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AI is not just reshaping how businesses operate — it’s redefining the CFO’s role at the centre of value creation, risk management, and operational leadership.

As stewards of capital, CFOs must cut through the hype and ensure AI investments deliver measurable business returns. As guardians of risk and compliance, they must shield their organisations from new threats — from algorithmic bias to data privacy breaches with heavy financial and reputational costs. And as leaders of their function, CFOs now have a generational opportunity to modernise finance, champion AI adoption, and build teams ready for an AI-powered future.

LEAD WITH RIGOUR. SAFEGUARD WITH VIGILANCE. CHAMPION WITH VISION.

That’s the CFO playbook for AI success.

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Click here to download “AI Stakeholders: The Finance Perspective” as a PDF.

1. Investor & ROI Gatekeeper: Ensuring AI Delivers Value

CFOs must scrutinise AI investments with the same discipline as any major capital allocation.

• Demand Clear Business Cases. Every AI initiative should articulate the problem solved, expected gains (cost, efficiency, accuracy), and specific KPIs.

• Prioritise Tangible ROI. Focus on AI projects that show measurable impact. Start with high-return, lower-risk use cases before scaling.

• Assess Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Go beyond upfront costs – factor in integration, maintenance, training, and ongoing AI model management.

Only 37% of Asia Pacific organisations invest in FinOps to cut costs, boost efficiency, and strengthen financial governance over tech spend.

2. Risk & Compliance Steward: Navigating AI’s New Risk Landscape

AI brings significant regulatory, compliance, and reputational risks that CFOs must manage – in partnership with peers across the business.

• Champion Data Quality & Governance. Enforce rigorous data standards and collaborate with IT, risk, and business teams to ensure accuracy, integrity, and compliance across the enterprise.

• Ensure Data Accessibility. Break down silos with CIOs and CDOs and invest in shared infrastructure that AI initiatives depend on – from data lakes to robust APIs.

• Address Bias & Safeguard Privacy. Monitor AI models to detect bias, especially in sensitive processes, while ensuring compliance.

• Protect Security & Prevent Breaches. Strengthen defences around financial and personal data to avoid costly security incidents and regulatory penalties.

3. AI Champion & Business Leader: Driving Adoption in Finance

Beyond gatekeeping, CFOs must actively champion AI to transform finance operations and build future-ready teams.

• Identify High-Impact Use Cases. Work with teams to apply AI where it solves real pain points – from automating accounts payable to improving forecasting and fraud detection.

• Build AI Literacy. Help finance teams see AI as an augmentation tool, not a threat. Invest in upskilling while identifying gaps – from data management to AI model oversight.

• Set AI Governance Frameworks. Define accountability, roles, and control mechanisms to ensure responsible AI use across finance.

• Stay Ahead of the Curve. Monitor emerging tech that can streamline finance and bring in expert partners to fast-track AI adoption and results.

CFOs: From Gatekeepers to Growth Drivers

AI is not just a tech shift – it’s a CFO mandate. To lead, CFOs must embrace three roles: Investor, ensuring every AI bet delivers real ROI; Risk Guardian, protecting data integrity and compliance in a world of new risks; and AI Champion, embedding AI into finance teams to boost speed, accuracy, and insight.

This is how finance moves from record-keeping to value creation. With focused leadership and smart collaboration, CFOs can turn AI from buzzword to business impact.

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Retail transformation is a continuous, dynamic journey of reinvention – driven by agility, experimentation, and the need to keep pace with ever-evolving consumer behaviour. It’s not a fixed destination but an ongoing process of innovation.

At its heart, retail transformation is about putting the customer squarely in control. It’s the strategic overhaul that allows retailers to truly understand individual desires, offering hyper-personalised journeys that blur the lines between online browsing and in-store discovery.

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Click here to download “Future Forward: Reimagining Retail” as a PDF.

Enabling Growth with Smarter Sales and Distribution

India’s Tata Consumer Products, aiming to grow their FMCG market share, set out to digitise sales across the vast ‘kirana’-driven retail network.

The company replaced outdated tools with a system that streamlines distributor onboarding, order management, and retail execution – cutting setup times from days to minutes.

A mobile app gives field reps real-time inventory, auto-applied promos, and personalised KPIs, while dashboards give managers live territory insights. Built in seven months, the platform now handles 6M+ transactions monthly, supports 8,000 reps, 12,000 distributors, and 1.6M outlets. Centralised service and rapid feature rollouts keep Tata Consumer fast, responsive, and customer-focused.

Addressing Legacy Limitations

One of New Zealand’s leading grocery retailer, Foodstuffs South Island, faced growing limitations from aging ERP systems and hardware nearing end-of-life.

Instead of reinvesting in outdated tech, FSSI launched Project Petra – a leap to a unified, cloud-based ERP platform.

The shift enabled intelligent replenishment, robotic automation, and a vastly improved user experience. In 18 months, FSSI streamlined roles, rebuilt core apps, and completed a smooth go-live in just three days. The payoff: forecasting and replenishment times cut by up to 50%, faster transactions, seamless price updates, and real-time insights. What began as a tech upgrade became a full transformation – boosting agility, empowering teams, and fuelling future-ready growth.

Streamlining Workflows, Empowering Employees

UCC Group, the Japanese coffee pioneer, is brewing a transformation internally. With 88 locations across 21 countries, UCC faced mounting inefficiencies from outdated legacy systems – slow, complex workflows and clunky portals that frustrated employees and slowed approvals.

UCC replaced their legacy systems with a cloud-first, mobile-first platform.

VPNs were eliminated. Approvals that once took multiple logins now take one tap. A clean, co-designed portal replaced the old interface, putting ease of use first. E-signatures and digitised requests cut paper use by 90% – over 1.5 million forms saved. A new life-event portal launched in just one month, proving speed and simplicity can coexist. Now expanding globally, UCC is unifying ERP, data, and apps into a single, employee-first hub – built for scale, speed, and the future.

Scaling Customer Experience at Speed

Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Limited (ABFRL) faced the challenge of scaling their multi-brand presence without compromising customer experience. As growth surged across stores, online platforms, and marketplaces, their order management system struggled to keep up – putting fulfillment speed, accuracy, and satisfaction at risk.

To solve this, ABFRL implemented a scalable, multi-instance order management solution that streamlined inventory tracking, fulfillment, and refunds.

The result: 99.5% faster inventory sync, zero refund failures, smarter order decisions, and accurate delivery estimates across all channels. This strategic overhaul helped ABFRL maintain service excellence while fuelling sustainable growth – proving that operational agility is key to scaling customer experience at speed.

Solving Reliability & Scalability Challenges

Chicks Lifestyle is a trusted home-grown brand in Hong Kong known for quality innerwear and thermal wear. As they expanded online and geared up for sustainable growth, outdated on-prem systems began to strain under peak-season pressure – causing crashes, long checkout lines, and customer frustration.

To fix this, they migrated their core ERP and POS systems to the cloud in just six weeks with zero data loss.

The result: 99.99% uptime, 30% jump in efficiency, 15% faster checkouts, and 40% lower IT costs. Loyalty data access dropped from minutes to seconds, enabling personalised service at scale. With a stable, scalable tech backbone in place, Chicks Lifestyle is now exploring AI to power their next phase of innovation.

McKinsey sees AI agents serving two broad patterns: the “factory” model for predictable, routine tasks, and the “artisan” model for augmenting more strategic, executive functions. Another compelling narrative does not make the distinction between the earlier crop of cloud-first and the recent crop of AI-first companies. They see this as a natural progression of the SaaS business model, with VSaaS or “vertical Saas with AI-inside” becoming the broader industry.

I’d argue the original cloud-first SaaS firms might actually be better positioned. Their biggest moat? Existing customer relationships. AI start-ups haven’t yet faced the reality of renewing their first multi-year enterprise contracts. That’s where theory meets enterprise buying behaviour – and where this battle will get interesting.

The Playbook for SaaS Winners in the Age of AI Agents

The SaaS companies that will thrive over the next few years will, in my view, focus on these key elements:

• Leverage Early Clients as a Moat. Invest in the success of your first enterprise clients, ensuring they extract real, sustainable value before chasing new logos. Build enough trust, and you could co-create AI agents trained on their proprietary data, enhancing your core product in the process. Snowflake, with its broad enterprise footprint, has a head start here, but start-ups like Collectivei and Beam are targeting similar use cases, while platforms like Letta help companies deploy their own agents.
• Codify the Use Case. Build products that go deep – not broad. Focus on specific use cases or verticals that a horizontal SaaS company is unlikely to prioritise. Eventually, most enterprise users will care less about which foundation model powers your tool and more about the outcomes.
• Operate with a GTM-First Mindset. Many SaaS firms struggle with margins because of high sales and marketing costs, often wavering between sales-led and product-led growth without a clear go-to-market (GTM) plan. AI start-ups, too, are learning that pure product-led growth doesn’t scale in crowded markets and often pivot to sales-led motions too late. Companies like Chargeflow show why a GTM-first approach is key to building real traction and a growth flywheel.
• Rethink Bundling. Bundling has long been a SaaS pricing play – slicing features into tiers. AI-first start-ups are poised to disrupt this. The shift will be towards outcome-based pricing rather than packaging features. Winners will iterate constantly, tuning bundles to different user cohorts and business goals.
• Charge for Success, Not Seats. AI’s biggest impact may be on pricing. Traditional seat-based models will give way to success or outcome-based pricing, with minimal or no set-up fees. Professional services for customisation will still have value, especially where products align deeply with client workflows and outcomes.
• Prioritise Renewal Over Acquisition. Many AI-first start-ups focus on acquiring logos but underestimate that enterprises are still experimenting – switching costs are low, and loyalty is thin. Building for retention, renewal, and upselling will separate winners from the rest. Focus on churn early.

The Next Chapter in Enterprise Automation

Automation has always been a continuum. Remember when cloud vs. on-prem dominated enterprise debates? Or when RPA was expected to replace most workflows as we knew them? The reality was more measured, and we’re seeing a similar pattern with AI today. Enterprises will first focus on making AI co-pilots work safely, reliably, and effectively before they’re ready to hand over the keys to AI agents running workflows on autopilot. This shift won’t happen overnight.

We’re already seeing early winners capable of negotiating this shift, on both sides: established SaaS giants adapting and AI-native start-ups rising. But make no mistake, this will be a long, hard-fought race. Sustained value capture will demand more than just better tech; it will require a fundamental shift in mindset, go-to-market strategies, and sales motions.

Don’t be surprised if the acronym flips along the way – with Software-as-a-Service giving way to Service-as-Software, as AI agents begin to run entire business processes end to end.

Through it all, one principle will remain timeless: an obsession with customer success – whether the agent is human or machine.

GreenTech is reshaping finance by fusing technology with sustainability. From startups to large financial institutions, there’s a clear push to embed climate intelligence into financial decisions. In 2024, green fintech investments hit USD 2.7B – underscoring strong momentum and growing confidence in tech-led sustainability solutions.

The focus is sharp: drive financial innovation while delivering real environmental impact.

Here’s a look at key Green Finance trends that are reshaping the industry.

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Click here to download “The Future of Finance is Digital – and Sustainable” as a PDF.

Catalysing Change: Impact Investing

Impact investing is going mainstream, especially in fast-growing emerging markets.

This shift reflects a growing realisation: private capital is critical to climate action, and tackling climate risks is a financial opportunity, not just an ethical choice.

AVPN (Asian Venture Philanthropy Network) has launched ImpactCollab – a platform linking finance professionals with verified impact organisations, due diligence tools, and monitoring resources. Initially used by private banks in Singapore to bolster philanthropy advisory, it will soon expand into blended finance and impact investing, backed by MAS.

Green bonds are also gaining momentum, driven by investor demand, regulatory tailwinds, and rising climate risk awareness. In Singapore, NUS, UOB, and Northern Trust piloted tokenised green bond reporting to boost transparency. India, meanwhile, opened its sovereign green bonds to foreign investors via the Fully Accessible Route (FAR), unlocking global capital for climate goals.

Empowering Customers with Carbon Insights

Carbon tracking is becoming a staple in digital banking, driven by a growing demand for transparency around environmental impact. Banks are responding by embedding carbon calculators into apps – enabling users to measure emissions, benchmark against national averages, and get actionable tips to reduce their footprint.

In Indonesia, Bank Mandiri has launched an in-app feature that helps customers track their personal carbon emissions, making it easy to understand the environmental impact of daily actions. The Royal Bank of Canada has partnered with a carbon management platform to offer businesses tools to monitor and manage their emissions.

These moves reflect a broader shift: banks are embedding sustainability into everyday financial behaviour and deepening customer engagement through purpose-driven services.

Blockchain-Enabled Carbon Trading

Blockchain is transforming carbon trading by enabling a decentralised, transparent, and secure way to verify and transact carbon credits.

This technology addresses long-standing issues of fraud and inefficiency, offering a more reliable and cost-effective approach to managing credits and meeting climate goals.

Thailand has eased crypto regulations to promote blockchain-based carbon trading, positioning itself as a leader in sustainable tech. Meanwhile, US-based financial services firm Northern Trust has launched a blockchain platform that allows project developers to generate, verify, and trade voluntary carbon credits in near real-time. Together, these moves signal a shift toward mainstream adoption of blockchain in carbon markets.

Addressing the Climate Risk Gap

As climate risks intensify, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are seeking tools to assess and manage their exposure. Despite being highly vulnerable to climate events, SMEs often lack the resources to navigate complex risk landscapes.

Fintechs are stepping in with climate risk-scoring tools that help SMEs identify vulnerabilities and take proactive steps – such as securing insurance or adapting their strategies.

Marsh has highlighted the need for SME-focused climate assessments in New Zealand, particularly for high-risk sectors. Its Climate Risk Navigator helps businesses build resilience and make informed decisions on insurance and sustainability. In India, insurers like ICICI Lombard are using geospatial tech – GIS, satellite imagery, and AI – to power climate-linked products. For example, its satellite-based insurance for wheat farmers in Punjab enables faster, more accurate yield assessments and claim settlements.

Rise of Climate-Conscious Crypto

Once criticised for high energy use, crypto mining is undergoing a green makeover – fuelled by surplus renewable energy and optimised by AI.

What was seen as wasteful is now being reimagined as a tool for grid stability and sustainable growth.

In Switzerland’s Canton of Bern, Bitcoin mining is being explored as a way to absorb excess power and stabilise the grid. In the UK, mining firms are tapping into unused wind energy during off-peak hours to avoid waste. This shift is reaching emerging markets too – Pakistan is converting surplus electricity into value by launching state-backed Bitcoin mining and AI data centres, turning untapped power into economic opportunity.

Ecosystm Opinion

Becoming truly sustainable presents a unique challenge for financial organisations, as their responsibility extends beyond internal operational efficiencies to actively empowering customers and the wider ecosystem to embrace green practices. This is compounded by a growing reliance on increasingly compute-intensive and energy-inefficient technologies.

The recent and growing emphasis on Green Finance offers a promising outlook, suggesting a positive shift in the industry’s trajectory towards a more sustainable future.

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Advanced technology and the growing interconnectedness of devices are no longer futuristic concepts in health and life sciences – they’re driving a powerful transformation. Technology, combined with societal demands, is reshaping drug discovery, clinical trials, patient care, and even our understanding of the human body.

The potential to create more efficient, personalised, and effective healthcare solutions has never been greater.

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Click here to download “Future Forward: Reimagining Health & Life Sciences” as a PDF.

Modernising HR for Enhanced Efficiency & Employee Experience

The National Healthcare Group (NHG), a leading public healthcare provider in Singapore, recognised the need to modernise their HR system to better support 20,000+ healthcare professionals and improve patient services.

The iConnect@NHG initiative was launched to centralise HR functions, providing mobile access and self-service capabilities, and streamlining workflows across NHG’s integrated network of hospitals, polyclinics, and specialty centres.

The solution streamlined HR processes, giving employees easy access to essential data, career tools, and claims. The cloud-based platform improved data accuracy, reduced admin work, and integrated analytics for better decision-making and engagement. With 95% adoption, productivity and job satisfaction surged, enabling staff to focus on care delivery.

Automating Workflows for Better Patient Outcomes

Gold Coast Health handles a high volume of patient interactions across a wide range of medical services. The challenge was to streamline operations and reduce administrative burdens to improve patient care.

The solution involved automating the patient intake process by replacing paper forms with electronic versions, freeing up significant staff time.

A new clinical imaging solution also automates the uploading of wound images and descriptions into patient records, further saving time. Additionally, Gold Coast Health implemented a Discharge to Reassess system to automate follow-ups for long-term outpatient care. They are also exploring AI to simplify tasks and improve access to information, allowing clinical teams to focus more on patient care.

Streamlining Operations, Improving Care

IHH Healthcare, a global provider with over 80 hospitals across 10 countries, faced a fragmented IT landscape that hindered data management and patient care.

To resolve this, IHH migrated their core application workloads, including EMRs, to a next-gen cloud platform, unifying data across their network and enhancing analytics.

Additionally, they adopted an on-prem cloud solution to comply with local data residency requirements. This transformation reduced report generation time from days to hours, boosting operational efficiency and improving patient and clinician experiences. By leveraging advanced cloud technologies, IHH is strengthening their commitment to delivering world-class healthcare.

Creating Seamless & Compassionate Patient Journeys

The Narayana Health group in India is committed to providing accessible, high-quality care. However, they faced challenges with fragmented patient data, which hindered personalised care and efficient interactions.

To address this, Narayana Health centralised patient data, providing agents with a 360-degree view to offer more informed and compassionate service.

By automating tasks like call routing and form-filling, the organisation reduced average handling times and increased appointment conversions. Additionally, automated communication tools delivered timely, sensitive updates, strengthening patient relationships. The initiative has improved operational efficiency and deepened the organisation’s patient-centric focus.

Reimagining Location Services for Digital Healthcare

Halodoc, a leading digital health platform in Indonesia, connects millions of users with healthcare professionals and pharmacies.

To improve key services like home lab appointments and medicine delivery, Halodoc sought a more cost-effective and secure location service.

The transition resulted in an 88% reduction in costs for geocoding and places functionalities while enhancing data security. With better performance monitoring, Halodoc processed millions of geocoding and place requests with no major issues. This migration not only optimised costs but also resolved long-standing technical challenges, positioning Halodoc for future innovation, including machine learning and AI. The move strengthened their data security and provided a solid foundation for continued growth and high-quality healthcare delivery across Indonesia.

Driving Efficiency & Accessibility through Integrated Systems

Lupin, a global pharma leader, aimed to boost patient care, streamline operations, and enhance accessibility. By integrating systems and centralising data, Lupin wanted seamless interactions between patients, doctors, and the salesforce.

The company implemented a scalable infrastructure optimised for critical business applications, backed by high-performance server and storage technologies.

This integration improved data-driven decision-making, leading to optimised operations, reduced costs, and improved medicine quality and affordability. The robust infrastructure also ensured near-zero downtime, enhancing reliability and efficiency. Through this transformation, Lupin reinforced its commitment to providing patient-centred, affordable healthcare with faster, more efficient outcomes.

Leveraging AI for Cloud Security

Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma’s “VISION 30” seeks to deliver personalised healthcare by 2030, focusing on precision medicine and digital solutions. The company is investing in advanced digital technologies and secure data infrastructure to achieve these goals.

To secure their expanding cloud platform, the company adopted a zero-trust model and enhanced identity management.

A security assessment identified gaps in cloud configuration, prompting tailored security improvements. GenAI was introduced to translate and summarise security alerts, reducing processing time from 10 minutes to just one minute, improving efficiency and security awareness across the team. The company is actively exploring further AI-driven solutions to strengthen security and drive their digital transformation, advancing the vision for personalised healthcare.

It’s a timely moment for reflection. Crypto prices are tanking alongside global markets, Bitcoin is down, and headline scandals – like the USD1.3B hack of ByBit and millions lost by retail investors to the meme coin mania – paint a bleak picture.

But the full story isn’t just chaos and collapse. There’s real momentum beneath the noise – and a dose of optimism is exactly what the space needs right now.

ByBit: Green Shoots Amidst the Biggest Hack

The crypto market has seen renewed bearish sentiment, intensified by the USD1.5 billion ByBit hack on February 21, 2025 – the largest crypto heist to date, reportedly carried out by North Korea’s Lazarus Group. Notably, the attack’s impact was limited thanks to Copper’s Clearloop custody infrastructure, which protected user funds through its bankruptcy-remote design.

Yet despite the headline-grabbing loss, several market watchers have pointed to unexpectedly bullish signals emerging from the aftermath.

• Reduced Leverage and Market Stability. A potential silver lining is the decline in leverage across the market. With meme coin fatigue setting in, investors may be shifting toward more sustainable strategies. This could pave the way for long-term capital, especially as independent advisors begin recommending crypto and ETF products.

• Liquidity Injection from Loss Coverage. ByBit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed the company is covering 80% of the stolen funds through bridge loans. Some view this as bullish, arguing that while the stolen ETH remains on-chain, ByBit’s repurchases inject fresh liquidity into the market.
• No Bank Run and Trust in Exchanges. The lack of a bank run after the hack signals strong trust in ByBit’s solvency and response. Despite being one of the biggest heists in crypto, ByBit’s handling has been steady – prices have held, and users haven’t rushed to withdraw. That, in itself, is a positive sign. CEO Ben Zhou echoed this confidence, stating: “ByBit is solvent even if the loss isn’t recovered. All client assets are 1:1 backed.”
• Unexpected Positive Spin: Hacks as Catalysts.  A contrarian view suggests that hacks, despite their damage, can drive platform evolution. This hack, for instance, could be seen as bullish – profit was extracted from value extractors, pushing ByBit to strengthen, become more anti-fragile, and reset stale positions and liquidity. The takeaway: crises can spark necessary resets and infrastructure upgrades – an unexpected upside in an otherwise negative event.

While some views may be unconventional, they underscore a maturing market better equipped to handle challenges, offering optimism for long-term recovery and growth beyond the current value and liquidity fluctuations.

Institutional Adoption Peaking Despite Bearish Sentiment

The tokenisation of real-world assets (RWAs) and the growing institutional adoption of digital assets are gaining momentum, even amid broader bearish sentiment in the crypto market. Driven by technological innovation, clearer regulations, and tangible benefits like enhanced liquidity, cost efficiency, and streamlined operations, these trends continue to evolve. Here’s an overview of the latest developments:

• Tokenisation of Real-World Assets. Despite bearish sentiment, the RWA tokenisation market is set for rapid growth. Analysts like Clearpool’s Ozean predict tokenised RWAs could hit a USD 50 billion market cap by 2025, driven by TradFi moving on-chain. Other forecasts from Standard Chartered (USD 30 trillion by 2034) and Boston Consulting Group (USD 16 trillion by 2030) highlight long-term potential, even if short-term conditions are volatile.
• Expansion of Asset Classes. Tokenisation is expanding beyond U.S. Treasuries and stablecoins to include real estate, private credit, commodities, carbon credits, and intellectual property. Real estate tokenisation, for example, is unlocking liquidity in traditionally illiquid markets, with platforms showing savings in home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and collateralised loans. The total value locked in tokenised assets surpassed USD 176 billion in 2024, a 32% increase, with non-stablecoin assets growing 53%.
• Stablecoins as the “Killer App”. Stablecoins, pegged to assets like the U.S. dollar or treasuries, are becoming a safe haven in crypto. Their stability during market downturns has boosted their reputation as a “killer app” for blockchain, shifting focus from speculative tokens to practical, low-volatility tools. With a market cap surpassing USD 200 billion in 2025, Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) lead the way. New entrants like PayPal’s PYUSD (launched 2023) and treasury-backed stablecoins (e.g., Ondo Finance) are making waves. The “PayFi” race is on, with stablecoins integrating yield-bearing features linked to tokenised treasuries.  
• Technological Advancements. Blockchain platforms are evolving, with AI driving RWA tokenisation and decentralised public infrastructure (DePIN). AI tools are enhancing risk assessment, compliance, and trading, making tokenised assets more attractive to institutions. Multi-chain technologies are improving interoperability and scalability, overcoming past limitations.
• Notable Projects and Milestones.
  • BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund. Launched in March 2024, this tokenised fund became the largest of its kind, managing USD 657 million in assets by January 2025. BlackRock is also investing in tokenisation firms and exploring stablecoins, signalling a strategic shift.
  • Clearpool’s Ozean. This protocol processed over USD 650 million in loans in Q4 2024, with a 51% rise in total value locked, reflecting growing traction.
  • T-RIZE Group. In December 2023, the firm tokenised a USD 300 million residential project in Canada, showcasing real estate tokenisation at an institutional level.
  • JPMorgan. Using its Onyx platform for blockchain-based settlements, tokenisation is now seen as a “killer app” for efficiency.
  • Goldman Sachs. Its Digital Asset Platform is tokenising bonds, and repo transactions with Broadridge and J.P. Morgan total trillions monthly.
  • Deutsche Bank. Joined Singapore’s Project Guardian in May 2024 to tokenise assets, reflecting institutional global interest.
• Regulatory Progress as a Catalyst. While regulatory uncertainty remains, 2025 shows promise. The potential appointment of crypto-friendly figures under a Trump administration could accelerate clarity in the U.S. Meanwhile, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is developing standards for tokenised RWAs, fostering cross-border adoption. Countries like Switzerland, Singapore, and Japan are already testing tokenised financial products, creating a more favourable regulatory environment.
• Institutional Sentiment and Investment Surveys.  Institutional confidence is high. A BNY Mellon survey found 97% of institutional investors believe tokenisation will revolutionise asset management. EY-Parthenon research shows two-thirds of institutions are already invested in digital assets, with larger asset managers (AUM > USD 500 billion) launching tokenised funds. The Tokenised Asset Coalition found 86% of Fortune 500 executives recognise tokenisation’s benefits, with 35% actively pursuing projects.
• Bridging TradFi and DeFi. RWAs are bridging traditional and decentralised finance. Stablecoins tied to tokenised assets (e.g., treasuries) mitigate volatility, attracting cautious institutional players. Partnerships like Ripple and Archax aim to bring hundreds of millions in tokenised RWAs to the XRP Ledger, highlighting the convergence of TradFi and DeFi.

Resilience Amid Bearish Sentiments

Despite bearish market conditions driven by crypto volatility and macro pressures like inflation, institutional adoption is gaining momentum. Tokenisation offers tangible benefits – fractional ownership, 24/7 trading, and faster settlements – that solve inefficiencies in traditional systems. These advantages hold steady, regardless of market sentiment. For example, tokenised repos minimise operational errors and unlock intraday liquidity, while tokenised yields, such as treasuries, now outpace DeFi lending rates, drawing capital even in a “crypto winter.”

Regulatory fragmentation and security risks like hacking and smart contract vulnerabilities still pose challenges, while mainstream adoption, though accelerating, trails behind pilot successes.

Yet, the fundamentals remain resilient. With upcoming upgrades like Solana’s Firedancer client and Ethereum’s Pectra, blockchain infrastructure will advance. The focus for web3 builders will shift back to innovation, not token price charts. The path from meme coins to real utility may be long, but with the talent and creativity within the ecosystem, it’s far from impossible.

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The Manufacturing sector, traditionally defined by stable processes and infrastructure, is now facing a pivotal shift. Rapid technological advancements and shifting global market dynamics have rendered incremental improvements inadequate for long-term competitiveness and growth. To thrive, manufacturers must fundamentally reimagine their entire value chain.

By embracing intelligent systems, enhancing agility, and proactively shaping future-ready operations, organisations can navigate today’s industrial complexities and position themselves for sustained success.

Here are recent examples of Manufacturing transformation in the Asia Pacific.

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Click here to download “Future Forward: Reimagining Manufacturing” as a PDF.

Intelligent Automation & Efficiency

Komatsu Australia, a global industrial equipment manufacturer, tackled growing inefficiencies in its small parts department, where teams manually processed hundreds of PDF invoices daily from more than 250 suppliers.

To streamline this, the company deployed intelligent automation – AI now extracts and validates data from invoices against purchase orders and inputs it directly into the legacy mainframe.

The impact has been sharp: over 300 hours saved annually for one supplier, 1,100 invoices processed in three weeks, and a dramatic drop in manual errors. Employees have shifted to higher-value tasks, and a citizen developer program is enabling staff to build custom automation tools. With a scalable framework in place, Komatsu has not only transformed invoice processing but also set the stage for broader automation across the enterprise.

Data-Driven Insights & Agility

Berger Paints India Ltd., a leader in paints and coatings, needed to scale fast amid rising database loads and complex on-prem systems.

In response, Berger Paints migrated its mission-critical databases and core business applications – covering finance, manufacturing, sales, and asset management – to a high-performance cloud platform.

This shift boosted operational efficiency by 25%, doubled reporting and system response times, and enhanced scalability and disaster recovery with geographically distributed cloud regions. The move simplified access to data, driving faster, insight-driven decision-making. With streamlined infrastructure management and optimised costs, Berger Paints is now poised to leverage advanced technologies like AI/ML, setting the stage for continued innovation and growth.

Connected Operations & Customer Centricity

JSW Steel, one of India’s leading steel producers, set out to shift from a plant-centric model to a customer-first approach. The challenge: integrating complex systems like ERP, CRM, and manufacturing to streamline operations and improve order fulfillment.

With a robust integration platform, JSW Steel connected over 32 systems using 120+ APIs – automating processes and enabling real-time data flow across orders, inventory, pricing, and production.

The results speak for themselves: faster order fulfillment, reduced cost-to-serve, and real-time visibility that optimises scheduling. Scalable, composable APIs now support growth, while a 99.7% success rate across 7.2 million API calls ensures reliability. JSW Steel has transformed how it operates – running faster, serving smarter, and delivering better customer experiences across the entire order-to-cash journey.

Modernising Core Systems & Foundational Transformation

Fujitsu General, a global leader in air conditioning systems, was constrained by a 30-year-old COBOL-based mainframe and fragmented processes. The legacy system posed a Y2K-like risk and limited operational agility.

The company implemented a modern, unified ERP platform to eliminate risk, streamline operations, and boost agility.

By integrating functions across sales, production, procurement, accounting, and HR and addressing unique business needs with low-code development, the company created a clean, adaptable core system. Robust integration connected disparate data sources, while a central repository eliminated silos. The transformation delivered seamless end-to-end operations, standardised workflows, improved agility, and real-time insights – setting Fujitsu General up for continued innovation and long-term resilience.

Powering Growth with a Modern Network

As a critical supplier to India’s infrastructure boom, Hindalco needed to modernise its network across 55 sites – improving app performance, enabling real-time insights, and building a future-ready, sustainable foundation.

Hindalco replaced its ageing hub-and-spoke model with a modern mesh architecture using SD-WAN.

The new architecture prioritised key app traffic, simplified cloud access, and enabled segmentation. Centralised orchestration and SSE integration brought automation and robust security. The impact: 30% lower costs, 50% faster apps, real-time visibility, rapid deployment, and smarter bandwidth. Hindalco now runs on a lean, secure digital backbone – built for agility, performance, and scale.

Home to over 60% of the global population, the Asia Pacific region is at the forefront of digital transformation – and at a turning point. The Asian Development Bank forecasts a USD 1.7T GDP boost by 2030, but only if regulation keeps pace with innovation. In 2025, that alignment is taking shape: regulators across the region are actively crafting policies and platforms to scale innovation safely and steer it toward public good. Their focus spans global AI rules, oversight of critical tech in BFSI, sustainable finance, green fintech, and frameworks for digital assets.

Here’s a look at some of the regulatory influences on the region’s BFSI organisations.

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Click here to download “Greener, Smarter, Safer: BFSI’s Regulatory Agenda” as a PDF.

The Ripple Effect of Global AI Regulation on APAC Finance

The EU’s AI Act – alongside efforts by other countries such as Brazil and the UK – signals a global shift toward responsible AI. With mandates for transparency, accountability, and human oversight, the Act sets a new bar that resonates across APAC, especially in high-stakes areas like credit scoring and fraud detection.

For financial institutions in the region, ensuring auditable AI systems and maintaining high data quality will be key to compliance. But the burden of strict rules, heavy fines, and complex risk assessments may slow innovation – particularly for smaller fintechs. Global firms with a footprint in the EU also face the challenge of navigating divergent regulatory regimes, adding complexity and cost.

APAC financial institutions must strike a careful balance: safeguarding consumers while keeping innovation alive within a tightening regulatory landscape.

Stepping Up Oversight: Regulating Tech’s Role

Effective January 1, 2025, the UK has granted the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Bank of England oversight of critical tech firms serving the banking sector. This underscores growing global recognition of the systemic importance of these providers.

This regulatory expansion has likely implications for major players such as AWS, Google, and Microsoft. The goal: strengthen financial stability by mitigating cyber risks and service disruptions.

As APAC regulators watch closely, a key question emerges: will similar oversight frameworks be introduced to protect the region’s increasingly interconnected financial ecosystem?

With heavy reliance on a few core tech providers, APAC must carefully assess systemic risks and the need for regulatory safeguards in shaping its digital finance future.

Catalysing Sustainable Finance Through Regional Collaboration

APAC policymakers are translating climate ambitions into tangible action, exemplified by the collaborative FAST-P initiative between Australia and Singapore, spearheaded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Australia’s USD 50 million commitment to fintech-enabled clean energy and infrastructure projects across Southeast Asia demonstrates a powerful public-private partnership driving decarbonisation through blended finance models.

This regional collaboration highlights a proactive approach to leveraging financial innovation for sustainability, setting a potential benchmark for other APAC nations.

Fostering Green Fintech Innovation Across APAC Markets

The proactive stance on sustainable finance extends to initiatives promoting green fintech startups.

Hong Kong’s upcoming Green Fintech Map and Thailand’s expanded ESG Product Platform are prime examples. By spotlighting sustainability-focused digital tools and enhancing data infrastructure and disclosure standards, these regulators aim to build investor confidence in ESG-driven fintech offerings.

This trend underscores a clear regional strategy: APAC regulators are not merely encouraging green innovation but actively cultivating ecosystems that facilitate its growth and scalability across diverse markets.

Charting the Regulatory Course for Digital Asset Growth in APAC

APAC regulators are gaining momentum in building forward-looking frameworks for the digital asset landscape. Japan’s proposal to classify crypto assets as financial products, Hong Kong’s expanded permissions for virtual asset activities, and South Korea’s gradual reintroduction of corporate crypto trading all point to a proactive regulatory shift.

Australia’s new crypto rules, including measures against debanking, and India’s clarified registration requirements for key players further reflect a region moving from cautious observation to decisive action.

Regulators are actively shaping a secure, scalable digital asset ecosystem – striking a balance between innovation, strong compliance, and consumer protection.

Ecosystm Opinion

APAC regulators are sending a clear message: innovation and oversight go hand in hand. As the region embraces a digital-first future, governments are moving beyond rule-setting to design frameworks that actively shape the balance between innovation, markets, institutions, and society.

This isn’t just about following global norms; it’s a bold step toward defining new standards that reflect APAC’s unique ambitions and the realities of digital finance.