Digital transformation in the Philippines has moved from being a goal to an essential part of how organisations operate, compete, and serve their communities. This shift is evident across sectors – from financial services and government to education, healthcare, and commerce – as digital platforms become integral to everyday life.
In recent years, the country has been recognised as a leading improver in the UN E-Government Development Index, reflecting steady advances in digital public service delivery. Yet, progress across all sectots has been uneven, influenced by a mix of geography, regulation, and existing infrastructure. Organisations continue to adapt, responding to fast-paced technological change, rising user expectations, and an increasingly interconnected global digital economy.
Through a series of roundtables with national leaders, Ecosystm examined the realities of digital transformation on the ground. What emerged were valuable insights into what’s working and where challenges and shifts are reshaping the definition of success in this evolving stage of digital maturity.
Theme 1: Strengthening the Foundations for Nationwide Digital Equity
The Philippines is advancing steadily in digitalisation, especially in Metro Manila and major urban centres, though the full benefits have yet to reach all regions evenly. Rural provinces and smaller islands face ongoing challenges with broadband access, latency, and mobile coverage, reflecting the country’s unique geography and historic underinvestment in digital infrastructure.
National programs like the National Broadband Plan and Free Wi-Fi for All have established important foundations. Fibre rollouts by private telecom providers are extending coverage, but last-mile connectivity in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) still needs attention. Bridging this gap is key not only for broader inclusion but also to enable widespread adoption of technologies such as cloud computing, AI, and edge solutions.
Achieving nationwide digital transformation requires a focused effort on regional infrastructure as a driver of inclusive growth. This involves co-investment, innovative public-private partnerships, and policies supporting shared towers, data centres, and satellite-backed connectivity. This benefits enterprises and critical citizen services like e-learning, e-health, and digital banking.
Theme 2: From Outsourcing Hub to Innovation Engine – The Next Chapter for Talent
The Philippines has established a strong global presence as a trusted centre for BPO and IT-enabled services, contributing nearly 9% to the national GDP and employing over 1.5 million professionals. In recent years, this foundation has rapidly evolved, with talent increasingly taking on complex roles in knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), AI annotation, fintech support, and cybersecurity operations.
This shift reflects a broader transformation – from a labour-cost-driven outsourcing model to a high-skill, innovation-focused services economy. However, this transition is placing growing demands on the talent pipeline. Skilled cloud engineers, AI developers, and cybersecurity experts remain in short supply, with demand surpassing the current capacity of training and reskilling programs.
To fully unlock its potential, the country needs to future-proof its talent ecosystem. This includes expanding technical education, strengthening collaboration between academia and industry, scaling national upskilling initiatives, and creating incentives that encourage tech professionals to build their careers locally. With targeted investment, the digital workforce can become a powerful competitive advantage on the global stage.
Theme 3: Government Digitalisation Is Accelerating – But Interoperability Remains a Challenge
The Philippines has made major progress in digitising government services – from online business registrations via Business Name Registration System (BNRS) to digital ID rollout through PhilSys (Philippine Identification System), and integrated platforms like eGov PH Super App. The pandemic accelerated adoption of e-payment systems, telemedicine, and virtual public services, driving faster digital transformation across agencies.
Despite this progress, interoperability challenges remain a key hurdle. Many government agencies still rely on siloed legacy systems that limit seamless data exchange. This fragmentation affects real-time decision-making, slows service delivery, and creates a fragmented experience for citizens and enterprises navigating multiple platforms.
Going forward, the priority is system-wide integration. Building a truly citizen-centric digital government requires interoperable data architectures, strong privacy-by-design frameworks for cross-agency collaboration, and scalable API-driven platforms that enable secure, real-time connections between national and local government systems. A connected digital state not only boosts efficiency but also strengthens public trust and paves the way for more adaptive, responsive services.
Theme 4: Cyber Resilience Is No Longer Optional – It’s Strategic
As digital transformation accelerates, the Philippines has become one of Southeast Asia’s most targeted countries for cyberattacks – particularly in sectors like financial services, critical infrastructure, and government. High-profile breaches at agencies such as PhilHealth, the Philippine Statistics Authority, and COMELEC have brought cybersecurity to the forefront of national priorities.
Regulatory steps such as the Cybercrime Prevention Act and the establishment of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Cybersecurity Bureau have laid important groundwork. Yet, enterprise readiness remains uneven. Many organisations still rely on outdated defences, limited threat visibility, and ad hoc response plans that are outpaced by today’s threats. More importantly, many still look at cyber purely from a compliance angle.
As AI, IoT, and cloud-based platforms scale, so too does the attack surface. Cyber resilience now demands more than compliance – it requires dynamic risk management, skills development, intelligence sharing, and coordinated action across sectors. The shift from reactive to adaptive security is becoming a defining capability for both public and private institutions.
Theme 5: Financial Access at the Grassroots: The Digital Shift
One of the Philippines’ most notable digital transformation successes has been in fintech and digital financial services. Platforms like GCash, Maya, and the government’s Paleng-QR PH program have significantly expanded access to cashless payments, savings, and credit – especially among unbanked and underbanked communities.
By 2024, nearly 80% of Filipinos were using mobile financial apps – a striking milestone that reflects not only growing digital adoption but also evolving cultural and economic behaviours. From sari-sari stores to market vendors, digital wallets are reshaping everyday commerce and opening new avenues for financial empowerment at the grassroots level.
Still, digital inclusion is not automatic. Maintaining this momentum will require continued investment in digital literacy – particularly for older adults, rural communities, and lower-income groups – as well as stronger measures for cybersecurity, consumer protection, and interoperable ID and payment systems. Done right, digital finance can serve as the foundation for a more inclusive and resilient economy.
A Moment to Rethink What Progress Looks Like
As digital systems take root across the Philippines’ economy and institutions, the focus is shifting from speed to staying power. The next phase will depend on the country’s ability to translate broad adoption into long-term value – through strategies that are inclusive, resilient, and built to scale.
We’re entering a new cycle of PC device growth, driven by the end-of-life of Windows 10 and natural enterprise upgrade cycles, brought into alignment by the COVID-era device boom. In Asia Pacific, PC shipments are expected to grow by 4-8% in 2025. The wide range reflects uncertainty linked to the US tariff regime, which could impact device pricing and availability in the region as manufacturers adjust to shifting demand globally.
To AI or Not to AI?
“AI PCs” (or Copilot PCs) are set to become a growing segment, but real AI benefits from these devices are still some way off. Microsoft’s announcement to embed Agentic AI capabilities into the OS marks the first step toward moving AI processing from the cloud to the desktop. However, for most organisations, these capabilities remain 12-24 months away.
This creates a strategic question: should organisations invest now in NPU-enabled devices that may not deliver immediate returns? Given typical refresh cycles of 3-5 years, it’s worth considering whether local AI processing could become relevant during that time. The safer bet is to invest in Copilot or AI PCs now, as the AI market is evolving rapidly; and the chances of NPUs becoming useful sooner rather than later are high.
Is the Desktop Being Left Behind?
PC market growth is concentrated in the laptop segment, drawing most manufacturers and chip providers to focus their innovation there. AI and Copilot PCs have yet to meaningfully enter the desktop space, where manufacturers remain largely focused on gaming.
This creates a gap for enterprises and SMEs. AI capabilities available on laptops may not be mirrored on desktops. Recent conversations with infrastructure and End-User Computing (EUC) managers suggest a shift in Asia Pacific toward laptops or cloud/ virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) devices, including thin clients and desktops. If this trend continues, organisations will need to re-evaluate employee experience and ensure applications are designed to match the capabilities of each device type and user persona.
Fundamental EUC Drivers are Changing
As EUC and infrastructure teams revisit their strategies, several foundational drivers are undergoing significant change:
- Remote work is no longer a default. Once considered the norm for information workers, remote work is now being reconsidered. With some organisations mandating full-time office returns, device strategies must adapt to a more hybrid and unpredictable working model.
- Employee Experience is losing budget priority. During the pandemic, keeping employees productive and engaged was critical. But with rising cost pressures, growing automation through GenAI and Agentic AI, and changing labour dynamics, EX is no longer a top enterprise priority and budgets reflect that shift.
- Cloud-based EUC solutions are now enterprise-ready. Since 2022, cloud adoption in EUC has accelerated. Solutions like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, AWS WorkSpaces, and VMware Horizon Cloud now offer mature capabilities. Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) is increasingly cloud-managed, enabling more scalable and agile IT operations.
- Zero-trust is moving security closer to the user. EUC security is evolving from perimeter-based models to identity-centric, continuous verification approaches. Investments in EDR, AI-driven threat analytics, MFA, biometric authentication, and proactive threat hunting are now standard, driven by the shift to zero trust.
- Device diversity is increasing. Standardised device fleets are giving way to more diverse options – touchscreen laptops, foldables, and a broader mix of PC brands. Enterprise offerings are expanding beyond traditional tiers to meet varied needs across user personas.
- Metrics are shifting from technical to outcome-based. Traditional KPIs like uptime and cost are giving way to metrics tied to business value – employee productivity, experience, collaboration, cyber resilience, and adaptability. EUC success is now measured in terms of outcomes, not just infrastructure performance.
Build a Modern and Future-Ready EUC Strategy
Organisations must reassess their plans to align with changing business needs, user expectations, and operational realities. Modern EUC strategies must account for a broad set of considerations.
Key factors to consider:
Strategic Business Alignment
- Business Outcomes. EUC strategies must align with core business goals such as boosting productivity, enhancing employee experience, improving customer outcomes, and driving competitive advantage. Consider how device choices enable new work models, such as remote/hybrid setups, gig workforce enablement, and cross-border collaboration.
- Digital Transformation Fit. Ensure EUC refresh cycles are integrated with broader digital transformation efforts – cloud migration, AI adoption, automation, and innovation. Devices should be future-ready, capable of supporting the AI and automation needs of 2026 and beyond. While some workloads may shift to the cloud, others like GenAI-powered video and image creation, may demand stronger local processing across the broader workforce, not just specialist teams.
Technology Considerations
- Device Selection. Move beyond the old “one device per persona” approach. Build a flexible device ecosystem that supports a range of employee types, from frontline workers to power users, while allowing for broader device choices based on real usage patterns. Evaluate form factors like desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and thin/zero clients. With the rise of Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), thin clients are becoming more viable, offering cost savings and better security without compromising user experience.
- Flexibility of Choice. High-end features – lightweight design, long battery life, sleek aesthetics – are no longer limited to exec devices. I am currently writing this on a loan device – a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition – a freakishly light, powerful and slim device with LONG battery life – a device typically targeted towards the top tier of business leaders. But today, many of the features of this device run through the entire Lenovo laptop ecosystem – the “Aura” tag appears in many of the device SKUs and ranges. Hopefully the days of senior management getting the great looking devices and everyone else getting ugly bricks are behind us!
- Operating Systems and Compatibility. Ensure compatibility with current and planned business applications, cloud services, and collaboration tools. Consider ease of management and integration into existing IT ecosystems (such as Windows, macOS, Android, Chrome OS, Linux environments).
- Cloud Integration. Evaluate cloud-readiness and seamless integration capabilities with popular productivity suites (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace), hybrid cloud, and SaaS applications. Leverage VDI, DaaS or application virtualisation solutions to reduce hardware dependency and streamline maintenance.
User Experience
- Employee Productivity and Engagement. Even as EX slips down the priority list – and the budget – EUC leaders must still champion intuitive, user-friendly devices to boost productivity and reduce training and support demands. Seamless collaboration is critical across physical, remote, and hybrid teams. In-office collaboration is back in focus, but its value depends on digitising outcomes: laptops, smartphones, and tablets must enable AI-driven transcription, task assignment, and follow-up tracking from physical or hybrid meetings.
- Personalisation and Mobility. Where practical, offer device personalisation through flexible BYOD or CYOD models. Even in industries or geographies where this isn’t feasible, small touches like device colour or accessories, can improve engagement. UEM tools are essential to enforce security while enabling flexibility.
- Performance and Reliability. Choose devices that deliver the right performance for the task, especially for users handling video, design, or AI workloads. Prioritise long battery life and reliable connectivity, including Wi-Fi 6/7 and 5G where available. While 5G laptops are still rare across many Asia Pacific markets, that’s likely to change as networks expand and manufacturers respond to demand.
- Localised Strategy. Given the distributed nature of many organisations in the region, support and warranty strategies should reflect local realities. Tiered service agreements may provide better value than one-size-fits-all premium coverage that’s difficult to deliver consistently.
Security and Compliance
- Cybersecurity Posture. EUC teams typically work hand-in-hand with their cyber teams in the development of a secure EUC strategy and the deployment of the preferred devices. Cybersecurity teams will likely provide specific guidance and require compliance with local and regional regulations and laws. They will likely require that EUC teams prioritise integrated security capabilities (such as zero-trust architectures, endpoint detection and response – EDR solutions, biometrics, hardware-based security features like TPM). Consider deploying AI-driven endpoint threat detection and response tools for proactive threat mitigation.
- Data Privacy and Regulatory Compliance. Assess devices and management systems to ensure adherence to local regulatory frameworks (such as Australia’s Privacy Act, Singapore’s PDPA, or the Philippines’ Data Privacy Act). Deploy robust policies and platforms for data encryption, remote wiping, and identity and access management (IAM).
Management, Sustainability and Operational Efficiency
- Unified Endpoint Management (UEM). Centralise device management through UEM platforms to streamline provisioning, policy enforcement, patching, updates, and troubleshooting. Boost efficiency further with automation and self-service tools to lower IT overhead and support costs.
- Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM). While many organisations have made progress in optimising ALM – from procurement to retirement – gaps remain, especially in geographies outside core operations. Use device analytics to monitor health, utilisation, and performance, enabling smarter refresh cycles and reduced downtime.
- Sustainable IT and CSR Alignment. Choose vendors with strong sustainability credentials such as energy-efficient devices, ethical manufacturing, and robust recycling programs. Apply circular economy principles to extend device lifespan, reduce e-waste, and lower your carbon footprint. Align EUC strategies with broader CSR and ESG goals, using device refresh cycles as opportunities to advance sustainability targets and reinforce your organisation’s values.
Cost and Investment Planning
- Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Evaluate TCO holistically, factoring in purchase price, operations, software licensing, security, support, warranties, and end-of-life costs. TCO frameworks are widely available, but if you need help tailoring one to your business, feel free to reach out. Balance CapEx and OpEx across different deployment models – owned vs leased, cloud-managed vs on-premises.
- Budgeting & Financial Modelling. Clearly define ROI and benefit realisation timelines to support internal approvals. Explore vendor financing or consumption-based models to enhance flexibility. These often align with sustainability goals, with many vendors offering equipment recycling and resale programs that reduce overall costs and support circular IT practices.
Vendor and Partner Selection
- Vendor Support & Regional Coverage. Select vendors with strong regional support across Asia Pacific to ensure consistent service delivery across diverse markets. Many organisations rely on distributors and resellers for their extended reach into remote geographies. Others prefer working directly with manufacturers. While this can reduce procurement costs, it may increase servicing complexity and response times. Assess vendors not just on cost, but on local presence, partner network strength, and critically, their supply chain resilience.
- Innovation & Ecosystem Alignment. Partner with vendors whose roadmaps align with future technology priorities – AI, IoT, edge computing – and who continue to invest in advancing EUC capabilities. Long-term innovation alignment is just as important as short-term performance.
Building a modern, future-ready EUC strategy isn’t just about devices – it’s about aligning people, technology, security, sustainability, and business outcomes in a way that’s cost-effective and forward-looking. But we know investment planning can be tricky. At Ecosystm, we’ve helped organisations build ROI models that make a strong case for EUC investments. If you’d like guidance, feel free to reach out – we’re here to help you get it right.
GenAI AI has truly transformed content creation by automating text, image, and video generation from simple prompts, slashing the time and skills once needed. Canva leads this shift, blending an intuitive interface with expansive templates and cutting-edge AI tools. This empowers anyone – individuals or businesses – to produce professional-quality visuals with ease, breaking down barriers and making design truly accessible.
Canva’s “Create 2025” event in Los Angeles showcased its evolution from a simple design tool into a full enterprise platform for productivity, content creation, collaboration, and brand management – embedding visual communication across the modern workplace. For tech teams, marketers, and leaders, this shift brings opportunity but also demands careful strategy, integration, and governance to unlock Canva’s full potential in enterprise settings.
Canva Create 2025: Key Announcements
Visual Suite 2.0: A Unified Workspace & Single Design Canvas. Canva unveiled Visual Suite 2.0, a seamless platform combining presentations, documents, whiteboards, spreadsheets, and video editing into one design canvas. This unified workspace helps organisations streamline workflows, eliminate tool fragmentation, and ensure consistent visual communication across teams.
Canva Sheets: Where Data Meets Design. Canva Sheets reimagines the spreadsheet by focusing on visualising data with rich charts, colour-coded cells, smart templates, automation, and AI-powered insights. Designed for teams that share data rather than just analyse it, Sheets empowers every user – including the “data shy” – to become a confident data analyst.
Canva AI: GenAI for the Creative Enterprise. The enhanced Magic Studio integrates AI-driven writing, image editing, template creation, and video animation into one toolset. Features like Magic Write, Magic Design, and Magic Animate enable teams to create branded, engaging content at scale – quickly and cost-effectively – across the entire Canva platform.
Canva Code: Low/No-Code Interactive Content. Canva Code enables users to build interactive content such as calculators, quizzes, websites, apps, and chatbots without complex coding. Combining this with Canva’s design and brand management tools lets teams create on-brand digital experiences and publish them to customers in minutes – transforming everyone into a coder and accelerating customer-facing innovation.
Why Enterprises Should Adopt Canva
Canva’s evolution into an enterprise platform offers several key advantages for larger organisations:
- Streamlined Workflows. A unified workspace and single design canvas cuts the need to switch between tools, boosting efficiency and team collaboration.
- Brand Consistency at Scale. Centralised brand controls and template governance ensure all content – from marketing to regional sales – stays on-brand. For example, eXp Realty’s central design team creates assets that agents nationwide confidently use, maintaining brand integrity.
- Scalable Content Creation. GenAI accelerates content creation and localisation, while Canva Sheets lets designers update assets at scale, reducing days of work to a single click.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration. By making design accessible, Canva empowers marketing, operations, sales, and finance teams to collaborate seamlessly on visuals, cutting bottlenecks.
- Lower Barriers to Creativity. With an easy-to-learn platform, more employees can contribute to visual storytelling without needing design expertise.
Beyond Licensing: Strategic Enterprise Adoption
Successful enterprise adoption of tools such as Canva goes beyond licensing – it requires organisational change. Here’s how enterprises can prepare:
1. Integration with the Digital Workplace Ecosystem
Enterprises must integrate new platforms with the broader toolset employees use daily. Without this, they risk becoming just another siloed app, limiting adoption and ROI.
- Enable SSO and identity management (e.g. via Azure AD or Okta).
- Integrate with storage platforms like SharePoint, Google Drive, or Box.
- Connect to collaboration and productivity tools such as Slack, Teams, Trello, and Salesforce.
2. Structured Training and Enablement
Though intuitive, enterprise features require tailored training to boost adoption and build a self-sustaining user community. Customers benefit from dedicated support – including brand kit setup, onboarding, billing, SSO configuration, and company-wide training with a dedicated Customer Success Manager.
- Deliver role-based training for marketers, HR, sales, and support.
- Establish champions in each business unit to drive adoption.
- Provide regular updates and tips as new features launch.
3. Design Governance and Brand Control
Enterprises must address concerns around brand fragmentation. This ensures that the platform acts as brand enabler – not a brand risk.
- Set up Brand Kits to enforce logos, fonts, and colours.
- Use locked templates for consistency while enabling localisation.
- Create layered permission structures to reflect organisational hierarchy.
4. Data Security, Compliance and Governance
As with any enterprise SaaS platform, security and compliance must be foundational and built into the rollout plan from day one.
- Understand data residency and privacy policies.
- Use admin controls, usage analytics, and audit logs to maintain oversight.
- Define clear policies for external sharing and publishing.
5. Defining Success Metrics
Adoption should be measured by capturing metrics that enable IT and marketing leaders to demonstrate value to the C-suite.
- Benchmark operations before and after rollout.
- Track usage, asset creation, and publishing speed.
- Monitor template use versus freeform content to gauge brand adherence.
- Survey users on productivity improvements and satisfaction.
Driving Adoption and Innovation: The Tech Team’s Mandate
For the success of tools such as Canva in enterprise settings, technology teams must move beyond gatekeeping and become proactive enablers of adoption and innovation. This involves integrating them smoothly with identity management, storage, productivity, and collaboration tools to deliver a seamless user experience. At the same time, they must enforce strict security and access controls, manage user provisioning, and monitor usage to ensure compliance and safeguard sensitive data.
But technology’s role doesn’t stop at governance. Teams need to set clear internal service standards, build strong vendor relationships, and drive consistent rollout across the organisation. Crucially, they should partner with business units to co-develop templates, embed these tools into daily workflows, and experiment with new features like AI-powered design, localisation, and self-service content creation.
Ecosystm Opinion
Canva is no longer just a tool for simple social posts or pitch decks; with its latest updates at Create 2025, it has evolved into a core platform for modern, visual-first enterprise communication. To fully realise this potential, organisations must approach Canva like any other critical enterprise platform – implementing the right structure, strategy, security, and support. For companies aiming to empower teams, speed up content creation, and maintain brand consistency at scale, Canva is now poised to take centre stage.
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.
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.
Cybersecurity is essential to every organisation’s resilience, yet it often fails to resonate with business leaders focused on growth, innovation, and customer satisfaction. The challenge lies in connecting cybersecurity with these strategic goals. To bridge this gap, it is important to shift from a purely technical view of cybersecurity to one that aligns directly with business objectives.
Here are 5 impactful strategies to make cybersecurity relevant and valuable at the executive level.
1. Elevate Cybersecurity as a Pillar of Business Continuity
Cybersecurity is not just a defensive strategy; it is a proactive investment in business continuity and success. Leaders who see cybersecurity as foundational to business continuity protect more than just digital assets – they safeguard brand reputation, customer trust, and operational resilience. By framing cybersecurity as essential to keeping the business running smoothly, leaders can shift the focus from reactive problem-solving to proactive resilience planning.
For example, rather than viewing cybersecurity incidents as isolated IT issues, organisations should see them as risks that could disrupt critical business functions, halt operations, and destroy customer loyalty. By integrating cybersecurity into continuity planning, executives can ensure that security aligns with growth and operational stability, reinforcing the organisation’s ability to adapt and thrive in a constantly evolving threat landscape.
2. Translate Cyber Risks into Business-Relevant Insights
To make cybersecurity resonate with business leaders, technical risks need to be expressed in terms that directly impact the organisation’s strategic goals. Executives are more likely to respond to cybersecurity concerns when they understand the financial, reputational, or operational impacts of cyber threats. Reframing cybersecurity risks into clear, business-oriented language that highlights potential disruptions, regulatory implications, and costs helps leadership see cybersecurity as part of broader risk management.
For instance, rather than discussing a “data breach vulnerability”, frame it as a “threat to customer trust and a potential multi-million-dollar regulatory liability”. This approach contextualises cyber risks in terms of real-world consequences, helping leadership to recognise that cybersecurity investments are risk mitigations that protect revenue, brand equity, and shareholder value.
3. Build Cybersecurity into the DNA of Innovation and Product Development
Cybersecurity must be a foundational element in the innovation process, not an afterthought. When security is integrated from the early stages of product development – known as “shifting left” – organisations can reduce vulnerabilities, build customer trust, and avoid costly fixes post-launch. This approach helps businesses to innovate with confidence, knowing that new products and services meet both customer expectations and regulatory requirements.
By embedding security in every phase of the development lifecycle, leaders demonstrate that cybersecurity is essential to sustainable innovation. This shift also empowers product teams to create solutions that are both user-friendly and secure, balancing customer experience with risk management. When security is seen as an enabler rather than an obstacle to innovation, it becomes a powerful differentiator that supports growth.
4. Foster a Culture of Shared Responsibility and Continuous Learning
The most robust cybersecurity strategies extend beyond the IT department, involving everyone in the organisation. Creating a culture where cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility ensures that each employee – from the front lines to the boardroom – understands their role in protecting the organisation. This culture is built through continuous education, regular simulations, and immersive training that makes cybersecurity practical and engaging.
Awareness initiatives, such as cyber escape rooms and live demonstrations of common attacks, can be powerful tools to engage employees. Instead of passive training, these methods make cybersecurity tangible, showing employees how their actions impact the organisation’s security posture. By treating cybersecurity as an organisation-wide effort, leaders build a proactive culture that treats security not as an obligation but as an integral part of the business mission.
5. Leverage Industry Partnerships and Regulatory Compliance for a Competitive Edge
As regulations around cybersecurity tighten, especially for critical sectors like finance and infrastructure, compliance is becoming a competitive advantage. By proactively meeting and exceeding regulatory standards, organisations can position themselves as trusted, compliant partners for clients and customers. Additionally, building partnerships across the public and private sectors offers access to shared knowledge, best practices, and support systems that strengthen organisational security.
Leaders who engage with regulatory requirements and industry partnerships not only stay ahead of compliance but also benefit from a network of resources that can enhance their cybersecurity strategies. Proactive compliance, combined with strategic partnerships, strengthens organisational resilience and builds market trust. In doing so, cybersecurity becomes more than a safeguard; it’s an asset that supports brand credibility, customer loyalty, and competitive differentiation.
Conclusion
For cybersecurity to be truly effective, it must be woven into the fabric of an organisation’s mission and strategy. By reframing cybersecurity as a foundational aspect of business continuity, expressing cyber risks in business language, embedding security in innovation, building a culture of shared responsibility, and leveraging compliance as an advantage, leaders can transform cybersecurity from a technical concern to a strategic asset. In an age where digital threats are increasingly complex, aligning cybersecurity with business priorities is essential for sustainable growth, customer trust, and long-term resilience.
At a recently held Ecosystm roundtable, in partnership with Qlik and 121Connects, Ecosystm Principal Advisor Manoj Chugh, moderated a conversation where Indian tech and data leaders discussed building trust in data strategies. They explored ways to automate data pipelines and improve governance to drive better decisions and business outcomes. Here are the key takeaways from the session.
Data isn’t just a byproduct anymore; it’s the lifeblood of modern businesses, fuelling informed decisions and strategic growth. But with vast amounts of data, the challenge isn’t just managing it; it’s building trust. AI, once a beacon of hope, is now at risk without a reliable data foundation. Ecosystm research reveals that a staggering 66% of Indian tech leaders doubt their organisation’s data quality, and the problem of data silos is exacerbating this trust crisis.
At the Leaders Roundtable in Mumbai, I had the opportunity to moderate a discussion among data and digital leaders on the critical components of building trust in data and leveraging it to drive business value. The consensus was that building trust requires a comprehensive strategy that addresses the complexities of data management and positions the organisation for future success. Here are the key strategies that are essential for achieving these goals.
1. Adopting a Unified Data Approach
Organisations are facing a growing wave of complex workloads and business initiatives. To manage this expansion, IT teams are turning to multi-cloud, SaaS, and hybrid environments. However, this diverse landscape introduces new challenges, such as data silos, security vulnerabilities, and difficulties in ensuring interoperability between systems.
A unified data strategy is crucial to overcome these challenges. By ensuring platform consistency, robust security, and seamless data integration, organisations can simplify data management, enhance security, and align with business goals – driving informed decisions, innovation, and long-term success.
Real-time data integration is essential for timely data availability, enabling organisations to make data-driven decisions quickly and effectively. By integrating data from various sources in real-time, businesses can gain valuable insights into their operations, identify trends, and respond to changing market conditions.
Organisations that are able to integrate their IT and operational technology (OT) systems find their data accuracy increasing. By combining IT’s digital data management expertise with OT’s real-time operational insights, organisations can ensure more accurate, timely, and actionable data. This integration enables continuous monitoring and analysis of operational data, leading to faster identification of errors, more precise decision-making, and optimised processes.
2. Enhancing Data Quality with Automation and Collaboration
As the volume and complexity of data continue to grow, ensuring high data quality is essential for organisations to make accurate decisions and to drive trust in data-driven solutions. Automated data quality tools are useful for cleansing and standardising data to eliminate errors and inconsistencies.
As mentioned earlier, integrating IT and OT systems can help organisations improve operational efficiency and resilience. By leveraging data-driven insights, businesses can identify bottlenecks, optimise workflows, and proactively address potential issues before they escalate. This can lead to cost savings, increased productivity, and improved customer satisfaction.
However, while automation technologies can help, organisations must also invest in training employees in data management, data visualisation, and data governance.
3. Modernising Data Infrastructure for Agility and Innovation
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, agility is paramount. Modernising data infrastructure is essential to remain competitive – the right digital infrastructure focuses on optimising costs, boosting capacity and agility, and maximising data leverage, all while safeguarding the organisation from cyber threats. This involves migrating data lakes and warehouses to cloud platforms and adopting advanced analytics tools. However, modernisation efforts must be aligned with specific business goals, such as enhancing customer experiences, optimising operations, or driving innovation. A well-modernised data environment not only improves agility but also lays the foundation for future innovations.
Technology leaders must assess whether their data architecture supports the organisation’s evolving data requirements, considering factors such as data flows, necessary management systems, processing operations, and AI applications. The ideal data architecture should be tailored to the organisation’s specific needs, considering current and future data demands, available skills, costs, and scalability.
4. Strengthening Data Governance with a Structured Approach
Data governance is crucial for establishing trust in data, and providing a framework to manage its quality, integrity, and security throughout its lifecycle. By setting clear policies and processes, organisations can build confidence in their data, support informed decision-making, and foster stakeholder trust.
A key component of data governance is data lineage – the ability to trace the history and transformation of data from its source to its final use. Understanding this journey helps organisations verify data accuracy and integrity, ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and internal policies, improve data quality by proactively addressing issues, and enhance decision-making through context and transparency.
A tiered data governance structure, with strategic oversight at the executive level and operational tasks managed by dedicated data governance councils, ensures that data governance aligns with broader organisational goals and is implemented effectively.
Are You Ready for the Future of AI?
The ultimate goal of your data management and discovery mechanisms is to ensure that you are advancing at pace with the industry. The analytics landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, promising to revolutionise how organisations interact with data. A key innovation, the data fabric, is enabling organisations to analyse unstructured data, where the true value often lies, resulting in cleaner and more reliable data models.
GenAI has emerged as another game-changer, empowering employees across the organisation to become citizen data scientists. This democratisation of data analytics allows for a broader range of insights and fosters a more data-driven culture. Organisations can leverage GenAI to automate tasks, generate new ideas, and uncover hidden patterns in their data.
The shift from traditional dashboards to real-time conversational tools is also reshaping how data insights are delivered and acted upon. These tools enable users to ask questions in natural language, receiving immediate and relevant answers based on the underlying data. This conversational approach makes data more accessible and actionable, empowering employees to make data-driven decisions at all levels of the organisation.
To fully capitalise on these advancements, organisations need to reassess their AI/ML strategies. By ensuring that their tech initiatives align with their broader business objectives and deliver tangible returns on investment, organisations can unlock the full potential of data-driven insights and gain a competitive edge. It is equally important to build trust in AI initiatives, through a strong data foundation. This involves ensuring data quality, accuracy, and consistency, as well as implementing robust data governance practices. A solid data foundation provides the necessary groundwork for AI and GenAI models to deliver reliable and valuable insights.
Over a century ago, the advent of commercial flights marked a pivotal moment in globalisation, shrinking the time-distance between cities and nations. Less than a century later, the first video call foreshadowed a future where conversations could span continents in real time, compressing the space-distance between people.
The world feels smaller, not literally, but in how we experience space and time. Messages that once took days to deliver arrive instantly. Distances between cities are now measured in hours, not miles. A product designed in New York is manufactured in Shenzhen and reaches London shelves within weeks. In essence, things traverse the world with far less friction than it once did.
Welcome to The Immediate Economy!
The gap between desire and fulfilment has narrowed, driven by technology’s speed and convenience. This time-space annihilation has ushered in what we now call The Immediate Economy.
Such transformations haven’t gone unnoticed, at the click of a button is now a native (sort of cliché) expression. Amidst all this innovation, a new type of consumer has emerged – one whose attention is fleeting and easy to lose. Modern consumers have compelled industries, especially retail and ecommerce, to evolve, creating experiences that not only capture but also hold their interest.
Beyond Usability: Crafting a Memorable User Experience
Selling a product is no longer about just the product itself; it’s about the lifestyle, the experience, and the rush of dopamine with every interaction. And it’s all because of technology.
In a podcast interview with the American Psychological Association, Professor Gloria Mark from the University of California, Irvine, revealed a significant decline in attention spans on screens, from 150 seconds in 2004 to 40 seconds in the last five years. Social media platforms have spoiled the modern consumer by curating content that caters instantly to desires. Influence spills into the retail sector, compelling retailers to create experiences matching the immediacy and personalisation people now expect.
Modern consumers require modern retail experiences. Take Whole Foods, and their recent partnership with Amazon’s Dash Cart, transforming the mundane act of grocery shopping into a seamless dance of efficiency. Shoppers can now glide through aisles with carts that tally selections and debit totals directly from their accounts, rendering checkout lines obsolete. It’s more than convenience; it reimagines retail – a choreography of consumerism where every step is both effortless and calculated.
Whole Foods can analyse data from their Dash Cart technology to gain valuable insights into shopping patterns. The Immediate Economy revolutionises retail, transforming it into a hyper-efficient, personalised experience.
Retail’s new Reality: The Rise of Experiential Shopping
Just as Netflix queues up a binge-worthy series; retailers create shopping experiences as engaging and addictive as your favourite shows.
It’s been a financially rough year for Nike, but that hasn’t stopped them from expanding their immersive retail experience. Nike’s “House of Innovation” leverages 3D holographic tech. Customers can inspect intricate details of sneakers, including the texture of the fabric, the design of the laces, and the construction of the sole. The holographic display can also adjust to different lighting conditions and present the sneaker in various colours, providing a truly immersive and personalised shopping experience.
Fashion commerce platforms like Farfetch are among many integrating Virtual Try-On (VTO) technology. Leveraging the camera and sensors of customer devices, their AR technology overlays a digital image of a handbag onto a live view of a customer, enabling them to see how different styles and sizes would look on you. This approach to ecommerce enhances experiences, elevating interaction.
The 3D holographic display and the AR tech, are unique and visually appealing ways to showcase products, allowing customers to interact with products in a way that is not possible with traditional displays. Each shopping trip feels like the next episode of retail therapy.
The Evolution of Shopptertainment
The bar for quick content consumption is higher than ever thanks to platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
A prime example of this trend is Styl, a tech startup from two Duke students, with their “Tinder for shopping” application. Styl offers a swipeable interface for discovering and purchasing fashion items, seamlessly integrating the convenience and engagement of social media into the retail experience.
Styl goes beyond a simple swipe. By leveraging AI algorithms, it learns your preferences and curates a personalised feed of clothing items that align with your taste. Streamlining the shopping process, they deliver a tailored experience that caters to the modern consumer’s desire for convenience and personalisation.
Interestingly, Styl isn’t even a retail company; it pools items from websites, redirecting the users with relevant interest. They combine ecommerce with AI, creating the ultimate shopping experience for today’s customer. It’s fast, customised, and changing the way we shop.
Styl is not the first ones to do this, Instagram and TikTok provide individualised suggestions within their marketplace. But they differ by selling an experience, a vibe. That’s what sets them apart.
Tech-Powered Retail: The Heart of the Immediate Economy
History is filled with examples of societal innovation, but the Immediate Economy is transforming retail in exciting ways. In the 21st century, technology is both the catalyst and the consequence of the retail industry transformation. It began by capturing and fragmenting the average consumer’s attention, and now it’s reshaping consumer-brand relationships.
Today’s consumers crave personalised shopping. Whole Foods, with its AI-driven Dash Carts, is redefining convenience. Nike and Farfetch, through immersive AR and 3D tech, is making shopping an interactive adventure. Meanwhile, startups like Styl are leveraging AI to bring personalized fashion choices directly to consumers’ smartphones. The world is shrinking, not just in miles, but in the milliseconds it takes to satisfy a desire. From the aisles of Whole Foods to the virtual showrooms of Farfetch, The Immediate Economy offers an immersive world, where time and space bend to technology’s will, and instant gratification is no longer a perk; it’s an expectation. The Immediate Economy is here, and it’s changing how we interact with the world around us. Welcome to the future of retail, and everything else.
At the Nutanix .NEXT 2024 event in Barcelona, it became clear that the discourse around cloud computing has evolved significantly. The debate that once polarised organisations over whether on-prem/co-located data centres or public cloud was better has been decisively settled. Both cloud providers and on-prem equipment providers are thriving, as evident from their earnings reports.
Hybrid cloud has emerged as the clear victor, offering the flexibility and control that organisations demand. This shift is particularly relevant for tech buyers in the Asia Pacific region, where diverse market maturities and unique business challenges require a more adaptable approach to IT infrastructure.
The Hybrid Cloud Advantage
Hybrid cloud architecture combines the best of both worlds. It provides the scalability and agility of public cloud services while retaining the control and security of on-prem systems. For Asia Pacific organisations, that often operate across various regulatory environments and face unique data sovereignty issues, this dual capability is invaluable. The ability to seamlessly move workloads between on-prem, private cloud, and public cloud environments enables enterprises to optimise their IT strategies, balancing cost, performance, and compliance.
Market Maturity and Adoption in Asia Pacific
The region shows a wide spectrum of technological maturity among its markets. Countries like Australia, Japan, and Singapore lead with advanced cloud adoption and robust IT infrastructures, while emerging markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines are still in the nascent stages of cloud integration.
However, regardless of their current maturity levels, organisations in Asia Pacific are recognising the benefits of a hybrid cloud approach. Mature markets are leveraging hybrid cloud to refine their IT strategies, focusing on enhancing business agility and driving innovation.
Ecosystm research shows that 75% of organisations in Australia have a hybrid, multi-cloud strategy. Over 30% of organisations have repatriated workloads from the public cloud, and only 22% employ a “cloud first” strategy when deploying new services.
Meanwhile, emerging markets see hybrid cloud as a pathway to accelerate their digital transformation journeys without the need for extensive upfront investments in on-prem infrastructure. Again, Ecosystm data shows that when it comes to training large AI models and applications, organisations across Southeast Asia use a mix of public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.
Strategic Flexibility Without Compromise
One of the most compelling messages from the Nutanix .NEXT 2024 event is that hybrid cloud eliminates the need for compromise when deciding where to place workloads – and that is what the data above represents. The location of the workload is no longer a limiting factor. Being “cloud first” locks organisations into a tech provider, whereas agility was once exclusively in favour of public cloud providers. Whether it’s for performance optimisation, cost efficiency, or regulatory compliance, tech leaders can now choose the best environment for every workload without being constrained by location.
For example, an organisation might keep sensitive customer data within a private cloud to comply with local data protection laws while leveraging public cloud resources for less sensitive applications to take advantage of its scalability and cost benefits. I recently spoke to an organisation in the gaming space that had 5 different regulatory bodies to appease – which required data to be stored in 5 different locations! This strategic flexibility ensures that IT investments are fully aligned with business objectives, enhancing overall operational efficiency.
Moving Forward: Actionable Insights for Asia Pacific Tech Leaders
To fully capitalise on the hybrid cloud revolution, APAC tech leaders should:
- Assess Workload Requirements. Evaluate the specific needs of each workload to determine the optimal environment, considering factors like latency, security, and compliance.
- Invest in Integration Tools. Ensure seamless interoperability between on-premises and cloud environments by investing in advanced integration and management tools.
- Focus on Skill Development. Equip IT teams with the necessary skills to manage hybrid cloud infrastructures, emphasising continuous learning and certification.
- Embrace a Multi-Cloud Strategy. Consider a multi-cloud approach within the hybrid model to avoid vendor lock-in and enhance resilience.
Conclusion
The hybrid cloud has definitively won the battle for enterprise IT infrastructure, particularly in the diverse Asia Pacific region. By enabling organisations to place their workloads wherever they make the most sense without compromising on performance, security, or compliance, hybrid cloud empowers tech leaders to drive their digital transformation agendas forward with confidence. Based on everything we know today*, the future of cloud is hybrid. Reform your sourcing practices to put business needs, not cloud service providers or data centres, at the centre of your data decisions.
*In this fast-changing world, it seems naïve to make sweeping statements about the future of technology!
Exiting the North-South Highway 101 onto Mountain View, California, reveals how mundane innovation can appear in person. This Silicon Valley town, home to some of the most prominent tech giants, reveals little more than a few sprawling corporate campuses of glass and steel. As the industry evolves, its architecture naturally grows less inspiring. The most imposing structures, our modern-day coliseums, are massive energy-rich data centres, recursively training LLMs among other technologies. Yet, just as the unassuming exterior of the Googleplex conceals a maze of shiny new software, GenAI harbours immense untapped potential. And people are slowly realising that.
It has been over a year that GenAI burst onto the scene, hastening AI implementations and making AI benefits more identifiable. Today, we see successful use cases and collaborations all the time.
Finding Where Expectations Meet Reality
While the data centres of Mountain View thrum with the promise of a new era, it is crucial to have a quick reality check.
Just as the promise around dot-com startups reached a fever pitch before crashing, so too might the excitement surrounding AI be entering a period of adjustment. Every organisation appears to be looking to materialise the hype.
All eyes (including those of 15 million tourists) will be on Paris as they host the 2024 Olympics Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently introduced an AI-powered monitoring system to protect athletes from online abuse. This system demonstrates AI’s practical application, monitoring social media in real time, flagging abusive content, and ensuring athlete’s mental well-being. Online abuse is a critical issue in the 21st century. The IOC chose the right time, cause, and setting. All that is left is implementation. That’s where reality is met.
While the Googleplex doesn’t emanate the same futuristic aura as whatever is brewing within its walls, Google’s AI prowess is set to take centre stage as they partner with NBCUniversal as the official search AI partner of Team USA. By harnessing the power of their GenAI chatbot Gemini, NBCUniversal will create engaging and informative content that seamlessly integrates with their broadcasts. This will enhance viewership, making the Games more accessible and enjoyable for fans across various platforms and demographics. The move is part of NBCUniversal’s effort to modernise its coverage and attract a wider audience, including those who don’t watch live television and younger viewers who prefer online content.
From Silicon Valley to Main Street
While tech giants invest heavily in GenAI-driven product strategies, retailers and distributors must adapt to this new sales landscape.
Perhaps the promise of GenAI lies in the simple storefronts where it meets the everyday consumer. Just a short drive down the road from the Googleplex, one of many 37,000-square-foot Best Buys is preparing for a launch that could redefine how AI is sold.
In the most digitally vogue style possible, the chain retailer is rolling out Microsoft’s flagship AI-enabled PCs by training over 30,000 employees to sell and repair them and equipping over 1,000 store employees with AI skillsets. Best Buy are positioning themselves to revitalise sales, which have been declining for the past ten quarters. The company anticipates that the augmentation of AI skills across a workforce will drive future growth.
The Next Generation of User-Software Interaction
We are slowly evolving from seeking solutions to seamless integration, marking a new era of User-Centric AI.
The dynamic between humans and software has mostly been transactional: a question for an answer, or a command for execution. GenAI however, is poised to reshape this. Apple, renowned for their intuitive, user-centric ecosystem, is forging a deeper and more personalised relationship between humans and their digital tools.
Apple recently announced a collaboration with OpenAI at its WWDC, integrating ChatGPT into Siri (their digital assistant) in its new iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia rollout. According to Tim Cook, CEO, they aim to “combine generative AI with a user’s personal context to deliver truly helpful intelligence”.
Apple aims to prioritise user personalisation and control. Operating directly on the user’s device, it ensures their data remains secure while assimilating AI into their daily lives. For example, Siri now leverages “on-screen awareness” to understand both voice commands and the context of the user’s screen, enhancing its ability to assist with any task. This marks a new era of personalised GenAI, where technology understands and caters to individual needs.
We are beginning to embrace a future where LLMs assume customer-facing roles. The reality is, however, that we still live in a world where complex issues are escalated to humans.
The digital enterprise landscape is evolving. Examples such as the Salesforce Einstein Service Agent, its first fully autonomous AI agent, aim to revolutionise chatbot experiences. Built on the Einstein 1 Platform, it uses LLMs to understand context and generate conversational responses grounded in trusted business data. It offers 24/7 service, can be deployed quickly with pre-built templates, and handles simple tasks autonomously.
The technology does show promise, but it is important to acknowledge that GenAI is not yet fully equipped to handle the nuanced and complex scenarios that full customer-facing roles need. As technology progresses in the background, companies are beginning to adopt a hybrid approach, combining AI capabilities with human expertise.
AI for All: Democratising Innovation
The transformations happening inside the Googleplex, and its neighbouring giants, is undeniable. The collaborative efforts of Google, SAP, Microsoft, Apple, and Salesforce, amongst many other companies leverage GenAI in unique ways and paint a picture of a rapidly evolving tech ecosystem. It’s a landscape where AI is no longer confined to research labs or data centres, but is permeating our everyday lives, from Olympic broadcasts to customer service interactions, and even our personal devices.
The accessibility of AI is increasing, thanks to efforts like Best Buy’s employee training and Apple’s on-device AI models. Microsoft’s Copilot and Power Apps empower individuals without technical expertise to harness AI’s capabilities. Tools like Canva and Uizard empower anybody with UI/UX skills. Platforms like Coursera offer certifications in AI. It’s never been easier to self-teach and apply such important skills. While the technology continues to mature, it’s clear that the future of AI isn’t just about what the machines can do for us—it’s about what we can do with them. The on-ramp to technological discovery is no longer North-South Highway 101 or the Googleplex that lays within, but rather a network of tools and resources that’s rapidly expanding, inviting everyone to participate in the next wave of technological transformation.