Event Recap: FUTURE FRAME - Leadership in the Age of AI (IIT Alumni Association Thailand)

Future Frame: Leadership in the Age of AI brought the IIT Alumni Association of Thailand and WOWS Global together in Bangkok to explore how CXOs can evolve their leadership mindset with AI. Over 70 attendees, including IIT alumni, senior leaders, and select investors, joined a focused conversation on how CXOs evolve their leadership mindset with AI. The evening was made possible by our main sponsors: WOWS Global, Griffith Foods, and Michael Page. The agenda combined a keynote, panel discussion, startup spotlights, and networking.

The energy in the room

The State of AI for CXOs - Automate or Be Automated

Tiwa York explained that AI is a leadership choice, not just a tech upgrade. The keynote showed how to pick a few high-impact tasks to automate, name an owner, and set clear rules. The message was simple: get the data ready, manage change step by step, and track results each quarter so pilots turn into real production wins.

Moderated by Gagan Ajmani (CEO, WOWS Global), this was a straight-talk session on how to use AI now. The panel discussed three key themes: the impact of AI on talent, CXO ownership of embracing AI, and how AI will shape future generations. The focus stayed on simple steps leaders can apply right away.

• Kandarp Singh (APAC President, Griffith Foods): Big companies need clear goals and owners for each AI project. Start with one workflow, prove value, and scale from there. Expect hurdles around data and change management, solve them by setting guardrails and keeping everyone aligned.
  
  

• Rakesh Singh (APAC Head, Bidmath): Digital-first firms move faster with AI by automating routine work and testing ideas in short cycles. “Hyper-scalability” means using data and automation to serve more customers without adding heavy costs. New models have opened fresh ways to create and personalize content.
  
  

• Nicolas Dumoulin (Managing Director & SEA Head, Michael Page): Job roles are shifting fast. Skills in data, product, and AI tools are rising; purely manual tasks are fading. Hiring now focuses on proof of outcomes, not just titles. Even executive search is changing as AI speeds sourcing and screening.
  
  

• Rashmi Sharma (Founder, Innergy.club): AI success is mostly a mindset shift. Leaders should fight perfectionism, learn by doing, and model the behavior they want. One habit to adopt: pick a small process, automate it, track the metric, and share the learning with the team.
  
  

Together, the panel showed that AI is a business change, not just a tech upgrade, start small, stay focused, and build momentum.

Startup Spotlight: AI That’s Changing the Game
Three lightning demos, zero filler:

• MUI Robotics: Builds Sensory-AI (electronic nose) that digitizes smell to monitor quality and safety across food, agriculture, and healthcare; serves 600+ enterprises in Thailand, profitable since 2023, and now scaling from a new Singapore HQ.

• GoWajee: Delivers Thai-language speech recognition and generative voice tools that upgrade call centers with accurate transcription, analytics, and natural-sounding responses.

• Spacely AI: Enables developers, agents, and designers to generate photoreal property renders and interior visuals in seconds, no 3D skills required.
  
  

We wrapped fast with distilled takeaways, a group photo, and a networking dinner that morphed into a mini deal desk.

Why this event mattered

• Results, not opinions. Conversations focused on lowering costs, speeding delivery, and growing revenue.
  
  

• Execution is a team effort. Product, data, risk, and legal worked in one lane. Good compliance sped things up instead of slowing them down.
  
  

• Defensibility from day one. Strong data advantages and real domain know-how beat trendy models.

Gratitude roll

Big thanks to IITAA Thailand for a flawlessly run evening, to our moderator Gagan Ajmani, speakers Tiwa York, Rashmi Sharma, Rakesh Singh, Kandarp Singh, Nicolas Dumoulin, and to the founders who lit up the spotlight. Shout-outs to the community leaders who made it all click.

What’s next

If you’re ready to turn AI from slideware into shipped value, tap WOWS Global’s resources across finance, cap table, and fundraising, and watch this space for more hands-on sessions with operators who deliver.

See you at the next one. Bring your metrics.

FAQs

How do I know if my AI pilot is ready for production?
Treat it like any product bet. Set a single success KPI, a business owner, and a 90-day runway. Validate data quality, governance, and cost-to-serve. If you can show measurable lift with stable performance and a clear operating owner, promote. If not, narrow scope or stop.

Can startups showcase at future Spotlight sessions?
We feature teams with customer traction, a crisp problem statement, and evidence of ROI or efficiency gains. If you have real users and a path to scale, we want to hear from you. Keep your pitch tight: problem, solution, proof, and what support unlocks the next milestone.

What should leaders prioritize to ramp AI adoption?
Start with a high-impact workflow, not a moonshot. Form a cross-functional pod with product, data, engineering, risk, and legal. Establish data access, guardrails, and monitoring. Train teams on prompt habits and failure modes. Celebrate quick wins, document learnings, and recycle patterns into a shared playbook.