needs to work with the CTO (and other members of the leadership) to ensure that technology supports the business despite the uncertainties?

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The Forrester State of Application Security 2022 report noted that applications are the top cause of external breaches. Software supply chain concerns added complexity.

Forrester says security professionals need to find a way to move beyond a tactical and reactive mindset to rebuild an application security that integrates tightly with development and focuses on strategic concerns.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Rick McConnell, CEO of Dynatrace, to talk about application vulnerability and how organisations in Asia need to address the issue as they establish operations in the cloud.

Rick, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. Application vulnerability in the cloud – how real is the problem?

2. Cloud migration is on the rise. Are organisations taking appropriate steps to ensure that applications, data and processes are secure?

3. In regions like Asia, where local/national rules about the use of cloud technologies vary in terms of maturity and sophistication, what steps can companies, local and regional, take to ensure they go beyond the minimum standards around securing both applications, data and systems?

4. Going specifically on application performance monitoring, are all AVM solutions (in the cloud) created equal?

5. If an organisation is using some form of AVM solution, is there a baseline from which the company can benchmark how they are using AVMs to ensure they meet minimum international standards (if such exists)?

Technology continues to evolve, how does one future-proof its AVM strategy beyond 2022?

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Cyber risk quantification involves the application of risk quantification techniques to an organization's cybersecurity risk. It is the process of evaluating the cyber risks that have been identified and then validating, measuring and analyzing the available cyber data using mathematical modelling techniques to accurately represent the organization's cybersecurity environment in a manner that can be used to make informed cybersecurity infrastructure investment and risk transfer decisions.

Cyber risk quantification is a supporting activity to cybersecurity risk management; cybersecurity risk management is a component of enterprise risk management and is especially important in organizations and enterprises that are highly dependent upon their information technology (IT) networks and systems for their business operations.

To help us understand what cyber risk quantification is to businesses in Asia, we spoke to Alex Lei, VP and GM for APJ, Proofpoint.

How do organisations today (in Asia) manage cyber risks?
By 2025, 50% of cybersecurity leaders will have tried, unsuccessfully, to use cyber risk quantification to drive enterprise decision-making. In what way do you think enterprises are failing in this regard (cyber risk quantification)?
Having recognised the failings, can you cite three (3) approaches to improve how organisations quantify their cyber risk and thus improve how they respond to threats?

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Gina Smith, a research manager for DevOps in Asia/Pacific with IDC explains that with the COVID-19 pandemic going into its third year, Asia/Pacific organizations are looking to DevOps processes and practices now more than ever.

"The need to deliver evocative and secure applications and services is unrelenting. Mature DevOps efforts will combine IT, development, and business resources to help organizations stay competitive and resilient moving forward," she adds.

Gartner predicts that through 2022, 75% of DevOps initiatives will fail to meet expectations due to issues around organizational learning and change.

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Dirk de Vos, Director, Channels for Asia Pacific at GitLab, to share with us his perspective on How DevOps practitioners see DevSecOps.

Briefly define DevOps and describe the DevOps landscape in Asia today?
Compared to DevOps as practised in the US, how do Asian developers rate?
Is it fair to say that developers (in Asia) – whether in-house or those working for a software house – are struggling to incorporate security aspects/processes into the development cycles, irrespective of whether this is waterfall or agile, long-form or low-code/no-code? What are the top three reasons why this is so? [lack of budget, misalignment between SecOps and DevOps, limited collaboration and transparency]
Define DevSecOps and how mature is DevSecOps as a practice in Asia-Pacific? What needs to happen to accelerate this (training, certification, practice, etc)? [more education needed]
For DevOps teams, do you see the use of testing tools as able to minimise risks associated with poor coding practice, etc?
Do you see AI as supporting DevOps teams? To what extent should DevOps teams trust AI tools with application development, including testing, failure forecasting, resource management, and root cause analysis?
What is the way forward for CIOs, and DevOps teams in the practice of DevSecOps?

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The InfoSec Institute estimates there is a worldwide staffing shortage of nearly three million in the ranks of cybersecurity professionals, with the number rising to 3.5 million by 2021. Expectations are that the shortage will only get worse driven by rising demand for infosec resources for the foreseeable future.

A 2013 Frost & Sullivan study estimated that women accounted for 10-12% of the global cybersecurity workforce. In a 2019 research article from Cybercrime Magazine concluded that women accounted for 20% of the global infosec payroll.

The interesting bit is that everyone in the C-suite, including HR see the security staffing shortage and in some ways the solution – women in cybersecurity and technology. So why aren’t the positions being filled and what’s holding back women from taking up the vacancies?

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Vicki Batka, senior vice president, sales, APJ, Trellix, to talk about Breaking the cybersecurity glass barrier.

Vicki, welcome to PodChats for FutureCISO.

It is our understanding that leadership across the C-suite recognises the skills shortage. What are they doing about it?

a. Is this strategy sustainable?

There are those that suggest outsourcing or bringing external parties as the answer to the internal skills shortage.

a. What are the benefits of this strategy?

b. What are the possible issues it presents longer term?

Do should industry, governments and the academia work together to establish the atmosphere conducive for women with the right disposition to pursue a career in cybersecurity/security?
What are the qualities most desirable on which to build upon a career in cybersecurity/security?
How can we have more women in cybersecurity? [Where should we start]
For women to take on leadership roles in cybersecurity, what needs to happen today?
What is your advice for women with aspirations to work in tech and security?

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Cybersecurity is turning into a social phenomenon. Investor interest, public pressure, employee demands, and governmental regulations are strengthening the incentives for organizations to track and report cybersecurity goals and metrics within their environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts as a business requirement.

Gartner says traditional culture improvement efforts focusing exclusively on awareness fail to facilitate certain behaviour. In the coming years, a key theme for security and risk management (SRM) leaders is the increasingly distributed ecosystem that has led to a loss of direct decision-making control.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Alex Lei, VP and GM for APJ, Proofpoint, for his take on how organisations improve cyber risk management outcomes in distributed ecosystems.

1. Briefly provide a state of data protection today among organisations across Asia.

2. What are prevailing cultural practices that are hindering better outcomes when it comes to data protection?

3. Gartner says traditional culture improvement efforts that focus exclusively on awareness are failing to facilitate secure behaviour and have led to loss of control amid an increasingly distributed ecosystem. Specific to Asia, do you agree with this assessment?

4. Can you recommend strategies or bpractices to improve how organisations can improve data protection outcomes for the company in today’s distributed ecosystem?

5. What needs to happen to facilitate your recommendations?

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One of the outcomes of digital transformation is the realisation of the value of data, and the subsequent growing dependence on it. But more than access to data, the other attribute of the digital economy is the democratisation of data.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Bhavik Vashi, Area Vice President – Asia for Anaplan, to talk about the potential of democratised planning to achieve agility.

1. Define democratised planning and why is it important in achieving an organisation’s agility ambitions.

2. What is/are critical to achieving democratised planning?

a. For an organisation to truly reap the benefits of democratised planning, what needs to happen?

3. What is the role of the CFO in helping make democratised planning possible?

4. What must the CFO do to lead and drive this democratisation of planning?

5. How can the rest of his/her (finance) support the initiative (make it happen across the enterprise)?

6. If a CFO were to orchestrate a strategy to democratise planning, beyond the people and culture issue, where do they start/what needs to happen?

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According to S&P Global, APAC M&A activity in Q1 2022 retreated from 2021’s highs, with deal value for the quarter ending at $73.8B, a decline of 44% QoQ, or 18% YoY. In Q1 2022, Australia (US$15 billion) led the region by transaction value, followed by China (US$12.5 bn) and Hong Kong (US$11.4 bn). The financial services sector topped M&A activities in Q1 2022 with 14.6 billion followed by real estate (US$13.4 bn) and communications (US$9.2 bn).

To understand what’s driving M&A activities, we are joined by Yew Poh Mak, EY Asia-Pacific Strategy and Transactions Leader, to talk about the what, why and how CFOs should be involved in an organisation’s M&A initiative.

Give us a quick recap of the M&A landscape in Asia-Pacific from 2020 to today?
What new things have M&A teams learned since then?

a. Digital transformation, ESG (new energy, overall),

Given all the concerns of the business – rising inflation, slowing economies, socio-political instability, and the rising importance of ESG – how do you see M&A shifting in 2023?
Is pursuing M&A for the purpose of growing a sustainable strategy? If not growth, what should be the strategic purpose of M&A? [2 mins] – New M&A to transform
How has the involvement of CFOs in M&A activities changed since the pandemic?
With the CFO to-do list expanding, how should CFOs evolve their work habits to fulfil the expectations placed on them while remaining effective on the table stakes responsibilities and emerging roles in activities like M&A and ESG?

a. In other words, how can the CFO achieve all of what is expected of the role without dropping the ball?

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Back in February 2012, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook (now Meta), stated “there is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on.”

Of course, Zuckerberg had a vested interest because central to connecting people, the core business of Meta (formerly Facebook), are data centres. Today, data centres are the information backbone of the digital economy, connecting communities of people, businesses and organisations.

As for Meta, the company has invested over US$20 billion in its 85 data centres globally, including one in Tanjong Kling, Singapore. But its data centre accounts for just under one per cent of the estimated by 8,271 operating globally, according to Cloudscene.

As environmental, social and governance (ESG) become the talk of the town, from Boardrooms to consumers, data centre operators are left with little choice but to be seen as taking a serious look at how to be more energy efficient. After all, data centres as energy-intensive enterprises accounting for one per cent of global electricity use.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Samuel Lee, CEO of Digital Edge, to talk about to architect sustainable data centres.

1. Datacentres represent a sizeable carbon footprint for businesses (1% of global electricity consumption is from data centres). As businesses pursue a carbon neutral or net zero carbon initiative, what does this mean for the data centre?

2. The paradox of the present is that businesses are consuming more data. More data is good for business for data centres (DC). But businesses expect data centre operators to be more ESG responsive. What are DC operators doing to solve this paradox?

3. How do you see data centres in cities like Hong Kong and Singapore evolving to meet customer expectations (and plans) around ESG?

4. When evaluating their DC requirements, what should CIOs and heads of infrastructure and operations include in their planning (and selection of DC operators) to support company ESG goals?

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Environmental, social and governance (ESG) programs can pose unique challenges to finance chiefs charged with maximizing returns. Reason? Big price tags and longer timelines.

The push from regulators and many stakeholders to transform and align companies with new sustainability goals is an “enduring change,” which carries unique challenges, said Kristin Moyer, distinguished VP and analyst with Gartner.

Moyer says digital business is probably a 10-to-20-year transformation. ESG is a 30-to-40-year transformation.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCFO, Quentin Fouesnant, managing director for Asia-Pacific at FiscalNote ESG Solutions, discusses some of the imperatives and challenges CFOs in Asia to face as they lead the ESG charge for their respective companies.

1. How do you see the role of CFOs in driving the success of their company’s ESG initiatives?

2. As CFOs address the issues around ESG, how should they prepare for this? Where should they start? What do they need to know?

3. Investors, stakeholders, and management are increasingly asking companies to give quantifiable metrics for their ESG initiatives. Many analysts say that the finance department with its experience in compiling and reporting is a natural fit for this task. However, many CFOs still see non-financial metrics around ESG as costs. How can CFOs, who set their sights on ROIs, translate these non-financial metrics as a source of value?

4. Should companies integrate their ESG reporting with their financial reporting? Why?

5. Based on your observation, how are companies in the Asia Pacific doing in moving forward their ESG strategies and initiatives – and how engaged are the CFOs and the finance department in these initiatives?

6. What are the challenges CFOs face in helping drive their company’s ESG commitments and how can they resolve them?

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SGTraDex is a centralised data platform that acts as a "common data highway" across the global supply chain ecosystem to plug gaps in supply chains, which traditionally had relied heavily on a paper-based system that lacked efficiency, transparency, and sustainability.

SGTraDex is touted as a new type of public and neutral infrastructure in a digital era that allows for data connections to be made to a wide range of data contributors and data users across the world.

What does SGTraDex spell for businesses and government departments not just in Singapore but elsewhere? With us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Stu Garrow, SVP & GM for APAC, Talend, to talk about the challenges and opportunities that a universal data platform promises to offer.

The data platform is touted to unlock at least $100 million in value by 2026.

When working with enterprise data to make decisions, why is it crucial that executives can trust their data rather than just using their intuition?
Define for us what a data supply chain is, as well as what it is not.
What are the measures companies can take to achieve digital/data maturity to mitigate supply chain disruptions?
How do you view the progression of Singapore’s supply chain (in terms of digitalisation), and how can the wider APAC ecosystem learn and benefit from the creation of SGTraDex?
Cyberattacks against supply chains are becoming more frequent, aggressive, and disruptive. Can participants in the digital supply chain let down their guard against cyber criminals with SGTraDex?
What is your advice for companies looking to improve the effectiveness and quality of their data?

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The world is experiencing a level of disruption and business risk not seen in generations. Some companies freeze and fail, while others innovate, advance, and even thrive. The difference is resilience.

With data now acknowledged as an important element of real-time decision-making, perhaps it is time for organisations to make a serious effort at achieving data resilience. And if they do, how does an organisation achieve data resilience?

With us, today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Joseph Yang, general manager for storage and data services at HPE Asia Pacific.

1. Define data resilience in the context of today’s hybrid (on-premises + multi-cloud) environment?

2. One of the early selling points of the cloud is resilience, along with scalability and the utility model. What are the top 3 prevailing misconceptions about the multi-cloud as inherently resilient?

3. What needs to happen to achieve data resilience in this hybrid environment? (view from technology, process and people perspective) – VM by VM protection

4. Who needs to get involved in the architecting of a data resilience strategy? Who will have day-to-day accountability for the execution?

5. With technology evolving and business priorities changing in line with market dynamics, how do you ensure that your data resilience strategy remains relevant?

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Organizations are migrating to the cloud to improve efficiencies and scale with greater digital transformation. Cloud plans and adoption have accelerated during the pandemic, with many in Asia considering a hybrid multi-cloud strategy to optimize the management of SaaS applications while ensuring business continuance from existing legacy and meet remote work needs.

In this PodChat for CIO, Phang Wai Yin, Chief Technology Officer for SRKK Group, shares his perspective on how organisations can achieve data resilience in a multi-cloud world.

1. Define data resilience in the context of today’s (a) hybrid work and (b) hybrid multi-cloud environment?

2. What is the make-up of a data resilient strategy?

3. Given that much of an organisation’s data is scattered across applications (on-premises and in the cloud), company and personal data repositories, is it feasible to achieve data resilience?

4. A Productiv 2021 report says the average app portfolio is about 254 apps, is it possible to leverage SaaS solutions to achieve resilience?

5. What needs to happen to set your path towards data resilience?

6. Who should lead this journey? Who should be part of the team in charge of data resilience?

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Gartner defines Security Service Edge (SSE) as the convergence of network security services delivered from a purpose-built cloud platform.

As more organisations move to the cloud, improving data storage and security rise in importance. One of the design considerations for SSEs is to support employees working remotely and keeping their data in the cloud.

SSE can be considered a subset of the secure access service edge (SASE) framework with its architecture squarely focused on security services.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we look at developments around network security in the cloud era – focusing specifically on Security Service Edge.

We are aware that organisations are migrating to the cloud. Many are opting for as-a-service or outsourcing what was once technology and IT service delivered internally. What does network security look like when a company outsources its IT infrastructure needs to a company like AWS or Azure or Google Cloud?
Gartner coined SSE in 2021. What do you think precipitated the creation of SSE?

a. What’s driving the need for SSE? Don’t existing solutions like VPN already do the job?

Looking at the security architecture of an organisation, what will SSE replace? What will it complement?
Can you cite up to three misconceptions (FUD) against SSE?
As organisations look to adopt zero-trust in their security framework, how do you see SSE being impacted by this?
Given that technology, including security, continues to evolve, how does a company architect its network security needs to be future-proof and resilient when future technologies and circumstances are unknown?

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PodChats for FutureCIO: Activating data in real-time

“Data has become the most important asset of any organization and data and analytics is more critical than ever. New use cases for data to support machine learning, artificial intelligence and analytics are endless. As the rate of change continues, embracing flexibility, agility and adapting to new challenges is a must,” said Donald Feinberg, Distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Deb Dutta, General Manager - Asia Pacific & Japan, DataStax, to share with us how to activate data in real-time.

QUESTIONS

Some say that enterprises are now able to capture and store just about every type and format of data. What remains a challenge is activating this data. Why is that?

a. Can you cite key technical, operational and process that are hindering this activation of data?

What questions are heads of data teams and the office of the CIO missing/not asking when it comes to solving this data activation problem?
How do you align data and analytics with business outcomes and digital acceleration?
How do you foster cultural changes needed to make the use of data and analytics pervasive to impact the business?
Constellation Research principal analyst Dion Hinchcliffe writes that the future belongs to simple, simplified real-time cloud-native data at scale. What needs to happen for enterprises to come closer to this future?
For an organisation wanting to become real-time data, what do they need to do?

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Gartner defines the chief technology officer as having overall responsibility for managing the physical and personnel technology infrastructure including technology deployment, network and system management, integration testing, and developing technical operations personnel.

CTOs also manage client relations to ensure that service objective expectations are developed and managed in the operations areas.

Samantha Searle, senior principal analyst at Gartner says a CTO has four personas: a digital business leader, a business enabler, an IT innovator, and the chief operating officer (COO) of IT.

“Regardless of their persona, the most important take-away is that CTOs and their organizations agree on what the role means in its unique context. Through this shared understanding, the CTO can work closely with business leaders to drive digital transformation efforts and meet business goals,” she added.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are pleased to have with us is Biswa Prakash Misra, Group Chief Technology Officer, AIA.

1. You are both a strategist and an operations leader. What does it take to get to the position you are in today?

2. Describe the insurance business in 2022? How has it changed particularly during the pandemic?

3. What are the top challenges of insurance firms in 2022?

4. How important is technology in meeting (and perhaps overcoming) these challenges?

5. Transformation is said to be a journey. What for you is transformation?

6. Describe AIA’s transformation journey? What are the metrics upon which AIA’s transformation journey is being measured against?

7. What is the role of the CTO in this transformation journey?

8. Some argue that technology, while it is important as an enabler, should be second to people and process. In your view, what are the essential conditions by which people-process-technology come together to achieve AIA’s aspirations as a business?

9. What is your take on the following technology issues: cloud, open source, open systems, security, staff skills/reskilling.

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Whether for personal use or accessing your corporate network, authentication and authorisation are two critical concepts in access control. At times confused with authorisation, authentication is the process of verifying the identity of an entity before access or authorisation is given.

Authentication may involve the use of passwords, access tokens, and biometric verification while authorization uses processes like Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC).

So with all the innovations placed around authentication and authorisation, why do systems still get hacked? And as more organisations move to the cloud, what can we expect from these two facets of access control in the years ahead?

With us on PodChats for FutureCISO is Jayavignesh Reddy, Senior IAM Evangelist, ManageEngine.

1. What is the biggest issue influencing/impacting authentication?

2. How has authentication (technology and practices) evolved during the pandemic?

3. How CISOs and CIOs position authentication as an enabler for digital business?

4. There are those who suggest that passwords be dropped altogether. Is this a good idea in the current state of technology?

5. Do you see zero trust as changing the landscape of authentication?

6. Our topic is Future of authentication. How do you see the future of authentication evolving?

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The ResearchAndMarkets Global Sheconomy Research Report 2022: Transformational Growth Due to Increasing Economic Power of Women predicts the increasing the economic power of women will result in a shift in consumption and shopping behaviour and opens new opportunities in consumer goods and services businesses. The trend will also impact distribution channels adopted by companies. It will create immense potential for online retail, large-format convenience stores, and doorstep services.

That prediction ship has sailed. In China alone 56% of Chinese women have a higher education compared to 46% among men. The Lean in China platform estimates that 63.3% of Chinese women are employed. And with 400 million female consumers aged 20-60 in China, Chinese women are expected to spend US$1.2 trillion in 2022, according to marketing consultancy firm, Emerging Communications.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Jo Olivia Lee, COO at Lendor, a circular tech startup in Singapore for her view on riding the SHEconomy wave in Asia.

1. Do you agree in the real potential of a SHEconomy or is this just another marketing tactic to exploit?

2. What are the forces driving an acceleration towards the SHEconomy?

3. How have more women in the workplace impacted businesses?

4. What will be the short- to medium-term impact on the growth of the SHEconomy in Asia?

5. Do you see this trend as more impactful in developing Asia?

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The ongoing complexity of IT systems, along with evolving regulations are the major challenges faced by IT security professionals.

IDC says that while the C-Suite is paying more attention to the issue of security, there are many infrastructural issues across people and processes that, unless the C-Suite decides to address them, will continue to be problematic.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Chern-Yue Boey, senior vice president for Asia-Pacific at SailPoint to talk about identity security in the cloud.

Let’s start by setting the baseline: what is identity security management? With organisations adopting cloud and SaaS environments, how does this affect identity security management?
What’s the difference between traditional identity security management and cloud identity security management?
From the perspective of identity security, In the cloud, SaaS environment, what challenges do enterprises face?
What are the common mistakes in moving to a cloud-native identity management solution?
How about skills, expertise, experience as we shift to a SaaS-based solution?
Can you share the latest and most exciting trends in the identity and access management market?

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It is July 2022. Currently, most businesses understand the importance of data. A few have been truly transformed by it – embracing it as a competitive advantage. For those that are struggling to become data-driven-native enterprises, the answer boils down to two words: data maturity.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Dr Christopher Lee Marshall, Associate Vice President at IDC Asia/Pacific for Analytics, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence, for his take on what organisations in Asia need to do to become truly data-driven and finally achieve the outcomes that are fuelling their transformation ambitions.

1. Let’s have a baseline: what is IDC’s definition of a data-driven organisation, and what are the qualities needed to become one?

2. In your opinion, what is leadership’s understanding of data-driven and who owns it among enterprises in Asia?

3. When it comes to striving to become data-driven, how would you compare the level of maturity among the different markets in Asia?

4. What are three critical hurdles slowing adoption of data-driven strategies?

5. Is there a roadmap that organisations can take in their quest to develop a data capability?

6. For organisations with a data-driven agenda, what do they need to have (policies, frameworks, skills, technology) to realise this aspiration?

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SHEconomy founder and author, Benja Stig Fagerland, says gender equality is not a women’s issue but a business one.She calls for fixing the issue – not the women.

Frost analyst, Reenita Das, citeda Forbes article claiming that women who run tech companies provide a 35% higher RoI and 12% increase in revenue compared to men. But who’s counting?

On the consumption side, Winnie Chiu, a senior equity analyst for Indosuez Wealth Management in Hong Kong noted that the annual consumption expenditure of Chinese women alone is as high as 10 trillion yuan, which is close to the combined European retail markets of Germany, the United Kingdom and France. Again, who’s counting?

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we revisit the Sheconomy opportunity in Asia. Joining us on Podchats is Ms. Elisa Mallis, Managing Director and Vice President, APAC - Center for Creative Leadership.

Before we begin our chat on the Sheconomy, tell us a little bit about the Center for Creative Leadership broadly and then how it is supporting current and next generation leaders, with a bit of emphasis on women.

Do you agree in the real potential of a Sheconomy or is this just another marketing tactic to exploit?
What are the forces driving an acceleration towards the Sheconomy?
What will be the short- to medium-term impact on the growth of the Sheconomy in Asia?
What should government do to contribute to the growth of the Sheconomy in Asia?
What is your call to action for women leaders and those aspiring to lead as opposed to just following the herd?

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Merriam-Webster defines identity as “the qualities, beliefs, etc., that make a particular person or group different from others.” These qualities are what make identity relevant to the concept of security.

Digital transformation and the increasing reliance on remote business continue to accelerate the adoption of new approaches for securing an individual’s identity and his or her rights to access information and systems in the cloud.

IT leaders, for their part, face new business demands that require digital trust across every interaction and channel, and the imperative for 2022 is the need to empower IAM teams to support ongoing change driven by the evolution of technology best practices and change in organizational priorities, user expectations, and opportunities and threats.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Jeffrey Kok, Vice President of Solution Engineer, Asia Pacific and Japan, CyberArk.

1. What is identity security?

2. IT security has been around for decades, why is the term “identity security” only been more pronounced in recent years?

a. Where does “identity security” sit in an organisation’s overall security strategy?

3. For an organisation that already has an identity access management solution in place, does that mean the company has covered “identity security”?

4. What is a best practice for determining if an organisation’s existing IAM approach fails to meet the fundamentals that “identity security” promise?

5. Are all identity security platforms equal? How do I determine if ‘a’ platform is suitable for my business?

6. What should be top of mind for the CISO looking at identity security solutions as part of the company’s overall security strategy?

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One of the innovations of the internet is the introduction of software robots or bots that allow repetitive tasks to be performed routinely without human intervention. But like many other technologies, a good thing can sometimes be turned to do bad things.

According to the 2022 Imperva Bad Bot Report, bad bots accounted for a record-setting 27.7% of all global website traffic in 2021, up from 25.6% in 2020. The three most common bot attacks were account takeover (ATO), content or price scraping, and scalping to obtain limited-availability items.

With us today to talk about bots, their role in technology-led society and how we can overcome the darker side of bot technology is Garrett O'Hara, Field Chief Technologist APAC, Mimecast.

1) Among the many kinds of cyber threats on the internet, why are bots dangerous?

2) How have bots evolved since the pandemic? Are bad bots today any worst compared to before 2020?

3) How do (a) users and (b) businesses contain/mitigate the risks of bad bots?

4) Given that smart bots are technology that use AI to do these good or bad. Around cybersecurity, at what point can we trust an AI-based security solution to do remedial things automatically?

5) Do you see zero trust being applied to bot security?

6) Evasive bots are a growing concern. How do you see the evasion techniques of bots evolving in the coming years, and how can organisations do a better job of detecting them?

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The global energy ecosystem is currently undergoing a massive transformation, and in the decades ahead, it will continue to become more decentralized, digitalised, and decarbonised. To reach the commitments made under the 2015 Paris Agreement – limiting the global temperature rise to well below 2°C – this transition must accelerate.

In recent years, the energy sector has become increasingly digital and it is clear that further digitalization will be a key feature of the energy transition and an essential driver of the sector’s progress towards ambitious climate goals.

With us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Leonard Lee, president for Beyond Limits Asia Pacific.

What are some challenges that the oil and gas (energy) sector face today regarding digitalization?
How do these challenges affect efforts by the energy sector to carbon reduction targets and possibly be more sustainable?
What is Cognitive AI? Where does it fit in the different types of AI – narrow AI, general AI and super intelligence AI?
How can Cognitive AI be a differentiator for the energy sector, be it traditional or green energy within the Southeast Asia region?
How can AI improve operational efficiencies across the energy industry, especially for Southeast Asian companies that are new or undergoing rapid transformation while trying to tackle critical concerns such as sustainability?
How active can AI play out this crucial role in the energy sector to achieve sustainability goals?
For business leaders in the energy sector, how do they go about assessing whether AI makes business sense for them?
Given the many priorities of the energy sector, including carbon targets, alternative energy development, cybersecurity and even transformation, and against the backdrop of rising energy costs, how do the energy sector leaders prioritize their investments strategies?

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ESG or environmental, social and governance issues have risen to the fore in recent years. Investors are looking for opportunities that go beyond the financial return on investment. They want to know that what they are investing on will have consequential benefits to the environment.

For CFOs, applying ESG initiatives cuts two-ways. What the company invests in, and who are those investing in the company.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Jef Lacson, regional deputy CFO for Asia, Pacific Cross International, to look into some of the ESG issues of importance to the CFO, and why the CFO and the finance team are best suited to drive an organisation’s ESG initiative.

How do you see the role of CFOs in driving the success of their company’s ESG initiatives?
As CFOs address the issues around ESG, how should they prepare for this? Where should they start? What do they need to know?
Investors, stakeholders and management are increasingly asking companies to give quantifiable metrics for their ESG initiatives. Many analysts say that the finance department with its experience in compiling and reporting is a natural fit for this task. However, many CFOs still see non-financial metrics around ESG as costs. How can CFOs, who set their sights on ROIs, translate these non-financial metrics as a source of value?
Should companies integrate their ESG reporting with their financial reporting? Why?
Based on your observation, how are companies in Asia Pacific doing in moving forward their ESG strategies and initiatives – and how engaged are the CFOs and the finance department in these initiatives?
What are the challenges CFOs face in helping drive their company’s ESG commitments and how can they resolve them?

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Making supply chain investments such as factory capacity and inventory from historical performance rather than an understanding of future trends can spell disaster.

A Gartner survey found that 70% of respondents don’t look beyond three years when developing a vision for their digital supply chain roadmaps. And who can blame them when uncertainty and unpredictability are the norms.

How do you plan for a cloudy future – where even which technologies will emerge as critical to an organisation’s business is unclear?

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Alessandro Piscini, founder and Co-CEO, CREA, shares his perspectives on the developing trends around the digital supply chain for retailers and e-commerce.

It is 2022, how has the supply chain ecosystem changed since the start of the pandemic till today?

2. When viewed end-to-end, how have supply chain participants – manufacturers, logistics and warehousing, retailers, and consumers – responded to the pandemic?

3 years into the pandemic, we continue to see disruptions in the supply chain. Why is that?
For CIOs and heads of technology, how should they re-architect their technology strategy and roadmap to reflect the continuing uncertainties, geopolitical volatility and emerging technologies, to enhance business resilience?
Focusing on IT specifically, what are three key challenges facing CIOs in their quest to enhance business/operational resilience?
What do you recommend CIOs and members of the C-suite take to solve these challenges?

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It’s been 13 years since we were introduced to bitcoin and blockchain. Lauded as a disruptive technology for its transparency and immutability, Blockchain continues to be a buzzword that attracts interest in the purported benefits of efficiency, ability to reduce cost and its support for a trustless ecosystem.

But like many emerging technologies, there remain hurdles that are leading to slow-moving adoption among enterprises including lack of scalability, limited interoperability, a dearth of blockchain developers, insufficient standardization, extensive energy requirements, and the absence of regulatory clarity.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Allen Li, head of engineering, ADDX), to cover these and perhaps come to some resolution on these challenges.

1. Blockchain was introduced in October 2008. 14 years on, what has changed in terms of (a) technology; (b) adoption; (c) regulation?

a. Is the adoption of blockchain limited to crypto, currency and things to do with financial matters?

2. Are the claims that blockchain is secure overhyped?

3. Can a blockchain fail?

4. What remains a key challenge limiting the adoption of blockchain in commercial businesses (e.g., no crypto, not exchanges, not NFTs)?

a. Look from a business

b. Look from a technology

5. Does a block have a scalability problem?

6. What is one key takeaway for those evaluating blockchains for enterprise applications?

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The Great Resignation is notable for uncommon career switches and unprecedented employee demands.

In a September 2021 Gartner poll of executive leaders, 60% described themselves as significantly concerned about employee turnover, but that doesn’t begin to capture the extent of today’s talent challenge.

Alexia Cambon, Director, Research, Gartner, says “Whether you face an attrition crisis or are planning your post-pandemic workforce strategy, you need to know when and how to repair, humanize, outcompete or double-down on recruiting efforts. You can’t do that if you don’t understand what’s driving employees to quit in the first place.”

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we look at some of the Great Resignation Trends uniquely Asia, the changing behaviour of employees, how employers are/should respond, and how technology and platforms can support the desires of both employees and employers.

To answer these issues, we are joined by Alena Salakhova, Regional Director at SThree based in Singapore.

How real is the Great Resignation in terms of its impact to businesses in Asia?
Are there qualities/traits about the Great Resignation that is unique to Asia? In Asia, who are these employees and what are they demanding?
Are employers willing to accede to the demands of prospective employees? What kind of compromise are you seeing in the region?
What can employers do to fill in open positions? How can technology help in this regard?

5. Following the pandemic, have the traditional sources of talent for employers shifted?

Name three best practice in the talent recruitment practice.
What should employers, including heads of departments like finance and IT, consider to improve talent acquisition and retention results?
How should HR and line managers work together in talent management?

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The global elevators and escalators market is forecast to reach US$83 billion in 2022. Despite the initial setbacks arising from the pandemic, demand for inter-floor transporter is projected to rise on the back of investments in commercial and residential infrastructure projects globally. With elevators representing 2-7% of the total energy consumed in a building, there is significant scope for improvement regarding energy consumption.

With maintenance and modernisation of existing equipment expected to exhibit significant growth over time, manufacturers are also focusing on value-added services.

Elevator maintenance or elevator preventive maintenance is one of the major tasks involved in elevator service. It involves ensuring that no accidents or breakdowns happen on elevators. Elevator maintenance helps avoid major replacements and it prolongs the life of elevators

In today’s PodChats for FutureIoT, we are joined by Birgitta Van den Driessche, TK Elevator’s Product and Marketing Director, APAC

1. What is new about elevators (particularly since 2020)? – new in terms of features, rider expectations and operator preferences.

2. How is elevator maintenance conducted?

3. Given that elevators tend to be operated manually often by passengers, how do you ensure minimal disruption to operations?

4. Talk to us about the impact of data-driven building operations on passenger experience (access control, infotainment, elevator dispatching, etc.)

5. How has IoT influenced/changed preventive/predictive maintenance of elevators?

6. Can you compare traditional and cloud-based elevator maintenance?

7. Can you share future development and benefits of building operation platforms (smart maintenance, real-time monitoring, emergency-call, etc.)?

8. What does TK Elevator bring to the elevator marketplace?

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The chief information security officer is the head of all information security operations within a company. He or she is tasked with determining the overall direction of the infosec resources under his/her domain, how the resources will be apportioned within the various disciplines, managing all the people in his/her department, and interacting with all other departments in the organisation.

Often the face of an organisation’s infosec operations, the CISO is expected to interact with outside actors, including regulators, policymakers, and law enforcement agencies.

As organisations become more digitally native, the CISO's role need to evolve from tactical to strategic, from being a pure technologist to one that of a business enabler first.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Yvette Lejins, resident CISO, APJ, Proofpoint, for her take on evolving cyber threats and how cybersecurity is responding to these changes.

Proofpoint has just released its 2022 Voice of the CISO report.

a. What is the purpose of the report?

b. The 2022 Voice of the CISO report is the second such report. What's different from the first report published in 2021?

c. What would you say are the top 3 lessons/insights you can draw from it? (use as intro for the rest of the interview)

Every major security vendor publishes security reports. A common theme of these reports are ever increasing cyberthreats. Specific to the current environment that we are – the uncertainties that hang over us as a result of the pandemic, does remote work make organisations more vulnerable to attacks? Why?
Since the start of the pandemic, we've noted an increase in the use of VPNs purportedly to mitigate against risks of attackers using remote workers to attack the enterprise. How has this worked so far?

4. In addition to VPNs, can you name a few other measures organisations have implemented to protect against cyber threats?

Beyond increasing employee security awareness and preparedness enough, what more can be done to improve cybersecurity posture?
Give three tips for the CISO to become more effective as (a) business partner; (b) champion of security for the organisation?

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“According to research, face-to-face communication is conveyed with 55% non-verbal, 38% vocal, and only 7% words in the words spoken.” – Albert Mehrabian, Prof. Psychology and a researcher of body language.
In the paper, Stress and Deception in Speech: Evaluating Layered Voice Analysis, the authors posit that human oral communication contains features, which can be used to provide useful information about a speaker apart from the linguistic content, or meaning, of what was said, and that this indexical information can prove exceedingly helpful in forensic work.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by James Ellender, CEO, Behavioural Cues to talk about use cases for layered voice analysis or analytics.

James, welcome back to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Define layered voice analysis (LVA)? How does it work?
In what areas of business is LVA being applied today?
If an organisation intends to apply layered voice analysis, what technologies or processes need to be introduced? What expertise is needed to make LVA investment effective?
What are the integration challenges that come with LVA?
Any potential issues on privacy?
How does an organisation determine if LVA is what they really need?

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Three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the initial shock of discovering that supply chains are vulnerable, we continue to experience vulnerabilities across the supply chain.

Sachin Thukral, Head of Partner & Alliances, at HERE Technologies Asia Pacific talks about the increased importance of partnerships in the quest to mitigate the risks of supply chain vulnerabilities that have become more pronounced at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Q1 2020.

1. How is this vulnerability impacting various parties in the supply chain ecosystem?

2. What have we learned from the disruptions?

3. Looking at the supply chain ecosystem, can you elaborate on the importance of collaboration among the firms to achieve greater resilience against disruptions?

4. How is location intelligence helping businesses within this transport & logistics ecosystem to tackle and overcome these challenges?

5. We often hear these days around sustainability and ESG. What the entire transport and logistics (T&L) ecosystem is doing to achieve sustainability targets?

6. From a location provider point of view, what are some emerging trends within this supply chain ecosystem?

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Oxford Languages define identity as the fact of being a person or thing. According to the World Bank ID4D data, over a billion people around the world do not have an official proof of identity. In Asia-Pacific up to 20% of the population lacks an ID.

Even as governments race to implement national digital identities, private sector service providers like banks or insurance are not always able to make use of these ID system features, even where the public entities can do so. In less develop sectors of economies, the challenge is even more significant reflecting broader gaps in digital infrastructure, capacity, access and literacy.

Juniper Research estimates that by 2024, governments around the world will have issued 5 billion digital identity credentials. The question becomes will private sectors embrace these by then. The follow-up question to this – how do we securely access, use and manage these identities.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Quah Zheng Wei, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Accredify, to talk about digital identities and what he calls verifiable identity.

1. Let’s start with a base and move from there. Define for us identity in the context of today’s digital economy? How many identities can one person have that can be used to authenticate him or her?

2. What is verifiable identity? What is/are the problems it aims to solve? Is this the only approach to solving the same problem?

3. Who owns the identity in this verifiable identities? Where does it sit in an organisation’s identity security strategy?

4. What are the benefits of this solution at IT/tech level, user level, from perspective of security, and from compliance perspective?

5. Will this use of verifiable identity introduce latency, friction to the user experience?

6. Given that there are many approaches to verifying an identity, how does an enterprise decide which verifiable identity solution providers when looking to introduce verifiable identity as part of its security strategy.

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Decades ago, while working for a Japanese company, I read about the idea of lifetime employment. At the time I was aware of career professionals in tech companies. For instance, I would meet with career IBMers – professionals who have worked for only one company, IBM, for majority of their career.

In the case of Japan, lifetime employment was the practice of hiring workers directly out of school and retraining them until the mandatory retirement age. The idea was that it is far easier to train current employees on new skills, new ways of working, etc.

These days, of course, one’s career prospects are influenced by many factors most important by the value one contributes to his job, his team, and the company as a whole. Lifetime employment is a rarity if it exists today.

The world of work has changed significantly. Prior to 2020, concepts like mobility, job satisfaction, ability to work in a team, thinking-out-the-box were priced attributes by employers and employees. Deloitte also acknowledged that even before the COVID-19, changes in the workplace were occurring, influenced in part by automation, algorithms driving decision-making, digital methods, agile and new ways of working.

Indranil Roy, executive director at Deloitte Southeast Asia Human Capital Consulting, says COVID (starting in 2020) accelerated these transformations.

He refers to modern work as akin to a marketplace where skills are perishable with a half-life of 4.5 years. COVID-19 has made work from anywhere the norm. He cited a 2020 research that suggests 45% of work can be done remotely permanently.

Careers are also subject to relentless change, many pathways to growth and success (and failures) and a greater reliance on ecosystems, including parties outside the business.

Putting insights from ongoing Deloitte research, Roy noted that employees in the current modern work environment cite three emotions that stood out: overwhelmed, frustrated and anxious.

He opined that to make clear propositions to modern work, employees need to resolve these feelings if they are to master the new world of work. This gave rise to the 10 rules of modern work: Rules of Control to reverse the feeling of overwhelm, Rules of Awesome to address the feeling of frustration, and the Rules of Growth to tame the anxiety.

QUESTIONS

1. Deloitte suggests that employees bring their own motivation to the workplace, even suggesting having a sense of autonomy or control over the choices we make. What then is the role of the manager in support of their staff’s sense of autonomy?

2. Can these 10 rules of modern work apply to situations such as a pandemic where uncertainty is the norm?

3. Teams have always been a central fixture of the workplace. How different, and important, is networking in the modern workplace (Rule #6)?

4. How does one publish ideas where the organisational culture neither encourages or promotes such practices. Do you suggest using public social platforms? Would this approach risk a person’s career?

5. So many rules. Where do I start? Do I go with the easiest? Do I do all of them?

6. Do I allow myself to be stumped by a rule and not move forward?

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In a Forrester study commissioned by CINNOX, only 16% of all surveyed customers recently experienced interactions that exceeded their expectations. It indicates that although organisations are committed to becoming more customer-focused, they have insufficient understanding of customers’ expectations and are failing to deliver quality experiences.

In more developed markets like Hong Kong and Singapore, customer experience sentiments were the lowest, with only 7% and 9% experiencing interactions that exceeded their expectations, respectively.

Patsy Wong, Chief Strategy Officer at CINNOX, says customer experience is the battleground that organisations compete on.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by David Coghill, Head of Solutions Engineering, Asia Pacific & Japan, Twilio, to talk about the impact of automation on customer service and experience.

Give us a state of customer service today – what is working and what isn’t?
Some automation already exists in today’s customer service. Where are the major failings of these automation tools/processes?
Given that technology is an enabler for customer service (do you agree with this statement?), who decides what technologies should be integrated into the process?
What metrics should be used to evaluate the effectiveness of such an effort?
Can you cite any use case today where automation has proven to be an effective approach to enhancing customer service?
What is your advice to leaders looking for a more effective and efficient customer service operation?
What sort-of investments am I looking at when evaluating how to transform my processes to be more customer centric?

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Andrew Lerner, VP analyst for Gartner noted the ton of hype lately over “NaaS” (Network as a Service). Enterprises generally like the notion of a flexible, consumption-based networking model regardless of user or application location (very cloud-like).

He cautioned that not everything labelled NaaS is the real thing. “We’ve seen things marketed as NaaS that range from (basically) hardware leasing all the way to a true aaS offering,” he added.

To discuss in greater detail how it applies to businesses in Asia is Jon Green, Chief Security Officer for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.

1. What is Network-as-a-service (NaaS)? What is it not?

a. What are the characteristics of a NaaS – viewed from a (i) CIO and a (ii) business user’s perspective?

2. How does NaaS work? What infrastructure must exist on the customer side for NaaS to become feasible?

3. What are the top three (a) business drivers and (b) IT driver for the adoption/use of NaaS?

4. Why would a CIO consider adopting NaaS over the conventional in-house approach?

a. How should a CISO get involved in the evaluation/implementation of a NaaS?

5. What IT strategy is an alternative to NaaS?

a. When should this alternative be considered over NaaS and vice-versa?

6. Given that NaaS is a relatively new approach, would it make sense to (a) do a pilot first; (b) try a limited or small-scale NaaS implementation, or (c) go all in at the get-go?

7. What should be the metrics/outcomes that will weigh heavily on whether a NaaS strategy is a success or not for a company?

8. What questions to ask internally (to the CIO)?

9. Is it possible to discover somewhere along the line that NaaS is not for us?

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According to Forrester, 44% of purchase influencers in Asia Pacific consider improving customer experience (CX) as one of their top priorities over the next 12 months.

Even a minor improvement to a brand’s customer experience quality can add revenue by reducing customer churn and lowering the cost of customer acquisition.

In my opinion, one of the 2022 Forrester predictions that stands out is the one predicting that the Future Of Customer Service Is “Automatedly” Human.

According to Forrester, automation done well can guide and empower customers to reap the benefits of great customer service.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Vasupradha Srinivasan, senior analyst at Forrester, to get her perspective on this concept of automatedly human.

Give us a state of customer service today – what is working and what isn’t?
Some automation already exists in today’s customer service. Where are the major failings of these automation tools/processes?
What do you mean by customer service is automatedly human?

4. In an ideal setting, to what extent should automation be embedded in customer service?

Given that technology is an enabler (unifier) for customer service (do you agree with this statement?), who decides what technologies should be integrated into the process?

a. What metrics should be used to evaluate the effectiveness of such an effort?

Can you cite of any use case today where a decidedly automated human is proving effective?
What is your advice to leaders looking for a more effective and efficient customer service operation?

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Environmental, social, and corporate governance is an approach to evaluating the extent to which a corporation works on behalf of social goals that go beyond the role of a corporation to maximize profits on behalf of the corporation's shareholders.

In recent years, climate change has elevated the visibility of ESG initiatives. While the Board has traditionally had oversight over ESG, increasingly we are seeing the CFO take on the role of manager reporting to the Board.

But what about the CIO? IT systems which support many business processes themselves consume energy and generate waste, thereby contributing to carbon emissions. What can the CIO do to drive the organisation’s ESG initiative?

With us to talk about this is Jay Tuseth, vice president, Oracle Applications, ASEAN.

1) What are the three major factors or megatrends driving the increased focus on sustainability across key markets in Asia Pacific?

2) What do you think will be the key driver behind enterprise sustainability efforts in the near to medium term?

a. Do you anticipate the pandemic to have a significant impact on these efforts?

3) What are the top three technologies in use today that can enhance the effectiveness or success of ESG initiatives?

4) With sustainability and digital transformation at the top of the business agenda in 2022, what can organisations across Asia Pacific do to maximise the potential of data at their disposal?

5) How should the CIO work with the sustainability officer or in some cases the CFO around the use and protection of data in pursuit of sustainability and social goals?

6) What is your advice to CIOs as to how they can support an organisation’s sustainability and social goals?

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At a recent FutureCISO Breakfast briefing, this one on the topic of “Looming cyberthreats in 2022 – Tipping the scale in your favour”, one of the areas covered was the different types of attacks used to get the target to click on a link.

During the panel discussion, it was acknowledged that cybercriminals are employing as many tactics as they can to get the intended target to fall prey to the attack. Given that targets are becoming more aware of what fake content, in the form of social postings, email messages and websites looks like, criminal elements are decidedly combining previous attack approaches in the hope of landing that next victim.

One such attack is referred to as Telephone-oriented attack deliveries or TOADS. To talk to us about this form of threat is Adrian Covich, Senior Director of Systems Engineering, Asia Pacific and Japan at Proofpoint.

1. What is a telephone-oriented attack delivery, or TOAD?

2. How dangerous can TOADs be? Could you give some examples of how TOADs can impact consumers and businesses?

3. Though call centre threats are not new, they are evolving to become part of a robust and complex attack chain. Could you elaborate more on this?

4. How do you protect against these TOADS – viewed from the perspective of the enterprise and the consumer?

5. What are the top challenges that companies like Proofpoint face when it comes to battling TOADs and other phishing attacks?

6. What are some strategies that can be put into place?

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The value of the renewable energy market is set to grow from $880 billion to nearly $2 trillion by 2030.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is having transformative effect across energy and utilities. It is used to forecast demand and manage the distribution of resources, to ensure that power is available at the time and place it's needed with a minimum of waste. This is particularly important in the renewable energy industry, where it often can’t be stored for long periods of time and has to be used close to the time and location where it is generated.

The World Economic Forum predicts that AI will play an essential role in the world’s transition to clean energy. These gains in efficiency will be created by more accurate forecasting of supply and demand.

Additionally, as we transition to a decentralized model of power generation and distribution, AI will play an important role in coordinating the integration of these networks. The strategy here is to create an “intelligent coordination layer” that sits between the power infrastructure and homes and businesses where power is consumed.

To give us greater clarity on how AI and other emerging technologies will reshape the future of the energy sector, we are joined by Luis Gonzalez, General Manager for Data Innovations in the Power Industry, Aboitiz Data Innovation.

Compared to other industries/markets – like retail, financial services – how would you describe the state of modernization or digital transformation of the utility/energy (UE) sector?
What are the main drivers calling for the modernization of the UE sector?
Among the many technologies – cloud, big data, mobility, IoT, machine learning/AI, etc – which are drawing the most interest from leaders in the UE sector and why?

a. How do you see UE adopting these technologies to transform the business?

b. How do you see UE adopting these technologies to meet ESG aspirations?

What can UE leaders learn from other industries or companies?
Deregulation and open market competition will eventually come to the energy sector? Can you share your views on how UE leaders can navigate this complex landscape, including under evolving regulation?
Where does Aboitiz Data Innovation fit in this transition to this data-driven energy sector?

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Large companies typically have subsidiary businesses that sell to each other. The idea is to build capability to deliver a vertical stack of services and expertise, and essentially, keep the money in the group. The problem is that most subsidiary businesses have enough independence to decide on what tools and technologies they can use to support their business. Sister companies become just another supplier.

The challenge arises when it comes to consolidating the data and transactions, to the parent company. According to EY, organisations are fighting through a thicket of clashing policies, processes and technologies when handling intercompany transactions.

99% of intercompany stakeholders participating in a Dimension Research study say intercompany is becoming increasingly complex and challenging, with 58% reporting that the volume is more than five times the annual revenue.

But in the quest to understand the challenge, 86% agree that intercompany is a very much misunderstood concept, while 81% agree that intercompany is complex and messy.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Victor Ng, regional vice president for Asia, BlackLine, to talk about the concept of intercompany accounting.

What is intercompany accounting?
How does it relate to intercompany financial management?
What are the issues businesses face with intercompany accounting and cash flow management?
How do these challenges negatively impact finance & accounting operations? Overall business outcomes?
Refinitiv data reveals that global M&A value reached US$5.8 trillion in 2021, up 64% from 2020. Why and how is the automation of intercompany accounting crucial for post-merger success?
For CFOs, what are the intercompany red flags they need to be looking out for before they affect the business?
Can you name some best practices to achieving intercompany accounting excellence?
Advise on the next step for CFOs looking to being in intercompany accounting practice?

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The travel industry has been at the hard hit by the pandemic. But with markets around the region and globally beginning to re-open to travellers, perhaps we are nearing the light at the end of the tunnel for the industry.

According to Deloitte’s 2022 travel outlook, corporate travel demand should improve significantly when workers return to offices in greater numbers, enabling more client visits. Even assuming the best possible COVID-19 outcomes, not all road warriors will be eager to return to their pre-pandemic frequency. At the same time, CEOs and CFOs will likely continue to closely scrutinize travel spending and return on investment after operating successfully with so few trips.

One of the topics we’ve been covering with finance leaders around Asia during the pandemic has been the issue of transformation – both the whole of business transformation and the digital transformation of finance itself. Joining us today to shed light on how finance is Timothy Williams, CFO, FCM Travel in Asia.

Do you need to transform finance to enable (facilitate) a more holistic business transformation?
Do you believe that continuous process optimisation is the foundation for sustained competitive advantage?
Reviewing your process and technology direction, what one area would you like to see improved/changed upon?
How would you rate your finance team’s competency to drive successful transformation? Which one area do you think the team struggles with the most?
If the overarching goal is to create a sustainable transformation of finance, what more needs to happen?
Where do you expect your focus will be in 2022?
What is your advice to other CFOs in their respective transformation journeys in 2022 and beyond?

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CIOs have traditionally overseen the design, development, and management of IT systems for the internal use of the CIO’s company. But as businesses become more technology-led, the CIO is being brought into the development of solutions that can be sold and marketed to other companies.

In a survey of CIOs by IDC, 58% says they proactively identify business needs and opportunities, up from 28% the year before. 53% of CIOs are spending more time collaborating with LOBs in operations and product development this year.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Julio Bermudez, vice president for APAC for Amplitude to talk about this increasingly important role of the CIO as strategic advisor to business.

PROPOSED QUESTIONS:

1. How has the pandemic-induced increase in adoption of digital products changed the priorities of today’s CIOs?

2. What are CIOs getting wrong in their digital strategies?

3. What then should CIOs focus on to ensure their digital strategies truly drive business value?

4. Can you share some examples of companies with effective CIOs?

5. How can product data help CIOs continue to stay relevant and ensure business growth?

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Insurance is a competitive landscape, more so these days as regulation evolve, customers become demanding and picky with what products they need and how much they are willing to pay for. The entry of insurtech has also opened new avenues for insurers to market products, in some cases, create totally new offerings in new locations, not possible with the conventional model for marketing insurance.

IoT-enabled insurance involves the utilization of drones, machine learning (ML), telematics, robotic process automation, wearables, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) solutions to provide improved and effective insurance services.

The IoT insurance offer services, such as immediate risk management, claim management and reduction of operational costs of the organization during claim settlement. It is widely used across various industries, such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), automotive, transportation, healthcare and construction.

In today’s PodChats for FutureIoT, we are joined by Andrew Yeoman, CEO of Concirrus, to give us a better understanding of how insurers are using IoT to reimagine insurance.

How has the insurance industry in Asia evolved in the last five years?
It can be argued that IoT is still relatively new as applied in insurance. Can you cite one or two recent innovations around the use of IoT in insurance?
What is the value proposition of IoT in the provision of insurance products and services?
There are two aspects of IoT that need to be addressed in insurance: risk management and the other is around data privacy and protection.

a. How are insurers using IoT to better manage their risks? (insight into behavioural analysis)

b. In your observation, is the understanding of IoT technology, sufficiently mature around data privacy and protection?

How important is having a clear business model to benefit from IoT data? And how can businesses adopt such a model?

a. What skills, expertise, the experience must an insurer have access to benefit from the use of IoT?

b. When looking to tap IoT, what questions should leadership ask their CIO/CTO to ensure they are in the right direction and frame of mind?

What does Concirrus bring to the table?

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Respondents to Deloitte’s fourth-quarter 2021 “CFO Signals” survey revealed the key challenges facing CFOs and finance leaders include attracting and retaining talent, and wage inflation, along with strategy execution and the pace of technology developments and innovation, as the internal risks that worry CFOs most.

Further, the survey listed inflation, supply chain challenges, potential policy and regulatory changes, as well as COVID-19 and its variants, as the CFOs’ top external worries.

CFOs have identified talent, financial performance, and growth as the top three priorities for 2022, followed by strategy setting, cost management, capital allocation and IT infrastructure.

FutureCFO spoke to Srinivasan Venkat Padmanabhan, chairman of the Manas Group, for his take on how finance is evolving in 2022, and how CFOs and finance heads must bring together the finance team to meet the challenges of the post-pandemic economy.

1. As a head of finance, what were the three most challenging aspects of 2020 and 2021?

2. How do you see technologies helping drive digital success for finance functions?

3. As a leader yourself, how do you encourage the restructuring or modernization or transformation of finance to support the overall digital transformation that the business is going through?

4. Can you cite one or two ways in which finance leaders can improve the return on the organization’s digital investments?

5. What do you see will be the most important functions of the CFO or the heads of finance in this post pandemic model that we are in right now?

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Finance leaders are increasingly focused on digital transformation initiatives despite having to deal with other pressing issues like revenue, profitability, skills shortage during these periods of continuing uncertainty.

Granted we’ve had two years to adjust to the new ways of doing business and working, uncertainties are always more pronounced during times of heightened crisis – as when there is a new round infection outbreak.

The 2021 Gartner CEO Survey: The CFO Perspective noted that 82% of CFOs report investments in digital are accelerating, exceeding investments in other areas like talent, supply chain, business services or fixed assets,

Should digital be the be-all and end-all of the CFO’s priority in 2022? In today’s PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Mr Goh Yin Shian, Finance Director, Teckwah Industrial Corporation Ltd – a Singapore company best known for the manufacture and distribution of paper packaging products.

1. Do you need to transform finance to enable (facilitate) a more holistic business transformation?

2. What is the role of finance in a digitally transformed enterprise?

3. Do you believe that continuous process optimization is the foundation for sustained competitive advantage?

4. Reviewing your process and technology direction, what one area would you like to see improved/changed upon?

5. How would you rate your finance team’s competency to drive successful transformation? Which one area do you think the team struggles the most?

6. Do you believe you are equipped to meet your sustainability objectives?

7. Where do you expect your focus (as finance) will be in 2022? [sustainability]

8. Where is the finance organisation on its transformation journey?

9. If the overarching goal is to create a sustainable transformation of finance, what more needs to happen?

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According to John F. Kennedy, the 35th U.S. president, crisis when written Chinese comprises two brush strokes: one representing danger and the other opportunity.
The past two years have proven that humans will adapt to the changes to survive, and in many cases thrive. Businesses that refuse to adapt will naturally suffer the most and longest during the crisis. Those able to pivot quickly will realise new opportunities await them. Indeed, the pandemic has proven to be an opportunity as much as a struggle for survival. Mergers & Acquisitions, for example, are at an all-time high.
Of course, when you are dealing with something, there will be resistance as there will be circumstances requiring you to test new ideas. Not every situation has a proven methodology for tackling it. Sometimes, you will have to try out an idea if it works, or doesn’t, for the condition in front of us.
Srinivasan Venkat Padmanabhan, chairman of the Manas Group, looked back at the time prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, describing it as a period when physical travel was a requisite of good business practice.
1. Describe for us how leaders behaved prior to the pandemic

What do you think are the 3 most significant qualities that stood out in 2020 and even pivot the business moving forward and where we are today?
What are your expectations for this year and the years to come in terms of what business leaders are expected of?
What are your aspirations for 2022?

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For years, information security has been floating in the Top 10 IT strategies of many organisations. In the last 3-5 years, the frequency, tenacity and boldness of cyber attacks have moved cybsercurity not only to the top of the CIO’s priority list, but to the C-suite and Board as well – becoming in many cases, part of the business agenda.

In the US, for example, the cybersecurity community are pushing for a bill that will enforce responsibility to the CEO and the board if cybersecurity controls are not adequately done.

The responsibility for security typically rests in the hands of the Chief Information Security Officer. But as security becomes intertwined in an organisation’s digital transformation journey. How do we see the role of the CISO evolving, and for that matter that of the CIO?

Welcome to PodChats for FutureCISO. In today’s episode are joined by Abdulla Al Attas, head of cyber security, Plus Malaysia.

PodChats for FutureCISO: The responsibility of leadership in cyber security and IT

If we look back at 2020 and 2021, security firms and analysts noted an increase in cybersecurity breaches/incidents. Despite the importance given to cybersecurity what are organizations doing wrong?
In 2022, to what degree is cybersecurity given importance at the C-Suite and Board level?

a. How is this ‘importance’ realised in terms of investments in time and resource?

3. Given that organisations continue to be targeted by criminal elements, does this mean that organisations and its leadership are not doing enough? Or doing it wrong?

To give it the importance it deserves, how should leadership and the board approach cybersecurity?
What questions should the board be asking itself, the C-suite, the CISO-CIO when it comes to cybersecurity in 2022?
What will be important to the CISO in 2022?
What do you see challenges facing CISO in 2022?

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Death and taxes are said to be life’s only two certainties. As organisations continue their digital transformation journey, you can add the certainty of an expanding cyber threat landscape and the unrelenting barrage of attacks that come with it.

Peter Firstbrook, Gartner research vice president, says “The pandemic accelerated hybrid work and the shift to the cloud, challenging CISOs to secure an increasingly distributed enterprise — all while dealing with a shortage of skilled security staff.”

In today’s PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Mark du Plessis, MD and Security Lead for Southeast Asia, Accenture for his take on the top challenges that CISOs and security pros will face in 2022 and beyond.

1. Looking back (2020-2021), what has been the single biggest challenge for the CISO and security team? How have they responded to this challenge?

2. Are CISOs in Asia able to adapt to talking in business terms to the CEO and the Board?

3. What are the key cybersecurity trends and challenges that organisations are currently facing (2022)?

4. What are the implications of these challenges for CISOs and how does this affect the company’s security strategy and posture?

5. What are some best practices or must-haves that constitute a sound cybersecurity strategy in 2022?

6. What is the one piece of advice for the CISO in 2022 to help guide him or her in tackling the role?

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Incident response is an organized approach to addressing and managing the aftermath of a security breach or cyberattack. It is sometimes referred to as an IT incident, computer incident or security incident. The goal is to handle the situation in a way that limits damage and reduces recovery time and costs.

It can be argued that the dramatic increase in cyberattacks in recent years, the variety, notoriety and the severity of impacts warrant a revisit of incident response strategies and technologies.

According to a report by Red Canary, 49% of organisations surveyed are not equipped to meet cybersecurity challenges, while 54% are wasting valuable time investigating low-level alerts and slowing down the incident response process.

Joining us today on PodChats for FutureCISO is Pei Yuen Wong, chief technology officer at IBM Security ASEANZK, to talk in greater detail about futureproofing enterprise incident response strategies.

1. What is Enterprise Incident Response (EIR)?

2. How has it changed (or not) between 2020 and today?

3. Given the increased cyber threats, should enterprise incident response strategies be updated to reflect this new reality?

4. In lieu of this, should a new team be created to focus squarely on cyber risks or would updating the overall EIR be sufficient?

5. What should be the composition of a post-COVID cybersecurity incident response plan (CSIRP)? (cover both the people, process, and technology elements)

6. In general, where are the blind spots of many EIR or CSIRP?

7. What do you see will be critical issues that CISOs and leadership must tackle to ensure organisation’s EIR/CSIRP are ready and able to stand up to the challenges ahead?

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In peace times or periods of crisis, people need to eat. The unfortunate reality is that left to its own devices, nature cannot support the world’s demand for food. The challenge today is how to combine people, process, and technology to help create sustainable practices that are also friendly to the environment.

Aquaculture or fish farming involves interventions in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, and protection from predators.

Allied Market Research forecasts that the global aquaculture market size US$378 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 5.8%. Since 2019, Asia-Pacific has held a leading position in the global market and is expected to maintain this dominance in the future.

In today’s Podchats for FutureIoT, we are joined by GK Tay, general manager for ISDN Group, to look at how technology supports sustainable development in aquaculture.

1. Describe the state of digital adoption in Singapore’s aquaculture sector.

a. What are the immediate benefits of introducing technologies like IoT?

2. What are the top three hurdles in the digitization of aquaculture business?

3. Looking at the concepts showcased at the Industrial Innovation Challenge, what needs to happen for the commercial adoption of these ideas?

4. Can the concepts and technologies developed be applied elsewhere?

a. Who should drive it? How will be marketed to the right parties?

5. With ESG a growing priority, how do you see technology being applied to create sustainable practices?

6. What does ISDN Group bring to the table?

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Infrastructure is changing as enterprises accelerate digital transformation. In a cloud-first and increasingly automated world, infrastructure, and operations (I&O) leaders must rethink how infrastructures are utilized and managed.

“As cloud computing continues to grow, application portfolios are becoming more diverse and more hybrid,” says Thomas Bittman, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “Strategic infrastructure standardization, modernization and automation efforts will be critical for successful digital transformation.”

In this further acceleration of the cloudification of business applications supporting back-end infrastructure, how should CIOs go about prioritising automation strategies?

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Allan Teng, founder and managing director, Workato, APJ, shares his perspective on the topic.

According to the IBM Institute for Business Value, globally CIOs report between 20% to 40% of organisational business processes have been automated. In Asia, to what extent do you believe automation has changed how business processes are handled?
To meet the drive to further transform the business, what areas of the business should the CIO prioritise when it comes to automation?
In support of digital transformation, which should take priority: automation or integration?

a. How does leadership determine which is the best option for them?

b. For the CIO, how does a CIO build a business case for an integration-led automation strategy?

c. What challenges must CIOs be ready in pursuing an integration-led automation strategy?

d. What skills will be needed to execute an integration-led automation strategy?

To what extent is Workato involved in automation?
To close, how do you see automation in 2022?

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Organisations pursuing a digital strategy will, at some point in the journey, need to address the issue of whether current, aka legacy systems and processes, are getting in the way of transformation journeys.

Arguably one of the more important considerations of any modernisation, be it infrastructure, applications, or processes is ensuring data remains protected and secured regardless of the strategy taken.

Notable in the annual Veeam 2022 Data Protection report of the top change drivers in data protection for 2022 is the placement of “moving away from legacy solutions” to the bottom of importance (2%).

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Dave Russell, vice president of Enterprise Strategy at Veeam, shared his views on what’s driving the widening data protection gap and how to narrow it.

Click on the PodChat player to Russell’s candid responses on the following questions:

1. Why do you think respondents to the Veeam survey did not deem moving away from legacy hardware solutions as an important driver in their data protection strategies?

2. The Veeam report revealed a data protection gap of 40% indicating inadequate backup or failure to meet SLAs as the top challenge in 2021. Is this because IT is too complex to provide protection across systems, including virtualized containers and Shadow IT?

3. Do the many different types of outages, be they infrastructure, application, servers or even cybersecurity incidents, can this be attributed to the increasing use of complex heterogeneous systems including on-premise data centres, hybrid and multi-cloud?

4. We understand that there has been a noticeable increase in ransomware attacks since the pandemic started. What is the average duration of a ransomware attack from awareness to resolution? And is the resolution veering towards paying the ransom?

5. Among the many backup approaches – point-in-time, full, differential, incremental and continuous backups, are backup strategies today changing as companies opt to backup to the cloud?

6. Would artificial intelligence in backup narrow the data protection gap and reduce failed recoveries?

7. In terms of Veeam’s data protection offering, to what extent are automation technologies being used to improve overall outcome and speed?

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One of the outcomes of the pandemic is accelerated adoption of cloud. But whereas cloud was first thought of as a mid to long-term strategy that will take organisations time to adopt – because organisations in Asia have a lot of legacy systems that are simply too complicated to move – statewide restrictions on mobility have forced companies to move up a notch their cloud strategies.

And as the dust settles and businesses and people get accustomed to the new way of working, cloud computing is evolving from technology enabler to business disruptor.

But to achieve this new status of business disruptor, IT leaders responsible for cloud strategy must understand their organisation’s business strategy first, and then seek opportunities to leverage new and emerging cloud capabilities to accelerate that strategy.

Welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO. In this episode, we are joined by Adrian Lawrence, head of Baker McKenzie's Asia Pacific Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group, to talk about winning strategies for cloud migration in 2022 – from a legal perspective.

What are the three most common challenges faced by organisations considering migrating to (a) private cloud and (b) public cloud?
What critical technologies must be in place to facilitate cloud migration?
What critical skills or experiences or credentials must CIOs look for when considering bringing in external companies to help with the migration?
When considering a cloud-based DR strategy, what should CIOs remember?
What is a realistic set of ROI metrics for cloud migration?

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The pandemic has catapulted security once more to the top of IT and executive leadership priorities, even the Board. However, at issue for the CIO and CISO is getting management buy-in when it comes to what technologies to acquire, how to integrate these into existing security strategies, the challenges in the journey to integration, and how to ensure that disruptions are kept to a minimum.

Because we live in an ecosystem economy today where almost everything is connected, the challenge for the CIO and CISO is securing the appropriate budget that reflects the state of the security or insecurity of the industry, the availability of many with their respective price tags, and the limited resources the company must do everything while securing the business and its customers.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Jonathan Jackson, Director of Engineering, APAC at BlackBerry, to talk about How to get senior management buy-in when it comes to security projects.

How is cybersecurity inextricably linked to digital growth in 2022?
[Just] how complex is the nature of security for an organisation today?
Security is like insurance. It only becomes tangible when bad things happen. How can the CISO-CIO contextualise key cybersecurity trends and issues to reflect the bottom line – the things most important to leadership, the Board, and shareholders?
If I take a cynical look at security spending, for the most part, I am spending money in the hope that I can prevent threat actors from successfully impacting my business. But given that from what the CISO-CIO and analysts are telling me – that threat actors are creative, aggressive, resourceful and relentless, how do I fight a war that seems one-sided? (talk about predictive advantage here)
Gartner expects companies will spend US$77 billion in outsourcing security in 2022. Where do you see this spending being prioritised? More importantly, how should the CISO and CIO approach selling the idea of more outsourcing to leadership? (skills shortage, alert fatigue)
Is it true that companies are more open to outsourcing security?
Bottom line, given all the challenges, obstacles, and priorities, what are your top recommendations for how the CISO-CIO gets leadership buy-in around security spending in 2022 and beyond?

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A McKinsey study prior to the COVID-19 pandemic suggested that while the idea of automating processes has been in the minds of leadership even before 2020, for the most part those that had serious inclinations went so far as to do pilot trials of one or more business functions.

The mobility restrictions induced by the pandemic and the imperative to move on may be just the impetus to trigger a more serious investment around automation beyond just the adoption of business process automation and robotic process automation.

With us today is Carlos Gómez Gallego, Chief Technology Officer, APJ, Aruba Networks, to talk about the evolving challenges in the journey to automation and just how, maybe, AI holds at least one of the keys to a wider and more fruitful adoption of the concept.

What are some of the toughest operational challenges faced by APJ enterprises and their IT teams today, and how are traditional IT tools lacking in helping enterprises operate a seamless networking infrastructure?

1. How do you see emerging technologies solving these challenges?

2. What is artificial intelligence for IT operations or AIOps and can you cite a couple of new trends arising from the use of this technology?

3. A few issues that come to mind whenever we talk about emerging technologies: scalability, security, trust.

· Let’s start with scalability – is AIOps technology today mature enough to cost-effectively scale?

· Security – can we guarantee that AIOps is as secure as it can get today?

· Finally trust – do you see humans willing to let an AI autonomously perform a complex, even critical function without supervision?

4. What does a robust AIOps strategy look like?

5. How can enterprises improve network connectivity and build a resilient infrastructure in 2022?

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Milind Govekar, distinguished vice president at Gartner, says the technological and organisational silos of application development, automation, integration, and governance will become obsolete. Application development instead will shift to assembly and integration.

Gartner predicts that by 2025, 70% of new applications developed by organizations will use low-code or no-code technologies, up from less than 25% in 2020.

Low-code and no-code technologies are paving the way for citizen development, and a new function: business technologists who report outside of IT departments and create technology or analytics capabilities for internal or external business use.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we look at how low-code No-Code can help accelerate digital transformation, and what it means for the IT team. Joining us are Mendix CEO, Tim Srock and Vincent Lim, VP & Head, APAC.

How would you define digital transformation in the context of applications?
In the grand scheme of digital transformation, where does low-code no-code (LC-NC) fit in?
LC-NC has been around for some time now (As early as the 1970s but who can keep track). What is different about the LC-NC platforms of the 2020s?
What is the biggest benefit that LC-NC bring to organisations looking to accelerate their digital transformation in 2022?
How can an organisation avoid vendor lockdown when it comes to LC-NC?
How can an organisation avoid the build-up of Shadow IT if they decide to open up LC-NC outside IT?
How should the CIO and CISO work together to ensure any application developed as a result of LC-NC are scalable and secure?
For organisations looking to tap LC-NC, what questions should they ask the platform provider?

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reCISO: CISO in the crosshairs of security and privacy

The CISO is responsible for the vision, strategy, and program to ensure the protection of information assets, and technologies. As it relates to policies, vendor management, data breaches, and reporting to the board of directors, the CISO plays an integral and sometimes overlapping role with that of the Chief Privacy Officer to protect the brand and reputation of an organization.

So what exactly is the CISO’s role and responsibility as it relates to the increasingly intertwined issues of security and privacy. Let’s add data protection to complicate the discussion for good measure.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Vincent Goh, Senior Vice President, APJ, CyberArk on the topic of CISO in the crosshairs of security and privacy.

• The terms security and privacy are often used interchangeably. What’s the difference between data security and data privacy?

• What are the various struggles faced by a CISO when it comes to ensuring data security and data privacy?

o Has this changed with the pandemic?

• Where the Chief Privacy Role exists, how does the CISO perform his role without overstepping the bounds of his/her responsibility?

• Our topic is CISO at the crosshairs of security and privacy. What needs to happen from an infrastructure point of view?

• Transparency and trust will be a key priority for consumers in 2022. How can businesses build and maintain trust effectively?

• What are your tips for CISOs?

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Manufacturing is one of the most significant contributors to Asia-Pacific’s economy and is undergoing a rapid transformation. Mordor Intelligence forecasts that the Asia Pacific Smart Manufacturing Market is expected to register a CAGR of 7.57% over the forecast period from 2021 to 2026.

Industry 4.0 is the latest revolution in the manufacturing landscape fuelled by the integration of production machines, wireless connectivity, and sensors – all linked to a system platform ecosystem that oversees the whole production line process and executes decisions autonomously.

Smart manufacturing promises to transform businesses and achieve significant value by leveraging the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), cloud, and analytics solutions.

To understand how Industrial IoT is transforming the manufacturing sector, we are joined by Simith Nambiar, practice lead, emerging tech APJ at Rackspace Technology to share with us his views on how to realize the promise of smart manufacturing with IoT.

What are some digital transformation challenges faced by manufacturers in 2022?
How can organisations use connected products to build new revenue streams and enhance customer experience through real-time, cloud-powered intelligence?
You mentioned the proliferation of data and protocols on the production floor. As companies look to introduce IoT on the floor, how does data from IIoT empower manufacturers to gain insights from their fleet of distributed devices to enhance operations?
How does the adoption of IIoT help Singapore achieve its Manufacturing 2030 strategy of growing Singapore's manufacturing sector by 50% of its current value?
In 30 seconds, what does Rackspace do in the manufacturing space?

Simith, thank you for joining me on PodChats for FutureIoT.

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One of the key trends predicted for the insurance sector is the rise of digital ecosystems, a technology strategy that emphasizes best-of-breed components covering each major function in insurance using APIs, microservices, as well as web services.

So which technology will likely have a near-term impact for insurers as they grapple with evolving regulations and maturing technologies?

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Sourabh Chitrachar, Regional Vice President/ Director- Asia Technology Strategy & Operations, Liberty Mutual Insurance, on the topic of strategic priorities for insurers in 2022.

It is anticipated that 2022 will likely see new use cases for artificial intelligence in insurance.

1. Aside from security, what were the key operational challenges heads of technologies faced in Asia?

2. Which approaches (technology and operations) have proven most effective in helping insurers survive/thrive during the crisis?

3. What is your opinion on Open Insurance and how do you see this trend evolving in Asia?

4. We are seeing a growing interest in ESG. How do you see this initiative being adopted in Asia’s insurance sector?

5. What should be the focus of the office of the CIOs in 2022?

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For some time, insurance and innovation were not seen as two concepts that go hand-in-hand. COVID-19 showed that insurers can undertake large-scale change at a pace industry veterans might have thought possible.

In its “2022 Global Insurance Outlook: Growing with people, purpose and tech”, EY predicts insurance poised for a period of purposeful growth, despite daunting macroeconomic and structural challenges, fierce competition and ongoing tech-driven disruptions.

Just how insurance is redefining itself in a period where uncertainty is the norm, is the subject of our dialogue with Sourabh Chitrachar, Regional Vice President/ Director- Asia Technology Strategy & Operations, Liberty Mutual Insurance.

He joins us on this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO to give his insights on how the insurance industry is moving ahead with its resilience and innovation agenda in the new normal.

If you look back, how would you describe the security landscape within the insurance sector in ASEAN between 2020-2021?
In your view, what are the challenges ahead for CISOs and CIOs in the insurance sector in 2022?
Among the many emerging technologies, which technologies do you think are (a) overhyped; (b) under-used/underappreciated by the insurance industry?
Can you cite 3 trends that will be most impactful for CIO-CISOs in Asia’s insurance sector in 2022?
What is your advice for CIOs and CISOs in the insurance sector in advancing resilience and innovation in 2022?

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In the article, What Is Web 3.0 & Why It Matters, Fabric Venture partners, Max Mersch and Richard Muirhead, wrote that whereas “Web 2.0 was driven by the advent of mobile, social and cloud, Web 3.0 is built largely on three new layers of technological innovation: edge computing, decentralised data networks and artificial intelligence.”

They also postulated that the shift to Web 3.0 is spreading the data centre out to the edge. “Large legacy data centres are being supplemented by a multitude of powerful computing resources spread across phones, computers, appliances, sensors and vehicles which are forecast to produce and consume 160 (!) times more data in 2025 as compared to 2010 (Ocean Protocol Research).”

Gartner analyst Avivah Litan says Web 3.0 will transform us from Web 2.0’s monetization via surveillance capitalism and advertising to monetization built directly into the protocol that is equally available to any connected user.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Ulyses Ty, Head of Applications Services, Asia Service Centre, Sun Life Financial, for his take on where Web 3.0 will take the enterprise and how IT leaders will drive the adoption of Web 3.0 in the enterprise?

What is your definition in of Web 3.0?
How do you see Web 3.0 supporting calls for innovations that support sustainability and resilience?
Why is Web 3.0 not yet here (not sufficiently mature to draw serious discussion at the Board and C-suite level)?
From your perspective, where do you see are the low-hanging use cases of Web 3.0 based on currently available technology?
How do you see security and privacy evolving in Web 3.0?
In all these developments, how do you see the CIO and IT leadership helping to steer the integration of Web 3.0 into the organisation’s evolving use of IT?
Into 2022, how do you see Web 3.0 shaping the industry?

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Sustainability, digital transformation and the energy transition have accelerated significantly following the start of the pandemic. The global Energy and Environment (E&E) industry is going through an unprecedented transformation and this change is bringing exciting new growth opportunities.

The advent of greener, smarter and more connected products and services will transform our cities, communities, workplaces, and homes into a digital and sustainable domain. This will enhance efficiency, environmental performance, reliability, productivity, flexibility, safety, and company profitability.

According to John Raspin, Partner, Energy & Environment at Frost & Sullivan. The competitive landscape for the future of the Energy and Environment industry will be different; driven by innovation, market transformation, and disruptive business models.”

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Andre Blumberg, Senior Director of IT, CLP Power to talk about the transformations the company has been undergoing and its impact not just to the company but also to the community.

What is the business of CLP Power?
Why has the company decided to undertake digital transformation?

a. Very briefly describe CLP Power’s digital transformation initiative (goals, outcomes, etc).

As part of its digital utility plans for the future, what were the anticipated changes in terms of how the company operated?
How has the pandemic impacted CLP’s DX initiative, including how it operates as a business?
What operational changes has CLP since introduced that reflect the new normal? (include hybrid work)?
We are at the start of 2022, what remains in CLP’s digital transformation agenda?
On the topic of digital transformation, what lessons can you draw from your own experience?

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Michael Araneta, AVP, IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific commented that "A recovery is afoot, putting pro-growth themes, such as customer centricity, cross-selling and up-selling, and customer loyalty, squarely back on the agenda.

Aaron Press, research director, IDC Financial Insights, added that even with the remaining uncertainty, we see financial services across the spectrum looking forward, leveraging their transformative efforts, and moving on to deal with the challenges of the future.

So, what can we expect in 2022? And how should the CIO and leadership at banks in Asia, build upon the lessons of the past to create opportunities for the future?

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Niels Maerkedahl, Global Technology Lead for Business Banking, Standard Chartered.

What are the key business trends facing banks in Asia in 2022?
What are the top three challenges facing banks in Asia in 2022?
Which three technologies present the greatest opportunity for banks in Asia in 2022?
Forrester says for 2022 banks will double down on innovation. Two key strategies were raised: future-fit technology and accelerate end-to-end digital transformation. Can you share your perspective on this prediction/analysis?
Gartner for its part says business composability will be important to banks in 2022. Can you share your interpretation of this recommendation by Gartner?
As a technology practitioner, what will be important issues for you in 2022?

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Jay Forte is President and Founder of The Forte Factor and Certified Executive Coach, wrote in a blog that things have changed for many organizations from how they do business to how work is done. He added that while many feel compelled to return to the way things were before COVID-19, this isn’t possible.

Many of the things that previously filled our days have been replaced with things we either never thought possible or thought we would get to someday, like workplaces with fully remote employees, touchless contact, effective video sales calls, home delivery of nearly every product, and even remote doctor visits.

He opined that to be successful in a constantly changing global environment, an organization needs to be responsive, resilient and ready. I believe one more action is missing from the list – to be relevant.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Sumit Nurpuri, Chief Operating Officer of Capgemini Southeast Asia, Hong Kong & Taiwan, to get his perspective on what it means for organizations to be resilient, responsive and relevant.

Define for us what it means to be relevant, responsive and resilient in the post-pandemic normal.
Is it possible to achieve relevance, be responsive and resilient without necessarily undertaking some form of transformation?
There are many priorities for business leaders today, including these three Rs. Where to start and how do you avoid breaking the bank and staying focused?
Most businesses survived the roller coasters 2020 and 2021. Any one lesson in support of the three goals?
Are business leaders in Asia able/ready to pivot and transform?
What is your advice for business, operations and IT leaders for 2022? [I need to revise this]

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The term “skills gap” refers to the bridge between the skills that companies need from their employees, and those that are actually available from workers. In the digital-first or digital-native era, this gap is fuelled by a combination of factors including advances of automation, AI and other technologies, along with candidates lacking the skills needed to interact with these new tech innovations.

These advancements have changed day-to-day operations, and upskilling programs at many organizations have yet to catch up. The result is a widening skills gap that can take a toll on company performance as well as employee confidence and productivity.

So, the skills gap of the future is two-pronged; organizations seek IT staff to fill the need for both interpersonal/soft skills and technical/hard skills. According to CompTIA, 79% of organizations are pursuing initiatives to address these gaps amid a tightening market for IT labour.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Suresh Sambandam, CEO of Kissflow, for his take on the future of application development with or without code.

Given the hundreds or thousands of STEM graduates in Asia. In 2016, the World Economic Forumestimates that China alone produces 4.7 million STEM graduates a year. Do we really have a skills gap today? (or are businesses being so picky, we do end up with a shortage of the right skills alongside rising unemployment?)
The idea of applications without programming has been an evolution as far back as 1954 with the programming language called autocode. Next one was Apple’s HyperCard in 1987, and today’s low-code, no -code platforms. Describe for us what LC-NC platforms offer today?
Do you see LC-NC as addressing the current skills shortage?
For old programmers, will LCNC spell the end of their cushy jobs?
By the way, how would you differentiate between low code and no code platforms?
For decades there is a divide that exists between IT and the rest of the organization. Do you see LCNC as bridging that divide?
We are into 2022, what is your advice to (a) IT leaders and (b) business leaders around strategies to alleviate the IT skills shortage?
So in all of these, what does Kissflow do?

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For many people in the supply chain ecosystem – from manufacturing on one end all the way to the consumer at the end other – the period of 2020-2021 is arguably one of the most tumultuous in modern history.

If you think, however, that it's smooth sailing from here on, you will be disappointed. How governments are responding to the omicron variant of COVID-19, continued geopolitical tensions around the world, and ongoing disruption to international air cargo and cross-border movements are just a few of the growing list of conditions that conspire to keep participants in the ecosystem at their toes.

On the bright side, Collier’s 2022 Global Investor Outlook Report is spinning a positive outlook for the industrial and logistics industry forecasting a rebound in investments in 2022.

With us today is Soham Chokshi, Founder and CEO of Shipsy, a logistics technology provider, to talk about how the modernization of the supply chain ecosystem may well influence the growth or not of the industry.

Give us the 30-second elevator pitch of who Shipsy is?
How would you summarise the state of the logistics industry between 2020-2021?
Give us a high-level summary of the 10 key trends in the logistics industry for 2022.
Which of these trends when combined will influence how industry players push forward their end-to-end logistics automation ambitions?
Given that the end-to-end logistics industry is not a handful of global companies but a broad mix of small, large and multinational organisations, how do you foresee efforts to introduce process efficiency through such things as automation going?
We may be repeating the question but does the industry leverage technology to scale hyperlocal on-demand delivery operations?
One of the buzzwords of 2021 is the pursuit of ESG – environmental, sustainable and governance initiatives. Within the logistics industry, how should leaders translate these into practical programmes that work?
Are you optimistic that things will be better for the logistics industry in 2022?
Given the many operational issues they face, and the many options they can pursue to survive and thrive in 2022, what is your one advice to leaders for 2022?

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According to Gartner: “Organizations are accelerating digital transformation processes for long-term growth and profitability. Yet: “53% of the organizations surveyed remain untested in the face of digital challenge and their digital transformation readiness therefore uncertain.”

With us today is Elaine Zhou, CEO, CNEW International to share with us her views on the qualities that make up a stand-up leader for the new still-digital, post-pandemic normal.

1. Describe for us how leaders behave prior to 2020?

2. For much of 2020, how did they respond to the pandemic?

3. Can you name three leadership lessons in 2021?

4. What is your prediction for 2022?

5. How do / should leaders lead in 2022? (around people, partnerships and technology)

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For decades industrial operations have used sensors to automate parts of the processes. In many cases, the automation was mainly in the collection of telemetry data. Most processes still required human interaction to push things along.

In recent years, the convergence of IoT technologies with machine learning, artificial intelligence and cloud, along with automation, have raised the possibility of putting smart IoT technology into business processes or workflows with the idea of automating these with minimum human intervention.

In today’s PodChats for FutureIoT, we speak to Seth Ryding, chief sales officer (CSO) Global Sales, Telenor Connexion, to talk about integrating IoT into modern business processes.

1. In the context of a typical business operation – for example, a financial institution, hospital or government – what is the business value of IoT?

2. How do business and operations leaders in these organisations see IoT? Any preconceived ideas that may hinder the adoption of IoT in business processes?

3. For CIOs and heads of IT, what are the challenges they must address if called to introduce IoT across several business processes – for example, process or workflow automation?

4. Given the continuing uncertainties arising from the pandemic. Is now the best time to consider adopting IoT into business processes? If yes, what is the better approach to ensure minimal disruption to existing operations, and minimised risks?

5. What is your advice for CIOs and CTOs to help guide the successful adoption of IoT into the business process?

6. You spoke about partnerships and core competencies, what is Telenor Connexion’s value proposition in an organisation’s IoT journey?

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In an IoT ecosystem, you can interconnect multiple devices to the internet and to each other to process data and transmit it over a network. From controlling a home network to those that power gas lines, it is this connectivity to the Internet that makes IoT devices vulnerable to intrusion.

It is estimated that 1.5 billion IoT breaches occurred between January to June of 2021, most using the telnet remote access protocol, used by network admin to access and manage network devices remotely.

In today’s PodChats for FutureIoT, we have with us Kamal Brar, Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific and Japan at Rubrik.

What makes IoT devices a valuable target for threat actors?
How does the Identity of Things play a role in protecting IoT devices?
How do threat actors exploit IoT devices through the Identity of Things?
What makes zero trust crucial for protecting IoT devices?
How can behaviour analysis detect threats in IoT networks?
What makes Rubrik an expert on IoT security?

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A patch is a set of changes to a computer program or its supporting data designed to update, fix, or improve it. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, with such patches usually being called bugfixes or bug fixes.

Patch Management is the process of managing a network of computers by regularly performing patch deployment to keep computers up to date.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Alex Tilley – Head of Intelligence Research for Asia Pacific at Secureworks, to talk about where patch and patch management is evolving.

1. In your view, why do we need to do software patching? Don’t businesses already pay enough in terms of licenses to expect that the software they buy is 100% in good working order – no bugs?

2. When a software bug is found, why does the CISO need to be aware of the patch that needs to be applied?

3. We often hear that patching is sometimes ignored. Why is that? Why do people resist patching known bugs?

4. How do we ensure that time-critical patches are performed? Who’s in charge here?

5. One of the emerging technologies of the three years is intelligent automation. Can intelligent automation be applied to patching?

6. What are the challenges CIOs/CISOs must address for patching to become a standard practice if it isn’t already? Perhaps draw lessons from the past?

7. What would be a new year’s resolution to patching that takes into consideration the current environment we are in – pandemic, remote work, etc?

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Leadership is a vital management function that helps to direct an organization's resources for improved efficiency and the achievement of goals. Effective leaders provide clarity of purpose, motivate and guide the organization to realize its mission.
A new Gartner survey reveals that HR leaders’ number one priority in 2022 will be building critical skills and competencies, with diversity, equity and inclusion now in the top five priorities in 2022.
In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we have with us Robert Sheffield, managing director, Greater China with Morgan McKinley, to share his perspective on the importance of leadership – now more than ever.

· What does it take to be a leader in Asia in 2022?

· Describe for us how leaders behave prior to 2020?

· For much of 2020, how did they respond to the pandemic?

· Can you name three leadership lessons in 2021?

· What is your prediction for 2022? (Forrester work from anywhere)

· The Great Resignation and what it is like in Asia

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Any given project left to its own devices will likely run amok, its deadline for completion extended and therefore go over budget. Worst case scenario – the project is deemed a failure, some people get blamed, and so on. Of course, why this happens can be many reasons, including participants in the project having different priorities and interests, as well as lack of leadership oversight.

According to the Project Management Institute, adhering to project management methods and strategies reduces risks, cuts costs, and improves the success rate.

With us today is Ben Breen, global head of construction and managing director, Asia-Pacific with the Project Management Institute, to deep dive with us on why project management is important, more so in these periods of uncertainty.

1. Please provide a quick recap of Asia’s construction sector between 2020-2021?

a. How have industry participants responded during the crisis?

2. How important is project management in the construction sector?

a. Do other industries place similar importance to project management?

b. How have best practices in project management

3. In the new digital pandemic normal, what skills have stood out to be most valuable when it comes to project management?

a. How have businesses/industries respondent to this new demand?

4. In 2022, what megatrends will elevate project management to higher importance?

a. How should business leaders address these megatrends?

b. What qualities must leaders put forward in 2022 and beyond?

5. Given the continuing uncertainty, what is your advice to industry leaders to help them ride the uncertainties and come out leading the marketplace?

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As enterprises face increasing urgency to execute on digital initiatives, Gartner predicts that for 2022, cloud will be the centrepiece of new digital experiences. Successful IT leaders will pursue cloud-native platforms and practices to build and transform application portfolios in support of digital competitiveness.

Milind Govekar, distinguished vice president at Gartner, said there is no business strategy without a cloud strategy, and that a “cloud-first” policy for onboarding of new workloads will be the norm.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we look at Open Hybrid Cloud which utilizes a mix of on-premises and third-party cloud computing infrastructure for business operations. It is an IT strategy to leverage the benefits of public and private cloud at the same time.

Josep Garcia, Vice President & GM, Asian Growth & Emerging Markets (GEMs) at Red Hat Asia-Pacific joins us on PodChats for FutureCIO to shed light on what Open Hybrid Cloud means to CIOs as a strategy.

What does an “open” in hybrid cloud strategy mean? Any difference from how hybrid clouds today are being designed, implemented, and managed?
How do I determine if an open hybrid cloud is essential for my business model?
What do I give up (or will eventually give up) in my current infrastructure architecture if I want to embrace an open hybrid cloud strategy?
For the non-IT executives in a business, what questions should they ask the CIO/CTO as it relates to the viability of an open hybrid cloud strategy?
For the CIO/CTO considering an open hybrid cloud strategy, what should they be asking their technology providers/partners?
Given that technology cycles continue to evolve, how do I mitigate the risks of (a) interoperability; (b) compatibility; (c) security if I am considering an open hybrid cloud strategy?
What is your advice for CIOs/CTOs and business leadership as regards their IT architecture strategy for 2022 and beyond?
What does Red Hat do in the open hybrid cloud space?

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The Open Risk Manual defines fraud risk as unexpected financial, material or reputational loss as the result of fraudulent action of persons internal or external to the organization.

Deloitte noted that according to the 2016 ‘Report to the Nations’ by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, professional fraud examiners estimate that a typical organisation loses 5% of its revenue to fraud. In a competitive market, that could be your profit margin! The median losses from fraud in Asia-Pacific is US$245,000 – 104% more than that of the US.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to James Ellender, director with Futurum Research, on the topic of fraud risks in financial services.

James, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. Define fraud risks in the context of the financial services – banking, finance and insurance – in Asia?

2. Data culled by media suggests that fraud risks are on the rise. In your view where are fraud risks most prevalent and why?

3. Within the financial services what are the three main catalysts for the rise in fraud cases?

4. Would you attribute the rise in fraud cases a result of lack of (a) awareness; (b) capability including people and other resources; (c) technology; (d) lack of regulation; (f) indifference on the part of the financial services business leaders?

5. What needs to happen from (a) regulator and (b) financial services businesses to better manage the risks (and hopefully contain the fraud cases) in 2022?

6. What is your advice for leaders in financial services to get themselves ready for 2022?

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As business needs change, organizations must be able to deliver innovation quickly and adapt applications dynamically — reassembling capabilities from inside and outside the enterprise. To do this, organizations must understand and implement the “composable enterprise.”

“Composable business is a natural acceleration of the digital business that you live every day. It allows us to deliver the resilience and agility that these interesting times demand,” said Daryl Plummer, Distinguished VP Analyst, during the opening keynote at virtual Gartner Symposium IT/Xpo®. “We’re talking about the intentional use of ‘composability’ in a business context — architecting your business for real-time adaptability and resilience in the face of uncertainty.”

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Stuart Fisher, regional vice president, APJ, Couchbase to better understand fundamentals to achieve composable applications and how to weave these into our development strategies.

1. What are the key drivers influencing agile and scalable development for enterprises in Asia?

2. Why should enterprises focus on developing high-composability and what challenges do they face in achieving this?

3. Can you please share an example of how agile scalable development leads to success for enterprises? How do enterprises measure this?

4. What are some of the best practices leaders can adopt to ensure they are on the right path to high-composability and a seamless development process?

5. What are some of the challenges DevOps teams in Asia face when rolling out applications?

6. How does an open-source environment and public cloud benefit DevOps teams to roll out applications? What value does it present for application deployment?

7. What key trends for DevOps teams in Asia to leverage in 2022?

8. So what does Couchbase bring to the topic of composability, composable applications and cloud migration? Is Couchbase a platform?

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Digital twins are detailed electronic models that use IoT technology to update the digitized model based on changes happening to the source object.

Vishnu Andhare, a consultant with the Information Services Group (ISG), believes that IoT (IoT) digital twin technology will continue to mature rapidly because of the demand for this technology across many industries as well as the remote needs required by pandemic workforces.

With the integration of IoT into the enterprise comes the potential for cybersecurity vulnerabilities. In this PodChats for FutureIoT, we speak to Ian Lim, Field Chief Security Officer, Asia Pacific at Palo Alto Networks, to talk about where IoT is headed and how securing IoT needs to step up or catchup with IT security.

1. What are the major enterprise IoT trends in Asia in 2022?

2. Please describe the state of IoT Security in Asia in 2022.

3. Can you cite one or two emerging IoT applications / use cases in Asia in 2022 where security needs to be addressed early on?

4. What often gets left out in securing enterprise IoT?

5. How should CIOs, the CISO and the IT team work with operations to improve overall security of the entire operation?

6. Coming into 2022, what are the key trends to expect on the following topics:

a. IoT governance

b. Persona-based IoT

c. Sustainable initiatives

d. IoT-as-a-services

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Sustainability keeps climbing higher on company agendas across the globe. Enterprise leaders must wrestle with wide-ranging stakeholder and policy interpretations about sustainable business operations and development. They need to find ways to thrive in a dynamic landscape where global industry and business collaboration, society’s activism, and innovation acceleration drive climate and biodiversity ambitions.

Gartner analyst Tiny Haynes says there are many factors that can help IT leaders achieve a sustainable future. "The idea of simply using renewable energy is not sustainable in its entirety," he said. "It's certainly a big contribution to sustainability but it's not a totally sustainable approach." Instead, Haynes advocates that these goals need to be part of organization-wide efforts. The pandemic forced organizations to look at sustainability, he said, and has provided incentives to go green.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Sumir Bhatia, President at Lenovo ISG, Asia Pacific for his perspective on environmental responsibility in the data centre.

Even before COP26, environmental responsibility has been creeping into corporate agendas. In your view how has ESG (environmental, sustainability and governance) impacted the way data centres are being planned, operated, and managed, and even decommissioned?
Have these ESG directives changed the way users view IT?

a. For the CIO and the data centre IT team, how should they respond to both the directives as well as the offerings from vendors to find the optimum desired outcomes?

What do you see will be the role of software in the operation of data centres in meeting ESG initiatives?
What innovations (developments) in the data centre are evolving to support these ESG initiatives/directives?

a. Is a net zero carbon data centre just a possibility? What needs to happen for data centres to achieve net zero carbon?

Into 2022, what can expect in terms of how in-house data centres will evolve to meet ESG initiatives? How do you see these developments aligning with greater use of third-party cloud services?

a. What do you see will be the role of Lenovo ISG in supporting the building and operation of sustainable data centres?

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Better business decisions happen when the right people have access to the right data at the right time.

However, Gartner cautions that building a data-driven enterprise is not just about encouraging the use of data in decision making. Data and analytics leaders must lead the development of the appropriate competencies and align work to be consistent with their enterprise’s ambitions for generating information value.

So how can business, data and analytics, and other IT leaders work together to bring their unique competencies to the art and science of effective decision making?

Today, we are joined by Elaine Chan, Regional Vice President, ASEAN and Korea at Denodo, to talk about making better decisions with data.

Elaine, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. What is a data-driven company?

2. How does a company become data-driven in 2021?

3. What are the metrics to gauge if a company is data-driven?

4. How have APAC enterprises leveraged data-driven strategies over the past year, and how will this evolve going into 2022?

5. What are the most critical challenges, and opportunities, facing organisations looking to adopt a data-driven strategy?

6. There are many data management tools and perhaps data strategies. What is your advice for business and technology leaders as they try and decide which technology and approach are best for them?

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One of the notable characteristics of the digital economy is the ability to trade from nearly everywhere at any time. However, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed just how vulnerable the world’s supply chains are to disruption.

Coming into 2022, Gartner predicts that the risk landscape, future of work and digital business investment will significantly impact the Supply Chain agenda over the next year to 18 months.

It advices chief supply chain officers to incorporate disruptions and opportunities within their vision for 2022.

To discuss what these challenges and opportunities are for 2022 is Vivek Ramachandran, Chief Executive Office of Serai.

Vivek welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. Let’s do a quick recap of 2020-2021. Very briefly, what 3 significant changes occurred that impacted the supply chains in Asia?

2. Do you expect further chaos to continue in 2022, or even 2023? How will it affect business performance or consumer behaviour?

3. Given all the learnings and adaptation that has occurred since the pandemic, how are businesses addressing supply chain visibility?

a. Why is it important to address this concern in 2022, or even 2023?

4. The resilience and sustainability of supply chain are becoming the key drivers of global economy. Can you cite best practices on how companies in Asia are addressing these concerns?

5. Do you anticipate evolving regulations around privacy and security to handicap the supply chain ecosystem?

6. What should leaders of industries do to address this lack of visibility across the supply chain and what is Serai’s value proposition?

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Gartner defines an event-driven architecture (EDA) as a design paradigm in which a software component executes in response to receiving one or more event notifications. EDA is more loosely coupled than the client/server paradigm because the component that sends the notification doesn’t know the identity of the receiving components at the time of compiling.

Adoption of EDA in Asia Pacific remains uneven with markets like Hong Kong and Australia in line with more developed markets like the US. Yet, even advanced markets like Korea and Japan have yet to accept the design paradigm.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Phil Scanlon, vice president of field technology, APJ & ME with Solace to get his perspective on what EDA truly means to a business and the starting point of an EDA journey.

What is your definition of EDA?
What is the state of EDA adoption in Asia Pacific compared to the rest of the world?
For decades enterprises have relied on information systems such as ERP to give them up-to-date data about the business. Do they understand the difference between what applications like ERP bring compared to EDA?
For businesses that have not reached a state of EDA maturity, what are some of the obstacles that lie in their way?
Which are the business roles that appreciate EDA the most and which needs more education?
Any misconceptions particularly business leaders that become barrier to EDA acceptance?
Who should lead EDA adoption across the enterprise?
How do APAC organisations balance the costs and benefits of EDA?
How prepared are organisations to support real-time data distribution?

a. Given that EDA is an acceleration of data in the decision-making process, how does IT ensure security policies and frameworks remain in place even with EDA in place?

Coming into 2022, what do you see will further drive EDA adoption in APAC?

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The global packaging services market to reach $50 billion in 2022 – that’s according to the Smithers market report, The Future of Business Models in Packaging to 2022.

The packaging industry may be traditional and still circle around the same materials – glass, paper and fibreboard, plastics, wood, and metal – but at the same time innovative business models are increasingly providing the catalyst to explore new materials, markets, and high-value market applications. So too is the influence of technologies like automation, digital printing, big data analytics.

With us today is Scott Jackson, General Manager - Southeast Asia Healthcare at Amcor, to discuss some of the emerging trends in the global packaging services sector, and what industry players can expect in 2022.

Scott, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. How has COVID-19 impacted the global packaging services industry?

2. The rising concerns about healthcare waste products-syringes, PPE, etc, is a potential ESG nightmare. How should the packaging industry address these concerns?

3. Speaking of sustainability, what kind of innovations can we expect in this area?

4. What sort of innovations can we expect?

5. Specific to healthcare packaging, how do you see healthcare trends impacting the business and how are you responding to these dynamics?

6. What is the role of information technology in achieving a sustainability agenda?

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As infrastructure and operations (I&O) moves toward integration and operations, various management and monitoring tools need to be brought under one comprehensive tool to better drive agility and business value.

Jeremy Hewitt, VP analyst for Gartner acknowledges that there might never be a true single pane of glass when it comes to I&O tools. Nonetheless, Gartner expects increased vendor merger and acquisition activity to get as close to a single tool as possible.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Matthew Oostveen, Chief Technology Officer & VP, Pure Storage, on the growing importance of a unified management tool to reduce the complexity of today’s IT infrastructure.

Matthew, welcome back to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Compared to a decade ago, what is the state of the IT infrastructure today?
One of Gartner’s predictions for 2022 is the need for a comprehensive management tool to reduce cost and produce better ROIs. (three questions, asked separately)

a. For the CIO and I&O leaders, how easy or challenging is this call for a comprehensive management tool by Gartner? Is this even possible given the complexity of technology and the diversity in needs and priorities within a business?

b. Vendors will create unique features best accessed using their proprietary software. Does open API allow for a third-party management tool to harness these unique features?

c. What are the challenges organizations must grapple to realize this call-to-action? (view from technology, people and process perspective)

d. What would be the key benefits of adopting a unified management tool?

What is your advice to CIOs and I&O leaders as they look to adopt a unified management tool?
Coming into 2022, what is your expectation of this quest Towards a single pane of glass?

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In 2016, Microsoft pulled the plug on Tay (short for Thinking About You) a chatbot designed to mimic the language patterns of a 19-year-old American girl and to learn from interacting with human users of Twitter. According to Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, Tay was an important influence on how Microsoft is approaching AI," and has taught the company the importance of taking accountability.

It can be argued that as we come to depend on data and on technology to make decisions, we also need to consider the implications such dependence has on the outcomes.

With us today is Brandon Purcell, VP, Principal Analyst with Forrester.

One of the attributes of machines is that they are “supposedly” unbiased executing based on a pre-defined set of “rules”. And yet, studies from the World Economic Forum and commentaries from Harvard Business Review suggests AI is biased. Where does the fault (if any) lie? On the code? On the algos?
Would you consider these concerns about AI bias as having a significant impact on how AI will be adopted in commercial environments?
What should leadership ask of their data science/AI research teams to mitigate against the risks that may come from perceived AI bias?
In your view, how far away are we from achieving ethical AI?
You contributed to the Forrester report, How to Measure AI Fairness. What was the conclusion of the report?

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There remains a lot of interest in artificial intelligence, the opportunities it offers and the challenges it presents to companies looking to tap the potential.

Christopher Lee Marshall, associate vice president for IDC Asia Pacific, says “AI is rapidly outgrowing its preliminary notion as the add-on service to business practices, and coming on strongly as a game changer in the way organizations can leverage on the technology. Its successful adoption requires mammoth transformation of not only the organization but its employees, balanced with capabilities to secure increasingly complex datapaths.

With us today is David Hardoon, Managing Director, Aboitiz Data Innovation, to with us his understanding on the technology.

David, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. What are organizations doing wrong when it comes to pursuing a data-driven strategy?

2. What are the key defining metrics for data initiatives?

3. AI is different things to different parts of the operations (finance, security, operations, retail, etc). can you name a best practice for aligning the what (goal now, not in the future) and why of AI with the how? Would you call this operationalizing AI?

4. How can CIOs and IT leaders mitigate the negative aspects of the hype surrounding AI while preserving the enthusiasm rightfully associated with its power to create real value?

5. Coming into 2022, what remains key challenges for the following roles when it comes to AI adoption and monetization:

a. Business Leadership (CEO, heads of lines of business)

b. Operations

c. Finance (CFO, controllers, finance team)

d. IT (CIO, CTO, CISO, etc)

6. What is your advice to IT leaders as they push for an acceleration and sustained adoption of AI within the organization?

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Gartner predicts that by 2025, at least 75% of IT organizations will face one or more attacks, as free-rein researchers document a dramatic increase in ransomware attacks during 2020, pointing to sevenfold or higher rates of growth.

One security specialist noted that ransomware attacks are often misunderstood, thought of as a single, isolated attack similar to the 2016 Wannacry event. The reality, however, is that ransomware is deployed as part of a larger attack that may involve penetration of a network, stealing of credentials for critical systems accounts, attack on the backup administration console or data theft.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Jonathan Jackson, Director of Engineering, APAC, at BlackBerry, for his observations and recommendations against ransomware in 2022.

Jonathan, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. What are the characteristics of ransomware? Has it changed from before the pandemic?

2. What is catalysing the growth in ransomware attacks in Asia Pacific?

3. Why is the current detect and respond approach to cybersecurity inadequate against ransomware actors and their evolving tactics?

4. What does a prediction and prevention approach look like and how can it fend off more complex and organised threats of tomorrow?

5. Would adoption of zero trust framework strengthen an organization against ransomware attacks?

6. Beyond zero trust, what else is needed?

7. What can we expect in 2022 and what should we do in anticipation of that?

8. Beyond the tools, what else should enterprises do to stay cyber fit?

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COVID-19 changed how businesses operate. To some extent organizations have adapted to the conditions. Helping us get a better understanding is Abraham Thomas, managing partner, IBM Consulting, ASEAN.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Abraham Thomas, managing partner, IBM Consulting, ASEAN, talks about the operational value of a virtual enterprise in the context of today’s rapidly expanding business environment, including the role of the CIO as orchestrating the shift to a virtual enterprise.

1. What is a virtual enterprise?

a. What is its purpose?

b. What are some of the characteristics?

c. How does it work?

2. What makes a virtual enterprise different from traditional enterprises?

a. What is the role of the CIO in the creation, use and management of a virtual enterprise?

3. What technologies are critical/essential towards the creation of a virtual enterprise?

4. What skillsets/mindsets will be needed to ensure the success of a virtual enterprise initiative?

5. How does the CIO evaluate the applicability of a virtual enterprise for the company?

a. How will a virtual enterprise impact other CIO priorities like digital transformation, IT modernization, cloud migration, etc?

6. IBM’s rebranding of IBM Consulting (from Global Business Services)

a. What is IBM Consulting doing around virtual enterprises?

b. What is IBM Consulting’s value proposition?

c. What is the best approach to engaging IBM Consulting for a discussion on virtual enterprise?

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XDR is a unified security and incident response platform that collects and correlates data from multiple proprietary components. The platform-level integration occurs at the point of deployment rather than being added in later. This consolidates multiple security products into one and may help provide better overall security outcomes. Organizations should consider using this technology to simplify and streamline security.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Kerry Singleton, managing director, cybersecurity, Asia Pacific, Japan, China (APJC), Cisco, to get a better understanding of where XDR fits into an organisation’s overall data protection strategy.

1. Why is there a need for XDR? What are the primary functions of an XDR system?

2. Is SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) a better alternative to XDR?

3. How does XDR improve security staff productivity?

4. What should the IT/security team look for when evaluating an XDR solution?

Where does XDR fit in the zero-trust strategy?

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“A cyber-attack can result in a prolonged disruption of business activities. Threats are constantly present and evolving in sophistication. We cannot afford to be complacent. Financial institutions must therefore remain vigilant and have in place effective technology risk management practices and robust business continuity plans to ensure prompt and effective response and recovery.” So noted Tan Yeow Seng, MAS Chief Cyber Security Officer, on the proposed enhancements to technology risk and business continuity guidelines.

But you don’t need to be in financial services to be cognizant of the increased risks that businesses faced in 2021.

With the completion of The 2021 ISACA-Frost & Sullivan Survey: The Singapore Cybersecurity Landscape, we thought it made sense to get the perspective of the two architects of the annual study – Steven Sim, President, ISACA Singapore Chapter and Kenny Yeo, Associate Director - Global Security Advisory and Head of Asia Pacific Cyber Security Practice, Frost & Sullivan.

Steven, please do us the honour of a quick recap of 2021 security issues as revealed in the report?

Kenny, How does the data for Singapore fare compared to the region?

Given all the experiences in 2021, is there a marked improvement in how organisations in Singapore are responding to cyber threats?
Where are areas of strengths and weaknesses in Singapore organizations’ cyber threat response set up?
How have the high-profile cyberattacks globally and in Asia-Pacific impacted the CISO and information security teams among Singapore companies?
Do you think government involvement needs to be increased to improve the cybersecurity threat readiness of the city?
What can we expect from the threat landscape in 2022?
What should Singapore enterprises do to be ready for 2022?

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The recent Cybersecurity Strategy 2021 announcement recognised the need for a ‘’zero-trust’’ mind-set approach to protect organisations from new technological exploits and malicious actors. This couldn’t be timelier – the supply-chain and ransomware attacks over the past year on JBS, SolarWinds, the Australian Parliament and AXA highlighted that we’re now in a cyber pandemic, and existing cybersecurity management strategies are not effective enough for the new normal.

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Prasad Mandava, MD India, VP of Engineering at Akamai, to discuss how the WFH or remote work model is impacting the security and performance of networks.

How would you describe cybersecurity management prior to and during the pandemic?

2. With the shift to the WFH model, how well do you think APAC organisations have been doing in countering cyberthreats that have risen in response?

How should organisations adapt their cybersecurity management strategy for the new normal?
How difficult do you think it would be for APAC businesses to transition? How can organisations adopt this effectively?
How can the CIO/CISO sell the need for these security measures to the CEO/CFO and the Board? How do I sell an ROI/TCO story for this zero trust?
2022 is coming. What should the CISO and the CIO be doing to get their security frameworks up to par with current conditions?

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The goal of resource management is to use the best combination of resources to satisfy requirements while also realizing these same resources are likely in demand elsewhere in the business.

Oved Lourie, Global Field CTO for Turbonomic, an IBM company to dig deeper into the operational relevance of application resource management.

What are the prevailing misconceptions about running applications in the cloud?

More and more applications are being moved to the cloud. For the IT team charged with making sure applications perform as advertised, what do they need to do?

Define for us what application resource management (ARM) is?

What conditions would necessitate the need for ARM?

Will having an ARM solve all my application performance issues?

For ARM to deliver the best value, what else is needed both from a technology perspective and in terms of the expertise/experience of the people using the tools?

How much customization is needed from an ARM solution out of the box?

Who is best suited in evaluating an ARM solution?

What are the key considerations when shopping for an ARM solution?

How do I ensure that whatever ARM solution I pick will play well with the other tools we are using to manage/operate our applications in the cloud?

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Backup and recovery are two mainstay processes of many business continuity strategies, regardless of the size of the business or the industry that you are in. While the principles have changed since the 1960s, technologies around media, encoding, encryption and decryption technologies have continued to evolve.

Arguably the real developments around backup and recovery are more around the pressures businesses must face, whether it is in the need to compete globally, the interdependencies of businesses today with partners and suppliers, or regulatory pressures to protect information especially customer data, to name a few.

Charles Chow, director of sales engineering with Commvault talks about:

1. How has backup and recovery changed (if any) in 2020 and 2021?

2. We are seeing interest for a hybrid (on-prem, edge and in the cloud) multi-cloud approach among enterprises in Asia (including SMEs). How will this affect backup and recovery strategies, and for some industries compliance with regulations around data protection?

3. Considering the evolving and escalating cybersecurity risks, how should CIOs and CISOs work to protect the enterprise against these threats, where do Backup and Recovery fit in this landscape?

4. How do you relate zero-trust with backup and recovery?

5. In the area of backup and recovery, what new technologies and practices can we expect in 2022?

a. Continuous data protection

b. SaaS data protection and Big SaaS-Data protection

i. What do you mean federate?

c. Data tiering

6. Any last advice to CIOs how they should approach backup and recovery in the era of connected enterprises, hybrid environments and APIs?

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It is said that modern insurance can trace its roots at the Greater Fire of London in 1666, and the first accident insurance became available in the late 19th century. But as they say… that is ancient history.

These days, the insurance industry is under siege not by customer looking to buy insurance but by outsiders taking the business and with that – its clients.

In a nutshell, the insurance industry is discovering what banks have learned years ago, digital technology is empowering non-traditional insurers to capture marketshare and potentially make insurers obsolete at their own game.

But we believe it’s never too late to part of innovation.

EY says insurers must embrace change and rethink business models to move towards a compliant, secure and digitally enabled operating model to enhance customer, employee, partner and other stakeholder experiences.

The tools are here, what is needed is a willingness to embrace the possibilities.

With us today is Peter Tay, Chief Digital Officer, NTUC Income to talk about the innovations that are transformation the insurance sector. Peter, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. First, in a nutshell, what is the business of NTUC Income?

2. What is Insurance-as-a-Service (IaaS)?

3. Where are the market opportunities and appetite for IaaS in Southeast Asia?

4. How will IaaS enable Income’s regional partners to grow new market segments and revenue streams?

5. How will the rise of digital consumers change the insurance landscape in the region?

6. What does the outlook for digital insurance in Southeast Asia look like?

7. What is your advise to insurers when considering insurance-as-a-service?

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With hybrid cloud, the direction enterprises in Asia are taking, issues around security rise above the discussion as organisations mix and match on-premises, public and private IT operations in a bid to find the sweet spot for their computing needs.

On another topic, an Accenture study revealed a direct correlation between high performance and becoming what we call a “data-driven enterprise”—a company that can use the cloud as a catalyst for maximizing the value of data and treating it as an asset differentiated by its completeness and quality.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Sriram Narayanan, Principal Consultant for Security with Thoughtworks Southeast Asia, on his views around securing the cloud of a data-driven enterprise

Sriram, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. What are some of the biggest security mistakes businesses make that expose and exacerbate the vulnerabilities of the cloud, especially amidst the migration from on-premise to hybrid cloud?

2. What strategies can businesses employ to ensure that the data in the cloud is accessible across different departments to drive organisational efficiencies, but kept thoroughly out of reach of unauthorised personnel?

3. What other data-driven solutions should businesses invest in to ensure a sustainable, but secure, data-driven enterprise?

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Today DevOps is part of the computing lexicon often being brought into the discussions whenever the topic of Agility, digital transformation and staying relevant to changing business environments and consumer demands.

Al Gillen, Group VP, software development and open-source, IDC says developers and DevOps professionals continue to be in the hot seat as their organizations or their customers demand that convenient and user-friendly solution be created and deployed at an even faster rate

"We see the industry on the edge of gaining some fascinating new tools that will help accelerate both development and deployment in the years to come, reducing at least some of the pressure to generate more applications more quickly," he opined.

FutureCIO reached out to Nigel Kersten, Field CTO at Puppet, for his take on the direction DevOps has been taking since its creation and where it is headed given the current state of markets and business operations.

How has DevOps changed since 2008?
What does the report say about DevOps development in APAC in 2021/2022?
Do you see DevOps-as-Code as having any impact on DevOps adoption in Asia?
Can low-code fit into the DevOps culture?
Any key lesson/takeaway to be gleaned from the Puppet report?

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Four new trends in cloud computing are continuing to expand the breadth of cloud offerings and capabilities, accelerating growth across all segments in the public cloud services market, according to Gartner, Inc. The four trends are: cloud ubiquity, regional cloud ecosystems, sustainability and carbon-intelligent cloud, and cloud infrastructure and platform service (CIPS) providers’ automated programmable infrastructure.

“The economic, organizational and societal impact of the pandemic will continue to serve as a catalyst for digital innovation and adoption of cloud services,” said Henrique Cecci, senior research director at Gartner. “This is especially true for use cases such as collaboration, remote work and new digital services to support a hybrid workforce.”

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Mr Huang Dachuan, CTO of Huawei Enterprise Business Group, to share with us his views on key technology trends that will impact how CIOs orchestrate their enterprises IT strategies for 2022.

1. At the data centre, what technologies will remain unchanged, and what technologies will become a key feature of the data centre of 2022?

2. There is a lot of talk about public cloud computing, does this spell the end of the on-premises data centre or private cloud?

3. We’ve started to hear CIOs speak of edge computing. What are the use cases for which edge computing is best used, and are enterprises in Asia adopting these today? If not now, at what point in the future will we see edge computing become the norm?

4. Security is always going to be in the top 3 priorities of the CIO, CISO and CFO. Given all the priorities versus the limited budgets, how should CIOs work with CFOs to find the sweet spot in ICT strategy and spending?

5. Some companies have adopted technologies into their business process by creating centres of excellence. How critical is centre of excellence in the successful adoption of digital transformation?

6. Beyond culture, what will be key success criteria for the successful digital transformation of businesses in 2022?

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By 2022, IDC predicts that 75% of enterprises will embed intelligent automation into technology and process development, using AI-based software to discover operational and experiential insights that will guide innovation. Over the next few years, IDC researchers expect spending on AI-enabled RPA to outpace that of non-AI-enabled RPA.

Gartner predicts that 90% of large organizations globally will adopt Robotic process automation (RPA) in some form by 2022 and will triple the capacity of their existing RPA portfolios through 2024.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Dan Ternes, chief technology officer for Asia-Pacific with Blue Prism.

Is RPA an exclusive domain of any one function within an organisation?
How will AI and/or machine learning transform automation?

a. Do you see even greater concern by the workforce around an AI-powered automation tools (as compared to plain-vanilla RPA and automation tools)?

Is adopting an AI in the workplace a simple matter of introducing the new tools? (please elaborate)

a. Can you cite use cases?

b. If an organization is already using RPA tools, how will they approach introducing smart RPA tools?

c. Any precautions/considerations to take in deciding what tools to keep, acquire or integrate?

What does the future of an AI-enabled workplace look like?

a. At what point, do you anticipate this to be the norm rather than the exception?

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Gartner predicts that 90% of large organizations globally will adopt Robotic process automation (RPA) in some form by 2022 and will triple the capacity of their existing RPA portfolios through 2024.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Dan Ternes, chief technology officer for Asia-Pacific with Blue Prism.

In the context of the finance function what is RPA?
How will AI and/or machine learning transform automation?

a. Do you see even greater concern by the workforce around an AI-powered automation tools (as compared to plain-vanilla RPA and automation tools)?

Is adopting an AI in the workplace a simple matter of introducing the new tools? (please elaborate)

a. Can you cite use cases?

b. If an organization is already using RPA tools, how will they approach introducing smart RPA tools?

c. Any precautions/considerations to take in deciding what tools to keep, acquire or integrate?

What does the future of an AI-enabled workplace look like?

a. At what point, do you anticipate this to be the norm rather than the exception?

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We tend to be familiar with “Information Technology” and the efforts organisations put to secure the data, applications and systems we refer to IT. Operational Technology is less understood and only with the adoption of IoT, and more importantly, the attacks on infrastructure critical systems has the issue of securing OT become a point of contention starting with those is responsible for IT-OT or OT-IT converged systems.

In this PodChats for IoT, we speak to Richard Farrell, Asia-Pacific Director for Cloud, Data and Digitalization, on securing IT-OT convergence.

1. What is IT-OT convergence? What is the implications to businesses?

2. Should it be considered IT-OT convergence or IT-OT integration?

3. How has the growing adoption of 5G and IoT technologies leading to the convergence (integration) of IT and OT systems?

4. How should these be connected to the IT systems be secured?

5. Please name 3 best practices for a holistic IT/OT cybersecurity programme?

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Cybersecurity firm IntSights has released its latest research white paper ‘Selling breaches: The Transfer of Enterprise Network Access on Criminal Forums’ which delves into the sale and purchase of unauthorized access to compromised enterprise networks and how such activities have become a significant enabler for criminal cyberattacks, particularly ransomware infections.

With the shift to a remote workforce, the resulting increase in the use of remote access tools and services have given attackers more attack surface to exploit and fuelled the marked increase in the sale of access to compromised networks.

Paul Prudhomme, head of threat intelligence at IntSights shared some of the highlights of the report during a dialogue with PodChats for FutureCIO.

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One of the outcomes of the pandemic has been the increased in cyberattacks riding on the mass work from home or remote work, and the haste with which IT had to get move as much of the organisation.

It can be argued that the traditional perimeter-based security has lost some of its teeth as a result.

Zero trust is lauded by some as the next evolution of an organisation’s security architecture designed to support new user populations, customer engagement models, cloud adoption, and IoT devices.

As the concept takes hold at the executive suite and board, analysts and vendors are claiming that zero trust is fast becoming the security model of choice for many organizations.

But as we all know, things are always easier said than done. Experience tells us that security leaders will struggle with the fundamental shifts in strategy and architecture required to holistically implement Zero Trust.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Parag Arora, VP and MD, for SEA, Korea and India at Citrix.

1. Why is zero trust more important than ever for businesses in 2021/2022?

2. What are the common misconceptions of around zero trust security?

3. From what I understand zero trust is not a product but more an approach. How does this affect security strategies which are often based around products?

4. Organisations in Asia are taking the hybrid approach to their computing requirements. How does one integrate a zero-trust strategy when IT will sit across a combination of on-premises servers, private cloud and public cloud?

5. For industries that follow very stringent regulatory frameworks built over years, how will zero trust impact the CIOs/CISOs charged with looking to add zero trust principles in the security architecture?

6. As we come to 2022, can share your top three recommendations for how businesses can implement the zero-trust approach successfully?

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An application programming interface (API) provides programmatic access to service functionality and data within an application or a database. It can be used as a building block for the development of new interactions with humans, other applications or smart devices.

Gartner defines API management is the set of people, processes and technology that enables an organization to publish APIs safely and securely, either internally or externally.

It allows organizations that create APIs or use others' APIs to monitor activity and ensure the needs of the developers and applications using the API are being met. Organizations are implementing strategies to manage their APIs so they can respond to rapid changes in customer demands.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Degui Xu, solutions engineering at Kong to elaborate on the value of API, and API management, as organisations push forward their digital transformation initiatives.

How prevalent is API use in Asia today?

a. In a typical enterprise – private or public – where is the concentration of API use?

b. Has it grown significantly since the start of the pandemic?

What is the biggest (one only) misconception that non-IT people have of APIs?
For IT people, what is the biggest challenge when it comes to API?
Within the context of digital transformation initiatives (projects), what are the top 3 benefits of using APIs?
What are the top 3 mistakes organisations are making when employing APIs?
Coming into 2022, what trends will influence the expanded use of APIs in enterprises?

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Ira Winkler, chief information security officer with Skyline Technology Solutions in the US, recommends that CFOs consider ransomware prevention as a cost of doing business. In reflecting on the topic of cybersecurity insurance as a good investment, he opined that ransomware is a key purchase driver because a successful attack is expensive even if you don’t pay ransom.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by James McLeary, managing director, Cyber Risk, Kroll, who will share his opinions on options available for CFOs as they deal with the rising tide of ransomware.

1. From a CFO perspective, is ransomware any different from other threats?

2. Do CFOs make good cybersecurity advocates? To what extent should CFOs get involved when it comes to the lifecycle of cyber threats, including ransomware?

3. We hear of some ransomware threats being conducted in crypto currency. Is the form of payment going to be of a concern to the CFO?

4. How should the CFO address the convergence in the rise of ransomware-as-a-service and other new practices, the increase in reliance on vulnerable IT systems by physical process controls, and the evolving cyber insurance market?

5. Can you cite a good reading material for CFOs when it comes to ransomware readiness?

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Technology is enabling every aspect of banking to go online and as traditional branches are no longer economic, the retail branch will need to become dramatically more productive, or significantly less costly. As a consequence, banks have started experimenting with new branch design concepts.

With us today is Mr Lito Villanueva, executive vice president and chief innovation and inclusion officer with RCBC.

1. In Asia, what is the most significant change to how banks engage with customers (post-COVID-10)?

2. How has this change translated into (a) products sold to banks, and (b) channels used to market these products?

3. What do you believe are the biggest challenges/hurdles for banks adapting to changes occurring around us (COVID + changing customer behaviour + regulation)?

4. Of the many technologies affecting banks, which do you feel will have the most impact in the short to mid-term?

5. How are these changes impacting the role of the CIO?

6. Are we putting too much expectations on technology as the future of banking?

Digital Bank Branch

1. Has COVID-19 diminished the value of bank branches in favour of online and mobile?

2. Do you know of any bank in Asia that has successfully innovate the branch while transforming its banking business?

3. Which technologies will facilitate this bank branch transformation?

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Even before the pandemic, digital transformation was already in the agenda for many organisations. From what we understand, the imperative to transform got a renewed sense of urgency during the pandemic and in some cases the window to transform narrowed some say from 3-5 years to 6 months.

IDC predicts that by 2023, 75% of organizations will have comprehensive digital transformation (DX) implementation roadmaps, up from 27% in 2020, resulting in true transformation across all facets of business and society.

We’ve also been hearing of increased importance being placed on data around the same period as digital transformation. How are these two related and are they inseparable?

Joining us on this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO is Julian Quinn, Senior Vice President of Alteryx Asia Pacific and Japan, to shed light on the relationship between data and digital transformation.

RELATIONSHIP: We start with a simple question: How is data related to digital transformation?

a. What is the goal of data analytics in digital transformation?

b. Why do analysts think data and analytics competency are key to digital transformation success?

c. What does a future of business-powered by analytics look like?

LEGACY: How can organizations harness the benefits of data analytics, within the constraints of legacy technologies, to achieve data-driven transformation at scale?

a. Can technologies like AI and automation support these initiatives?

SKILLS GAP: How can organizations bridge the persisting skill gap in data and analytics required to keep pace with the rapid technological changes?

a. How can business leaders structure their data science teams to support transformation efforts?

RECOMMENDATION: What is your recommendation for organisations to help them improve how they harness the potential of data and analytics to achieve their transformation goals?

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According to PYMNTS, paper-based invoices cost businesses up to US$22 per invoice to process, and rises when invoices are delivered via post and fax machines. Such practices are some of the basic friction points in accounts receivables.

Accounts Receivable Automation process is increasingly becoming inevitable as it helps organizations reduce costs, time, and increases efficiency. Poor receivables processes impact credit decisions, corporate borrowing, liquidity management, reporting of corporate sales, and commissions to sales staff. Moreover, ineffective receivables processes make it difficult to know the status of an organization’s current financial position.

How do you then adjust your collection strategies to adapt to the changing business environment? And with the collection in place, is there a better way of allocating cash?

In this PodChats episode Ross MacKay, group head of global shared services and finance optimization for International SOS, joins Albert Leong, managing director of Esker Asia, as they share International SOS' journey in going about implementing a smarter way of collecting and allocating cash.

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While the roots of insurance can be trace back to 3,000 years, modern insurance is said to have its roots in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

According to the OECD, insurance companies experienced a slowdown in gross premiums underwritten in 2020, with life insurance premiums declining by 2.2%. Non-life grew by 1.2% in 2020.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Mr Andrew Yeoman, CEO and co-founder of Concirrus.

1. The insurance industry has been in business for hundreds of years. To continue for hundreds more, what needs to happen?

2. We’ve seen disruptions caused by insurtechs. Are current business models still relevant?

3. Insurers have a reputation for being slow in adopting new ideas. Do you see this behaviour changing in terms of how principals, brokers and agents operate?

4. Insurance is a relationship business, more so at the higher value products. At these levels, it’s often normal for agents to want to keep this relationship a secret. Should agents and brokers be more willing to share their customer data, and how will this benefit them moving forward?

5. What key trends do you see will continue to impact insurers both at how they plan, create products and execute their business models, and how they engage with their customers?

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According to the EY Future Consumer Index, consumers in Southeast Asia have turned to digital channels to meet their financial needs following restrictions on mobility and physical contact. To the credit of traditional financial institutions, these have responded by leveraging new technologies to broaden customer engagement across customers’ preferred channels.

Similarly, insurers have ramped up their digital efforts, shifting to online and migrating to the cloud. Fund houses and distributors have tapped into Fintech to improve the customer experience, beef up direct-to-consumer capabilities and gain access to the broad range of data needed to decode today’s fast-moving and interconnected markets.

18 months into the COVID-19 as things have settled down, we take a look at where things are in the region’s financial services industry. In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Junta Nakai, global industry leader of financial services and sustainability at Databricks, on where things are in the financial services industry.

Junta Nakai, Global Industry Leader of Financial Services and Sustainability at Databricks

PodChats for FutureCIO:

Junta, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. What is the difference, if any, between what digital transformation in the financial services industry looked like before and during COVID-19?

2. There is a greater use of big words like “hyper-personalised experiences”, banking-as-a-service, and now wealth-as-a-service, what do these trends really mean from the perspective of (a) the customer; (b) the regulator; and (c) the financial institutions themselves?

3. There is a lot of musings around data-driven financial services. What does a data-driven financial service look like, and how do you make this operational at a financial institution?

4. I spoke to a digital-only bank and I was told that as a business, they outsource most of their operational and technology needs. The result is a very small team. Is this concept of an entirely outsourced model of banking operations sustainable?

a. How will it stack up against the incumbent that is able to direct its resources to a narrow focus?

b. When talent is a scare resource, and employees look for stability. How can these digital-native, outsource everything business-models compete for talent?

c. For incumbents, how do they attract and retain talent that is receptive to the use of data to drive business growth?

5. We’ve started to see tech companies and non-financial services enter the market starting with payments and loans. How can financial services compete and thrive in such a marketplace?

6. When technology has such a strong influence in how financial services is delivered, will it dehumanise the banking experience?

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Effective decision making in today’s complex and disrupted business environments must be connected, contextual and continuous to drive good outcomes.

For the most part, the discussions we often hear when it comes to data is around the use of analytic tools or artificial intelligence. But I argue that there is fundamentally a more pressing issue around data before you get to the point of talking about analytics.

We need access to data in real-time. Most businesses are complex networks of interdependent and independent operations that see only a piece of the data and they are happy with that. Leadership isn’t, of course, because as far as the CEO or CFO is concerned, the only way to make accurate decisions is if they have access to clean data in real-time.

So how do I make the right data accessible to the person that needs it the most at the time he or she needs it? Do I need to bring together all the data into one physical location, and does that make sense?

Speaking to us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Sumeet Puri, chief technology solutions officer, SOLACE, to talk about the data mesh and how it ties into our need to make good decisions in real-time.

Why is it difficult to make decisions in real-time?
What is event-driven architecture (EDA)?
What is an event mesh? How does it tie to an event-driven architecture?
What are the most damaging misconceptions around event-driven architecture and event-mesh?
What business problems does it solves?

6. Using a use case, describe how an event mesh works?

How does an EDA relate to a data mesh and service mesh?
Are all event mesh solutions created equal?

a. What capabilities should you look for when evaluating an event mesh?

What business benefits can I expect from using an event mesh?
(Shorter tech cycles) How do I future-proof my investment in an event mesh?

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Gartner predicts that by 2021, over 75% of midsize and large organisations will have adopted a multicloud and/or hybrid IT strategy.

A multi-cloud approach offers significant advantages to organizations seeking to optimize the Three Cs of Cloud: Cost, Capabilities and Compliance.

However, with all the advantages to be gained with a multi-cloud approach, executives should be aware of the downsides.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we have with us Bidhan Roy, managing director, commercial enterprise & mid-market segment, APJC at Cisco to elaborate on the challenges and options available for organizations looking to tap the promise of multi-cloud, hybrid IT strategy.

Bidhan, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. What would you say are the top 3 trends around multi-cloud environment/strategy in Asia?

2. What are the top 3 priorities/drivers for adopting multi-cloud environment?

3. What is the 3 biggest issues/challenges why some companies are struggling to successfully implement a multi-cloud environment? (management complexity, talent scarcity, cost control, governance compliance and security concerns, interoperability)

4. What are the top 3 considerations for selecting cloud vendor?

5. Can you share one key lesson that we learned (about technology, process, people) from the covid pandemic?

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In the paper, IoT Technologies and Applications in Tourism and Travel Industries, the authors write that Internet of Things (IoT) play a crucial role in the way of understanding and managing this industry, including how offers and demands are linked. It makes the case for Smart Destinations as a natural evolution of Smart Cities.

The paper claims that Smart Destinations require this smart management as well as the integration of the stakeholders’ value-chain throughout the entire process. In this process, IoT has a crucial role in enhancing the experiences of tourists, to manage the destination more efficiently, and to offer a channel of information exchange.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, we speak to Sanjiv Verma, vice president, Ruckus Networks, APAC from CommScope, to talk about how the hospitality industry, one segment of the Tourism and Travel industries, can take advantage of IoT to move into the digital economy.

How will the hospitality industry shift in the next few years in a technology perspective in terms of streamlining processes and ensure hotels operate more efficiently?
Beyond the current IoT implementations in hotels, what are the other ways hotels can leverage IoT to increase efficiency level in building maintenance and what are the potential challenges they might face?
With hotels adopting more advance security systems (for entire property and individual guestrooms), how do we ensure that they will not be bypassed by a third person?
With travel slowly restarting, what can hotels implement to boost travellers’ confidence within the property, while at the same time allow hotels to ensure safe distancing and have sufficient health & safety protocols in place?
You mentioned the need for OT to work with IT for better network efficiency. How do we bridge the divide between IT and OT to maximise value for the business and experience for customers?
Where does Ruckus Networks/Commscope fit into our discussion of How IoT brings the hospitality industry to the digital economy?

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When Kevin Ashton first coined the term “Internet of Things” back in 1999, his primary intent was for IoT’s use in retail operations. Today, IoT applications have gone beyond retail and into industrial and commercial use.

Companies and industries are looking at carbon footprint reduction activities as a mainstream initiative that forms a significant part of their operations and their businesses.

In a report published by Ericsson, the use of IoT has the potential for reducing emissions by as much as 63.5 gigatons by the year 2030, should all industrial sectors participate. IoT is destined to be an enabler that will help industries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and increase their energy efficiency.

In today’s PodChats for FutureIoT, we speak to Mehal Shah, Global Business Head, TCS Clever Energy, to discuss how companies can and are using IoT to make the world a greener place.

Why the increased interest in carbon neutrality and improved emission management?
For effective use of IoT to attain zero-carbon goals or better emission management:

a. What KPIs (milestones) should be put in place?

b. Who should comprise the team to oversee the planning, execute and management?

What are the challenges that organizations will face as they plan and execute the above?
Can management monetize carbon neutrality and emission management initiatives? (can you cite an example)
What are your expectations around carbon neutrality and emission management going forward (keep IoT in the frame)?

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Depending on who you talk to, banking has changed more or less even before the arrival of COVID-19. The changes continue to happen particularly in places where lockdowns are most severe. What is also certain, the transformation we are experiencing are in part due to changes in consumer behaviour, maturing digital technologies and evolving regulation.

There are two areas you can look at here: the outside face of banking; the other is what I call the guts of the banking process.

With us today is Ganesh Vasudevan, research director, IDC Financial Insights to talk about changes in retail banking in Asia.

1. In Asia, what is the most significant change to how banks engage with customers (post-COVID-10)?

2. How has this change translated into (a) products sold at bank branches; and (b) channels used to market these products?

3. What do you believe are the biggest challenges/hurdles for bank branches adapting to changes occurring around us (COVID + changing customer behaviour + regulation)?

4. Of the many technologies affecting bank branch transformation, which do you feel will have the most impact in the short to mid-term?

5. How are these changes impacting the role of the CIO?

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Data storage has come a long way from the punch cards of 1725. But while we have certainly improved the technology on all counts – performance, availability, security and reliability – the scale at which we create data continue to surpass how efficient we can be at managing data growth.

Businesses expect double-digit growth in the next two years for many storage technologies. By 2022, an additional 20% of companies plan to use cloud storage infrastructure, and there will be significant gains for high-capacity hard disk drives (17%), all-flash storage (14%), and cloud file-sharing services (10%).

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Charles Chow, director of sales engineering, Commvault, on the challenges and, opportunities facing IT teams in managing data post-COVID.

Charles, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

Can you give us a brief update on data storage in the last couple of years and where do we stand today?
What are some of the biggest pitfalls of data management strategies that have emerged in the last few years?
We are optimistic that the pandemic will eventually recede to become endemic. What is the future of data management, and why is this important for CIOs?

o (As we start to see hybrid, multi-cloud infrastructure become the new norm, how should data management strategies evolve to support this new normal?)

Recognizing that technology is evolving, as is how data is created, used, and regulated, can you have a data management strategy that will be resilient to change?
There are many options for managing data. How do I ensure

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ERP is at a few decades old technology including in Asia. However, IDC says COVID-19 was a tipping point accelerating enterprise application investments as organizations apply speed to their journey of digital transformation.

According to Mickey North Rizza, program vice president, Enterprise Applications and Digital Commerce at IDC, the application of big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, conversational UI, virtual assistants/chatbots, predictive analytics, and natural language processing is enabling a new and more modern and modular enterprise experience.

"Moving beyond rationalization, modernization and transformation are reshaping the enterprise for the future."

Sampath Kumar Venkataswamy, research manager, IDC Asia/Pacific Manufacturing Insights, says: "We have been seeing increased traction from on-premises to cloud enterprise applications in the last couple of years. The changing manufacturing landscape and significant interest toward remote monitoring and maintenance continue to be among the major drivers for organizations choosing cloud-based ERP applications.

The cloudification of ERP is not limited to manufacturing as other industry segments voice similar initiatives for their own reason.

With us today is Hirak Kayal, VP of Cloud Applications at Oracle, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

FutureCIO media query: The cloudification of ERP by IDC

What is the biggest reason why businesses are moving their ERP to the cloud?
What is the main reason why some organisations are opting for lift-and-shift as opposed to a full cloud ERP deployment?
What is the biggest benefit (#1 is different) for moving ERP in the cloud?

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The chief information security officer (CISO) is the executive responsible for an organization's information and data security.

According to IDG's 2020 Security Priorities Study, 61% of surveyed companies have a CISO, though that rate goes up to 80% for large enterprises.

In today’s Podchats for FutureCIO, we speak to Jeffrey Kok, VP solution engineers APJ for CyberArk to about top challenges facing CISOs in Asia.

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As the IoT ecosystem continues to grow, so does the importance of securing those IoT networks. According to Gartner, spending on IoT security solutions will reach $631 million. This is a significant leap from $91 million, which was spent in 2016, and this annual global spending statistic shows that IoT solutions are headed for a massive boom within the next decade.

According to Gemalto, another worrying stat, 48% of businesses admit that they cannot detect IoT security breaches on their network. Nearly half of the companies that use IoT can’t identify when their network is compromised. As more businesses invest in IoT technology, we can only hope that this number decreases.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, we speak to Pieter Danhieux, the Co-Founder and CEO of Secure Code Warrior about the state of IoT security.

1. Let’s frame our discussion first: where can we find IoT technologies in a typical enterprise in Asia?

2. What are prevailing misconceptions about IoT security?

3. From your perspective, should leaders be concerned about IoT security?

4. Where should senior leadership begin the discussion of IoT security?

5. What should be the key considerations for revisiting the security of their IoT infrastructure?

6. What about the skills/know-how around IoT security? Do we hire or outsource?

7. What preconceived ideas should leaders set aside when discussing IoT security?

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Chipmaker Intel defines Storage-as-a-Service or STaaS as a cloud storage rented from a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) and that provides basic ways to access that storage. Businesses and individuals can use the cloud for multimedia storage, data repositories, data backup and recovery, and disaster recovery. There are also higher-tier managed services that build on top of STaaS, such as Database as a Service, in which you can write data into tables that are hosted through CSP resources.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Rajesh Prabhakaran, VP, Services, APAC for Hitachi Vantara to get his perspective on STaaS and its relevance in today’s business environment.

1. How does Storage as a Service work?

2. Name one top driver of STaaS in Asia.

3. Other top benefits of STaaS in Asia.

4. Given the shift to the public cloud, how does STaaS fit into the overall IT infrastructure strategy?

5. In a hybrid IT environment, how would an enterprise address the security of STaaS?

6. How does an enterprise identify whether they need STaaS? How to select the right solution for them?

7. Are all STaaS equal? What criteria do I use to evaluate available solutions to map to my needs?

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ERP is a staple of many businesses in Asia, particularly mid to large enterprises. There are also a number of successful local ERP brands that have built their reputation around localization and customization.

The advent of the cloud didn’t necessarily accelerate the shift to cloud for ERP until recently as businesses get accustomed to SaaS solutions. With us today is Sampath Kumar, senior research manager at IDC, to talk about the why of cloud ERP and hopefully some trends and tips as well.

Sampath Kumar Venkataswamy, senior research manager, IDC Manufacturing Insights Asia-Pacific on the topic of why and when to move your ERP into the cloud.

Topics to be covered:

1. What is the biggest reason why businesses are moving their ERP to the cloud?

2. What is the biggest benefit (#1 is different) for moving ERP in the cloud?

3. What is the main reason why some organisations are opting for lift-and-shift as opposed to a full cloud ERP deployment?

4. What remains the challenge for organisations moving their ERP to the cloud?

5. Specific to SAP S/4HANA. What do you see are attractions for migrating and what is holding customers from moving to S/4HANA?

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Within the enterprise, Storage-as-a-service (STaaS) spans deployment environments and can be delivered both on-premise or in the cloud. It offers the ability to deliver consumption-based “pay for what you use” or OpEx capacity model along with a range of additional value-added services.

IDC found that the technical and business benefits of STaaS offerings are driving the adoption. But there are more factors impacting the adoption and trend.

Gartner predicts that by 2025, managed, consumption-based storage systems and hybrid IT will serve as the foundation for more than 70% of corporate enterprise storage workloads. It also predicts that by 2025 59% of global corporate enterprise-grade storage petabytes (PBs) will be consumed off-premises as part of a managed STaaS hybrid IT multi-cloud initiative.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Matthew Oostveen, Chief Technology Officer and VP at Pure Storage, for his view on how enterprise STaaS transforms IT operating models

Matthew, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

1. Name one top driver of STaaS in Asia.

2. Name one quality that you think enterprise customers want from STaaS solutions.

3. Name one top benefit of STaaS in Asia.

4. Given the shift to public cloud, do enterprises still need (standalone) STaaS solutions?

5. How would an enterprise determine whether they need STaaS? How to select the right solution for them?

6. How do you envision enterprise storage as a service transforming IT operating models? What skills will stand out in this new IT operating model?

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Information and communication technologies now enable firms to collect detailed and potentially intrusive data about their customers easily and cheaply. Privacy concerns are no longer limited to government surveillance and public figures’ private lives – thanks to social media and mobile technology.

Privacy regulations like GDPR may affect the extent and direction of data-based innovation but somehow these regulations have not significantly curtailed efforts to learn more about a customer’s personally identifiable data and used the information for commercial gains, and worst nefarious ones.

Welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO. In this episode we speak to Janice Chew, principal at JC Legal, to talk about Privacy and Innovation: From Disruption to Opportunities, and how to balance between protecting privacy while encouraging innovation.

Please describe privacy in the context of information security, data protection and the private sphere. How are these connected (if at all)?
Are businesses and regulators in Asia aligned in the interpretation of the boundaries of customer privacy? Are there any differences in Asia as it relates to the protection of customer privacy?
To what extent are businesses observing privacy regulations while at the same time pursuing business innovation?
What are the challenges that businesses must overcome to achieve a balance between privacy and innovation?
Observers say that COVID-19 accelerated (is accelerating) digital-led innovation. How should enterprises push the boundaries of customer engagement and innovation without overstepping evolving regulations that protect privacy?
In your experience, at what point in an organisation’s customer engagement strategy should the issue of customer data privacy be looked into? When should legal be asked to pitched in the discussion?

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Senior leadership is having a love affair with automation. Analysts like Mordor Intelligence are forecasting enterprises will gobble up RPA solutions at a CAGR rate of 29% from 2018-2026. Forrester says Asia Pacific account for 17% of the global spending on RPA. IDC says the financial services industry will spend US$271 million in 2024 on RPA alone.

All the analysis is concluding that the pandemic is good for the automation movement.

In this PodChats for Future CIO, we speak to Zakir Ahmed Senior Vice President & GM - Asia Pacific & Japan at Kofax, who will share his observations and opinion on process automation and how we are adopting the solution in ASEAN.

The path to process automation started long before COVID-19 (2020).

a. What is different about the process automation landscape in 2020?

b. How is it evolving in 2021?

c. Is process automation the same for all industry sectors, including government?

i. Where are they the same?

ii. Where are they different?

If we look at this from a functional perspective, have the priorities for process automation changed significantly in the last 2 years (mid-2019 – mid-2021)
Why should the CIO care about process automation? (internal to IT and external)
If an enterprise is beginning to embark on a process automation journey, where do they start?

a. Who should lead it?

b. How do they ensure it stays its course?

c. Can they make course changes along the way?

There may be cases where a wrong choice of solution was made. What’s the usual approach to correct?
What is the one advice to the C-Suite leadership and Board around process automation?

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The chief information security officer (CISO) is the executive responsible for an organization's information and data security.

According to IDG's 2020 Security Priorities Study, 61% of surveyed companies have a CISO, though that rate goes up to 80% for large enterprises.

In today’s Podchats for FutureCIO, we speak to Ian Cruxton is the Chief Security Officer at Callsign to about Overcoming most common CISO pain points in Asia.

1. Specific to Asia, what are the top 3 CISO pain points?

a. How are these being addressed today?

b. Can something be done to improve the outcome?

2. To address these pain points, what is the IDEAL COMPLEMENT of expertise needed by the CISO?

3. What’s an appropriate carrot/stick to encourage solving these pain points?

4. Is reporting to the CIO the best option for the CISO to address his/her functional goals?

a. If not CIO, who is the best option?

5. Name 3 best practice for a CISO to be effective at his/her role?

6. Not all organizations in Asia have a CISO role. When such a role is not around, how should a business delegate the responsibility?

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According to Accenture, prior to the world awakening to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, capital market firms were in a steady but slow progression towards the cloud.

Then almost overnight, the industry turned on its head as firms rushes to mandate remote work and in the process scramble to make internal and external services available on the cloud.

The scalability, resiliency, flexibility, and accessibility of public cloud services became more attractive as firms sought to manage uncertainty. But while public cloud services have their appeal, many in the capital markets also realized that a hybrid cloud approach offered a safer, less disruptive alternative.

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Tara Winters, head of Global Managed Services at FIS, to speak to us on the topic of cloud considerations for capital market firms in Asia.

I’d like to cover our topic with you but looking at it from several lenses: business, innovation, regulation, platforms, security and finally outlook for 2022.

BUSINESS: Despite the current regulatory and economic environments, we are seeing an active capital markets, including M&A. What is spurring these activities?
INNOVATION: Do you see RegTech as meeting most of the compliance requirements of capital markets firms in Asia, including more recent amendments by local regulators?
REGULATION: What areas of financial regulation (in Asia) have changed because of the pandemic?

a. Are these changes influencing adoption of cloud and cloud-based manage services?

PLATFORMS: With regards to cloud use among capital market firms, what are the primary holdbacks preventing leadership from moving forward?
SECURITY: Given the recent high level ransomware attacks, what conditions must CIO/CISOs at capital market firms address for business and compliance heads to be open to cloud-based strategies?
OUTLOOK: How do you see business and technology leaders at capital market firms in Asia continuing to address the uncertainties of the current environment as they strive for resilience and growth?

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Operational Technology is the hardware and software that keeps things, for instance factories, power plants, facility equipment etc. running. It monitors and manages industrial process assets and manufacturing/industrial equipment.

Gartner predicts that by 2025, cyber attackers will have weaponized OT environments to successfully harm or kill humans. It also predicts that the financial impact of attacks using OT resulting in fatal casualties will reach over $50 billion by 2023.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Richard Farrell, Asia-Pacific Director – Cloud and Data Centre Segment at Eaton, to talk about the weaponization of operational technology.

1. Is the prediction by Gartner of the weaponization of OT real or is someone just watching too many Die Hard movies?

2. What are some common OT cybersecurity misconceptions?

3. OT encompasses more than just what is inside the data centre, how should businesses improve the security of facilities, including factories, warehouses, shops and malls, utilities, offices and hospitals?

4. Who should be involved in the OT security programme?

5. Where does one begin their OT cyber security programme?

6. What security management actions should be included in the programme?

7. How should an OT security programme be managed?

8. What 3 questions should a CISO/CIO ask when choosing an OT cybersecurity solution?

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Gartner estimates that remote workers will represent 32% of all employees worldwide by the end of 2021. This is up from 17% of employees in 2019.

Gartner defines a remote worker as an employee working away from their company, government, or customer site at least one full day a week (hybrid workers) or who work fully from home (fully remote workers).

“A hybrid workforce is the future of the work, with both remote and on-site part of the same solution to optimize employers’ workforce needs,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior research director at Gartner.

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Gibu Mathew, Vice President & General Manager for APAC, Zoho, to shed light on how WFH is impacting the workforce in ASEAN.

It’s been over 18 months since businesses were forced to adapt remote work as the norm. What would you say is the number one learning for businesses in ASEAN, looking at it from (a) process; and (b) technology?

Given that there is no certainty of when we will go back to pre-COVID-19 workplace, how should enterprises address the issue of training so that employees can make full use of the capabilities of emerging technologies like AI and automation?

What is reasonable strategy that would enable them to measure the effectiveness of AI, analytics and other new technologies without costing the organisation a sizeable investment in what is already a very limited budget?

As we see more enterprises move business applications to the cloud, can you name 3 things enterprises need to do to secure their use of the cloud?

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In the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.

CBInsights’s analysis of 101 startup postmortems suggests that the top 3 reasons why startups fail include lack of market need; running out of funds and not having the right team. But that’s a global view.

On this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, Paddy Tan, managing partner at BlackStorm Consulting, shares his opinion and analysis on the startup landscape in Asia and what makes or breaks start-ups.

1. How has the environment for startups changed in 2020? Has it improved in 2021?

2. Can you cite 3 common mistakes startup entrepreneurs make during the early stages of a startup’s development?

3. How can startups use the challenges presented by COVID to their advantage?

4. Any advice you have for entrepreneurs to be more successful in starting their own business? In the recruitment of talent? In pitching their business to customers? In finding funding support?

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Deal making in the Asia Pacific region is experiencing a boom in 2021. In Q1 2021, M&A activity in APAC-ex Japan was up by 55%, the highest level since 2015. However, Refinitiv stated that the boom hinges on how well governments can contain the COVID-19 pandemic – which itself is experiencing a rebound as variants proliferate across parts of Asia.

Aris Wong, managing director for BMS Group Asia talks abut the role of M&A insurance in protecting both sides of the deal.

What is M&A insurance? Is this a new trend in Asia?
How does it work?
Who should buy M&A insurance?
We’ve seen a surge in M&A deals in the first half of 2021, given the prevailing conditions brought about by the pandemic, is having insurance to cover M&A deals a sufficient risk management strategy?
Can you cite a recent example of an M&A deal that would have benefited from having insurance (for either party)?
At what point should the CFO consider buying M&A insurance (as it relates to M&A discussions)?
Can you suggest key points for consideration by the CFO, including how to calculate the size of the insurance cover?

a. Due diligence importance

Given the prevailing appetite for M&A, can you name 3 recommendations for CFOs and the leadership when it comes to managing their risks, particularly under the continuing cloud of the pandemic and increasing regulatory oversight?

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The chief data scientist manages data-driven functions including overseeing data management, creating data strategy and improving data quality. They also help their organisations extract the most valuable and relevant insights from their data, leveraging data analytics and business intelligence.

The data scientist role is critical for organizations looking to extract insight from information assets for “big data” initiatives and requires a broad combination of skills that may be fulfilled better as a team.

Geoff Soon, Managing Director of South Asia, Snowflake, talks about the evolving role of data science and data scientists in organizations’ quest to better mind insights from their data.

1. What is a data scientist and where do they come from?

2. What are the top challenges data scientists face in their day-to-day work?

3. What are the key skill sets needed for today’s data scientist (technical and soft skills)?

4. Who decides what the role of a data science team is, the qualifications, etc?

5. How can a public/private partnership enable a strong pool of such talent and bridge the current gaps?

6. Should data scientists care about data privacy?

7. What is your advice to leadership about acquiring and nurturing a data science team?

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sense of purpose. Indeed, one of the few beneficiaries of the pandemic in 2020 was the telecom sector which received a much-needed boost as public and private sector organisations shift to remote work, and move business applications to the cloud.

With customer experience the continuing battleground for telecom operators, what are the data-driven use cases for telecom operators to drive sustainably profitable business?

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to Ms Yessie Yosetya, director & chief information-digital officer, XL Axiata, and Phil Scanlon, vice president of sales engineering, Asia Pacific, Japan & Middle East, Solace, on the topic of optimising digital touchpoints for greater customer satisfaction.

What is customer experience according to XL Axiata?

How has COVID-19 impacted the ability to achieve its stated goals around customer experience?
How does XL Axiata expect to achieve its stated goals of customer experience?
You’ve chosen an event streaming approach as opposed to an event-driven architecture. Why is that? What does an event streaming platform deliver to your business?
How did you manage the transition from the previous solution (TIBCO BusinessWorks and EMS) to Solace PubSub+? What limitations were you able to solve with the new solution?
Today, what else are your plans to further extend the benefits of MyXL across your business? Is an event-driven architecture in your roadmap?
How prepared are you for the next change – both in business model and technology? (It is difficult to predict the business environment today? How we respond and how fast we do it is both a testament to management’s skill and foresight).

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AI and machine learning are coming of age, and 2021 is set to become the year that AI dominates the customer service call centre, by providing real-time feedback, predictive analytics, and in-depth analysis. AI is enhancing the customer experience while improving the lives of call centre employees.

But how exactly do you make this happen is the subject of this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO?

Ravi Saraogi, co-founder and president of Uniphore Asia Pacific, speaks to FutureCIO and answers his responses to the queries below:

1. Briefly describe the evolution of contact centres in Asia Pacific pre- and post-COVID-19?

2. What are the key findings from Uniphore’s recent COVID-era survey that outlines opportunities and challenges faced by contact centre agents?

3. How can data and AI-driven capabilities improve the overall experience before, during and after calls?

4. How can businesses empower contact centre agents to foster real-time customer care through empathy and authenticity?

5. How should leadership priorities their investment strategies as regards the contact centre and customer engagement?

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A 2021 Coleman Parkes Research survey of 400 business and IT professionals at enterprises predicts that in the next one to two years, 87% of enterprises are planning a legacy system modernization program.

Flexibility and financial upside are motivating the modernization of some mainframe-based systems. More than half of respondents say legacy modernization helped accelerate digital transformation, while 60% say modernizing just one legacy system could cut IT costs by one-third.

But what does it take to modernise legacy mainframe systems? And how do enterprises address the technical and experience skills gap that exists today?

Praveen Kumar, General Manager, Asia Pacific at ASG Technologies, offers his take on mainframe modernisation and how to bridge the generational gaps for young IT professionals in Asia.

1. How active in the enterprise is the mainframe today?

2. Does the mainframe of 2021 need to be modernised? If yes, in what ways?

3. Given all the awareness around cloud computing, do users care what technology powers their applications?

4. What is the state of talent availability/scarcity as it relates to mainframe technology compliance? Do you see this taking a turn for the better/worst in the years to come?

5. What should industry bodies, educational institution, and private organisations/businesses do to spur interest in mainframe technology?

6. What is your advice for enterprises to ensure that they have the kind of skills needed to keep systems and applications running across the different systems?

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According to the 2021 Global Insurance Outlook report by EY: The global insurance industry faces a truly unique moment in its long history. The fundamental disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic equates to an opportunity for the industry to remake itself in line with new societal realities and market needs.

In this episode, Ms Kim Yeoh, chief financial officer with Sun Life Asia, talks about the challenges facing the insurance industry post-COVID-19 and how the CFO can lead the charge during these unpredictable periods in our history.

1. What is the role of a CFO inside an insurance company?

2. Are there any CFO functions that are unique to the insurance industry?

3. How do you see insurtech impacting the insurance sector?

4. What role does a CFO play in ensuring the adoption of insurtech strategies leads to a successful outcome?

5. How would you interpret a data-driven strategy within the finance function in the insurance business?

6. Insurance regulations tend to have local (in-country) interpretations. As a regional CFO, how do you balance meeting local regulations with the company’s regional business priorities?

7. What is your advice to finance professionals aspiring to become CFOs?

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Capgemini’s 2021 World Wealth Report (WWR) has revealed the new generation of high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) are significantly more tech-savvy. 71% of APAC HNWIs say that they prefer digital self-service over receiving human assistance, while 72% of HNWIs are investing in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

The report also noted that technology breakthroughs, changing social dynamics, new ecosystem players, the democratization of investment management, and the rise of digital channels and assets necessitate a new competitive game plan for wealth management firms.

Just exactly what that means is the subject of this PodChat for FutureCIO with Capgemini’s global head of market intelligence Elias Ghanem who joins us all the way from Paris, France.

1. How has wealth management (WM) changed since 2019?

2. Who is driving these changes?

3. What are the challenges for wealth management firms as they look to adopt technology into their practice?

4. What are the bare minimum tech wealth management firms should invest in as part of their digital transformation strategy?

5. What, in your opinion, is the role of WealthTech in the development of wealth management firms?

6. What is your advice for leadership at wealth management firms in deciding the course of direction for their organisations?

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Enterprise resource planning solutions, and their earlier incarnations, have been around for nearly half a century. In recent years, large ERP solutions have slipped to the bottom of IT management’s agenda to make way for trendier topics like digital, big data, cloud and agile.

But the business benefits of ERP, that of enablement of seamless, end-to-end integration across functions and the process standardization across geographies and business units, have not gone away and continue to make ERP a fundamental asset for enterprises. The maturing cloud infrastructure and processes, has also extended the adoption of ERP across businesses of all sizes and shapes.

Despite the maturity, there remain hurdles to the successful adoption and modernisation of ERP ideas and processes.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we speak to three executives from different ERP solutions providers to discover how to improve your odds in successfully deploying ERP.

Andrew Ward, SVP consulting and managed services, Asia Pacific & Japan, Infor.

Arthur Fernandez, General Manager for Asia, JCurve Solutions.

Paul Lee, the GM of Oracle NetSuite for Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Questions covered:
1. In Asia, what are the top 3 most important reasons for implementing an ERP? (top 3 goals)

What makes for a successful ERP implementation? Who decides it's successful?
Is there such a thing as a mediocre ERP implementation?
Can you use Agile principles in ERP implementation (this includes customizations)?
Are course changes (corrections in goals and implementation cycles) acceptable/standard practice in ERP implementation?

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Internet of Things are devices that connect to the Internet. Some are sensors that collect telemetry data about their surroundings and relay it to a collecting device via wired or wireless connection to the internet. Others not only monitor but also control the activity of the device they are attached to like an air conditioner or lights. Still, others provide information like the navigation system in a vehicle or a power reactor.

As the applications of IoT in industrial, government, consumer and commercial continue to grow, it is drawing the interest of cybercriminals recognising a burgeoning opportunity.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, we speak to Beng Hai Sim, head of Technical Sales at ESET, Asia Pacific, to talk about securing the Internet of Things.

1. Define security as it relates to the Internet of Things?

2. What some of the most common vulnerabilities in IoT devices found in enterprises?

3. Why is it important for organisations to pay attention to securing IoT devices?

4. Who is responsible for securing IoT devices in an enterprise?

5. What should organisations do to secure their IoT devices?

6. Is it realistic to think that we can secure all the 50 billion IoT devices connected out there?

7. It’s been said that remote work has accelerated IoT further. What is your advice to organisations today as regards securing known devices and protecting against the unsecured unknown?

8. What should enterprises look for when it comes to security solutions to address IoT devices in the network?

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In an increasingly uncertain world, companies must build stronger relationships across their ecosystems if they are to achieve future growth.

The way we use technology has completely streamlined the way we live, communicate and do business across the globe. Therefore, companies must build and create ways to retain business resiliency, particularly on the cash collection cycle.

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCFO, Albert Leong, managing director of Esker Asia, shares his views on how building a harmonious business ecosystem will help you accelerate your cash conversion cycle, encourage positive-sum growth and speed up cash collection cycles.

What is cash conversion cycle (CCC)?
What are some of the key challenges finance professionals face that impact their CCC?

a. Impacted collection cycles

b. Disconnection with vendors/customers & employees due to hybrid working model

c. Visibility

How has Esker enhanced CCC processes?

a. Positive sum growth: building a healthy ecosystem that benefits everyone (Everyone wins)

You mentioned positive-sum-growth. Can you elaborate on how that will impact an organisation?

a. elaboration on positive-sum growth (how esker can help with healthy ecosystem & business resilience)

How Is Esker different from an ERP & why should they choose to automate? [ERP has its own AR/AP modules – why do you need Esker?] 60% of Esker customers are using SAP. ERP agnostics.
The call to action of business leaders (C-suites and boards) in 2021 is resilience. What needs to happen with regards to CCC to support this resilience mandate? [Big hole in AR – cash collection, disbursement, deploy with minimum investment, O2P and P2P]
What is your advice to finance leaders looking to maximise the return on their CCC strategies?

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Gartner defines the Internet of Things (IoT) as a network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment.

But today’s IoT is very different from the IoT of a few decades back. IoT today is no longer just about backend systems with the goal of operational improvement. There are now IoT projects with business objectives for improving revenue and customer experience.

As enterprises embed more IoT into front and backend processes, security needs to be revisited taking into consideration IoT digital fingerprints.

The scale of security risks in the Internet of Things (IoT) era is therefore much greater than in the pre-IoT environment, and the “attack surface” is much larger.

Joanne Wong, Vice President, International Markets, LogRhythm, shares her views on what it takes to secure the Enterprise Internet of Things.

1. Please define security as it relates to the Internet of Things.

2. Just how vulnerable are IoT devices to attacks?

3. What makes IoT risks different from that of typical IT systems?

4. IoT devices have been in enterprises since 2004 (BYOD). Are we saying in the 17 years since IoT was introduced into the enterprise, IT has not done much to improve the security of IoT devices as used behind the enterprise firewall?

5. For the CIO or CISO to commit to securing IoT devices in the enterprise, what needs to happen?

6. Are conventional IT security solutions compatible with IoT?

7. What should enterprises look for when it comes to security solutions to address IoT devices in the network?

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The Capgemini and Efma report, ‘World FinTech Report 2021’ highlights how FinTechs demonstrated resilience during COVID-19. With some verticals recording double-digit growth, and FinTechs beginning to mature, there is greater pressure on incumbent banks to embrace digitalisation far deeper and with more commitment than ever before.

During this period, FinTechs proved themselves to be not only competent competitors but also partners. Banks have the edge over FinTechs when it comes to reach and trust, however, to remain relevant they must overcome their weaknesses: in particular, addressing issues with legacy IT, and delivering a better customer experience.

So how exactly can Fintechs and incumbents work together not just for the benefit of the partners, but for customers and the economy as well?

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, Sandeep Bagaria, chief executive officer, Tagit, shares his insights and experience working with incumbents in Asia.

1. Describe the (business) state of the financial services marketplace in Asia today?

2. Are traditional financial services institutions (FSI) sufficiently responsive to the disruption occurring even before COVID-19?

3. Why are some traditional (smaller) FSI opting to partner with Fintechs?

a. How do the traditional FSIs finance these projects?

4. How does a Fintech work with a traditional FSI to modernise its infrastructure? (perhaps cite the tagit work with Singapura Finance – just be cautious not to make this like a sales pitch for tagit).

5. Lessons to draw to mitigate fintech-incumbent project failures?

6. Who should take charge from inside incumbents to ensure that the partnership with Fintech delivers on its objectives?

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The US National Institute for Standards in Technology (NIST) defines cyber resilience as “the ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse conditions, stresses, attacks, or compromises on systems that include cyber resources.”

As part of our effort to push the cyber resilience topic into the mainstream of tech, security and business discussion, we’ve invited Peerapong Jongvibool, regional senior director, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, Fortinet, to share his perspective on Cyber resilience in 2021.

• Let’s start of with definitions: what is cyber resilience and how is it different or related to cyber security?

• What are the benefits of cyber resilience?

• What are the key elements of cyber resilience?

• What are organisations doing wrong when it comes to cyber resilience?

• We are in the second half of 2021. Can you name 3 trends you think will be important to organisations in Asia as they look to strengthen their cyber resilience posture?

• What is your advice to CISOs and CIOs as they look to enhance their cyber resilience strategy?

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In a February 2021 report, Morgan Stanley’s global head of M&A, Rob Kindler said: “All the elements are there for an active M&A market in 2021, from corporations looking for scale and growth to private equity firms and SPACs looking to invest capital.

Just what exactly is driving M&A activities, particularly in Asia, and what is the role of the CFO, particularly in these uncertain times?

William Foo, Chief Financial Officer at Everise, shares his experience and thoughts on the character, experience and expertise that CFOs bring to the M&A table, post-COVID-19.

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Agile started off as a discussion on how to improve product development. That was in 2000. 20 years on, is the context in which it was conceived still relevant?

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, Cliff Berg, founder of Agile 2 and consultant and founder of Agile Griffin, and Lisa Cooney, principal agile coach at Axios. They share their views on how Agile 2 addresses the limitations of the original Agile manifesto.

They are two of the seven co-authors of Agile 2: The Next Iteration of Agile, available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format.

What do you mean by Agile?
In the context of present-day business operations, including the disruption caused by COVID-19, is Agile still relevant?
What is Agile 2 and how is it different from the first iteration? [Cliff + Lisa]
Was there any specific group that was left out in developing Agile?
For Agile 2 to work in Asia, what needs to happen from the perspective of leadership, culture, approach to technology, approach to business?
What must Agile practitioners leave behind to shift to Agile 2?
Is there a place for low code, no code, iPaaS in Agile 2?
What is your advice to CIOs to make Agile 2 relevant to the organisations they support today?

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Not since the introduction of GDPR or the General Data Protection Regulation have we seen a resurgence in discussion around the protection of personal privacy in light of the growing calls against indiscriminate use and possible abuse of customer data.

But just how do you deliver or tailor a solution to a customer without violating the rights of the customer to his or her privacy? At the same time, how do you create a marketing program that adheres to privacy regulations but is sufficiently economical for the business to create a sustained campaign?

David Black, founder and CEO of Blackbox Research, shares his thoughts on the economics of building a sustainable customer engagement strategy that adheres to the rights to privacy and the protection of a customer’s data.

1. Please describe privacy in the context of information security, data protection and the private sphere. How are these connected (if at all)?

2. Are businesses and regulators in Asia aligned in the interpretation of the boundaries of customer privacy? Are there any differences in Asia as it relates to the protection of customer privacy?

3. What are the challenges that businesses must overcome to achieve a balance between privacy and innovation?

4. What stood out in the recent Blackbox research?

5. Observers say that COVID-19 accelerated (is accelerating) digital-led innovation. How should enterprises push the boundaries of customer engagement and innovation without overstepping evolving regulations that protect privacy?

6. What is your advice to businesses pursuing the need to engage while observing privacy expectations?

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How business was conducted changed dramatically in 2020 due to COVID-19, driving companies of This 2021, IDC expects worldwide UC&C growth to be driven by customers across all business size segments (small, midsize, and large) with interest especially in video, collaboration, UCaaS, mobile applications, and digital transformation (DX) projects.

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO Peter Quinlan, VP of business collaboration for Tata Communications speaks about how UCC needs to evolve to meet the new way of working.

Peter, welcome to PodChats for FutureCIO.

How will the nature of work continue to evolve?
In the context of our new way of working, what is Unified Communications and Collaboration?
Will UCC tools become less important as most Asia Pacific organisations look to adopt a work anywhere arrangement?
How can organisations enhance or tailor their UCC capabilities to align with their new work arrangement – be it hybrid, remote or office-first?
What new features can employees expect from their UCC tools in the coming months or years?
What technologies will shape the future of UCC capabilities?
Enterprises are spoiled for choice when it comes to UCC tools, technologies and services. What is your advice to CIOs when re-architecting their communication strategy to support the new normal?
What questions to ask providers?
30 seconds, what is Tata Communications’ value proposition in this space?

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Gartner says site reliability engineering (SRE) enables organizations to fulfil their reliability needs at scale to support the demands of digital business.

Site reliability engineering (SRE) promises methods to improve resiliency in organizations while they pursue agility in digital transformation.

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, Wes Hummel, Vice President of Site Reliability and Cloud Engineering at PayPal sheds light on the value of SRE in cloud-first business operations.

Questions covered include:

Site Reliability Engineering – what is it and why is it important in the context of today’s multi, hybrid cloud environments?

a. Your current role is VP of site reliability and cloud engineering at PayPal. What does this role mean (as viewed from PayPal, its partners and customers)?

b. SRE sounds likes a stressful role. How do you minimise undue stress in the role?

Today we see the convergence of on-prem, private, public, hybrid multi-cloud including edge.

a. How do you design and sustain an architecture that delivers the reliability of on-prem, the performance of edge, and the availability of cloud?

b. Given that PayPal outsources its compute needs to multiple cloud service providers, how do you ensure that the cloud service providers meet their SLA obligations to PayPal. And how does PayPal ensure resilience in the face of unrelenting disruptions?

c. M&A is a common strategy for businesses, including PayPal. What are the challenges companies will face as they integrate the disparate IT infrastructure including applications, and what is the role of the SRE in these scenarios?

As organisations continue to move critical business applications to the cloud, what is your recommendation to businesses’ IT teams and CIOs to ensure they minimise third-party-originated disruptions that may impact their brand?
What are the tools of the trade for an SRE and do you see emerging technologies like AI as relevant in the performance of the function particularly in a multi-cloud environment?
Any learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic as viewed from the perspective of the SRE function?

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Some time back Gartner proclaimed "The Data Centre is Dead". Gartner was clear that the days of the traditional enterprise-owned data centre serving as the sole location to source IT services were waning.

According to Statista, in 2021, the US had over 2,670 data centres. China was a distant 4th place with 416 data centres.

Should companies still own their own data centres - co-located or on their own private property? Large banks with deep pockets will argue "yes" and part of this can be attributed to the risk posture their industries need to adopt. For other industries, its as much an economic as it is an operational issue.

Haji Munshi, Group CEO of Cloud Kinetics, joins PodChats for FutureCIO to discuss:

Reportinker says COVID-19 has been a catalyst for data centre buildout in Asia. It didn’t differentiate though between individual company-owned as opposed to businesses that offer data centre services.

a. So, is Gartner’s proclamation of the death of the data centre, an exaggeration?

According to Gartner, workload placement is moving to the cloud. This is creating a baseline for infrastructure strategy based on workloads rather than physical data centres. How should the CIO and Infrastructure & Operation heads rethink their infrastructure strategies to accommodate this shift?
Given all the emerging new technologies like AI, automation, edge computing and the list goes on, what is the right mindset that CIOs and leadership need to take towards developing a strategy that will provide the resilience and futureproofing they want to achieve in the years ahead?
As a consulting business, what are the most common observations you have about the customers you engage within Asia?
Concerns about vendor lock-in?

a. How to address security around hybrid multi-cloud?

b. How will the CIO address the lack of in-house skills?

What is your prognostication about the future state of data centre buildout and use in Asia in 2021 and 2022?

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A 2020 study commissioned by NordPass revealed that most people, on average, have about 100 passwords to remember. That number increased by 25% from 2019 and is attributed in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, with people doing more things online, and thereby introducing the necessity to generate new accounts.

Just how many of these 100 passwords are iterations of a few is up for speculation. The obvious danger of repeated use of the same or similar passwords is a compromised of one password exposes the others exponentially.

With the most used password, 123456, still in use today, we invited Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director at FIDO Alliance, to join us on PodChats for FutureCIO to talk about passwordless authentication.

Discussion include:
1. Why is authentication the cornerstone of digital transformation?

How has COVID-19 accelerated the need to secure our devices, and what are some of the challenges that organizations face in doing so?
What are the risks of relying on passwords for authentication?
Where do we stand with passwordless authentication today?
What needs to happen for businesses and users to adopt passwordless authentication?

a. What is the investment cost to adopt FIDO authentication?

How can an organisation safely transition to passwordless authentication?
Who should own the deployment and adoption of passwordless authentication?
What questions should leadership and the Board ask their CIO with regards to passwordless authentication?

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At a time when users are clamouring for a way to have easier access to data they need to do their job, security professionals are calling for what looks like the reverse – more controls.