Singapore will welcome AI leaders, technology innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers and business decision-makers for the AINext Awards & Conference Singapore 2026 on 3 November 2026 at the Ballroom of Crowne Plaza (Changi Airport), 75 T1 Boulevard, Changi, Singapore.

The in-person conference will run from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM (GMT+8). According to the official event portal, it will bring together professionals working across Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Innovation and emerging technologies through keynote sessions, panel discussions, networking opportunities and industry awards recognizing individuals and organizations contributing to AI and digital transformation. With 26 speakers across a one-day programme of 13 sessions, the agenda is sequenced to move from enterprise strategy questions in the morning to workforce, governance and autonomous-agent debates in the afternoon, before the Awards Ceremony closes the event.

A message from the CEO

“AINext Singapore 2026 is about bringing the region’s AI conversation back down to earth — away from hype and toward the decisions leaders are actually making right now. This year’s programme reflects that shift: creative industries, sustainability, construction, workforce development, governance and autonomous agents are no longer separate conversations, they are all part of the same question every organization is asking — how do we put AI to work responsibly and at scale? We’re bringing together 26 speakers from across enterprise technology, financial services, robotics and emerging tech to help answer that question, and I’m looking forward to welcoming everyone to Singapore on 3 November.”

— Anas Jawed, CEO, Next Business Media

Conference programme

The AINext Singapore programme will cover generative AI and creative industries, sustainability, enterprise transformation, construction, AI investment, workforce development, governance and autonomous AI agents. The agenda includes 13 sessions, opening remarks, keynotes, expert panels, networking and the AINext Awards Ceremony. The roster also shows how far these debates now reach beyond the technology sector itself: speakers bring backgrounds spanning maritime — where Nexus Ocean AI founder Shail Barthwal is building agentic AI for an industry that carries around 90% of world trade — health analytics at Singapore’s Ministry of Health, transaction and retail banking, and advisory roles inside Indonesia’s government.

3 November 2026

8:00 AM – Opening remarks

Conference Chair Anas Jawed, CEO of Next Business Media, will open the conference with remarks focused on the practical opportunities and challenges surrounding artificial intelligence and digital transformation.

9:00 AM – Keynote: Leading in the Age of AI: What Neuroscience Reveals About Leadership Under Pressure

Parul Sharma — Director and CEO, Rewired by Parul

9:30 AM – Panel: Generative AI: Revolutionizing Creative Industries

Serena Lam, CEO and Founder of Fuzzy AI, will participate in a discussion examining generative AI’s growing influence on creative industries and the changing relationship between technology, communications, content and creative work.

10:10 AM – Panel: AI-Driven Sustainability for Net Zero Goals

The session will explore the role of artificial intelligence in supporting sustainability strategies and progress toward net-zero objectives.

10:40 AM – Coffee break and networking

11:30 AM – Panel: The Future of AI in Business Transformation

Participants will include Vignesh Ganesan of Meta; Samah Alafeef of Metanoia Training and Consulting; Kelvin Tan of audax; Elena Lukyanenko of Cisco ThousandEyes; Loh Rui of Affinity AI Pte Ltd; and Maggie Kam, Chief Operating Officer of Spaceship. The panel will focus on how AI is changing enterprise strategy, operations and business models.

12:50 PM – Panel: Creating Measurable ROI from AI Investments

The session will address the challenge of turning AI investments into measurable business value and outcomes. Speakers include Sheena Nasim, Principal AI Architect and Field CTO APJ at Snowflake, and Dr Alexandra Posoldova, Founder of Sigma Services.

1:30 PM – Lunch

2:30 PM – Panel: AI and the Future of Work: Upskilling Billions

Participants will include Goh Waye Leon of Affinity AI Pte Ltd; Tabia Rene of Kaika AI; Marcus Woo, Director of Sales & Marketing for Hong Kong and Greater China at Queue Associates APAC; Shail Barthwal, CEO and Founder of Nexus Ocean AI; Sutowo Wong, Managing Director of AI x Data at Temus; and Yong Jie Wong, Co-Founder of Glints. The panel will examine how AI is changing the workplace and the importance of workforce development and upskilling.

3:10 PM – Panel: AI Governance: Building Trust, Ethics & Responsible Innovation

Lance M, Founder of Bitstric; Trevor Manokore, Chief Operating Officer of NiuPay; and Achmad Adhitya, Ph.D., Special Advisor to the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia at the Ministry of State Secretariat, will discuss governance, trust, ethics and responsible innovation as organizations increasingly deploy AI.

4:30 PM – Panel: AI Agents at Work: Will Autonomous AI Transform the Future of Enterprise Operations?

The panel will feature Lianne Dehaye of Chemin AI; Cheok Jia Wei of Streamhost; Pranab Pillai Founder and CEO of Neuratrial-AI Pte Ltd; Mukund S., Co-founder and CEO of Sparsa AI; Guy Ron, Founder and CEO of Cynapse and cynapse.ai; and Camelia Wang, Founder and AI Product Builder at OptivizeAI. The discussion will explore the growing role of AI agents and their potential impact on enterprise operations.

4:30 PM – Coffee break and networking

5:00 PM – AINext Awards Ceremony

The day will conclude with awards recognizing individuals and organizations contributing to AI innovation and digital transformation.

Featured speakers

The Singapore edition currently features 26 speakers representing AI, enterprise technology, financial technology, digital transformation, robotics, communications, data and emerging technology.

Pranab Pillai — Founder and CEO, Neuratrial-AI Pte Ltd

Pranab Pillai leads Neuratrial-AI Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based technology company developing AI-enabled orchestration solutions for complex and regulated enterprise workflows. He has more than 25 years of experience in global drug development and clinical research across Asia-Pacific, the United States and Europe. His current work focuses on AI, automation and governed decision-support systems while maintaining human oversight and enterprise governance.

Sheena Nasim — Principal AI Architect, Field CTO APJ, Snowflake

Sheena Nasim is an AI Field CTO for Asia Pacific & Japan at Snowflake, where she works with enterprises to design and deploy production-grade AI solutions. Her experience includes computer vision, deep learning, robotics and generative AI. She previously worked in AI and robotics research at Sumitomo Electric Industries, served as a Computer Vision SME at Accenture AI and later worked at Dataiku. Her current focus includes agentic AI and large-scale ML architecture.

Kelvin Tan — Chief Executive Officer, audax

Kelvin Tan is CEO of audax, a corporate venture backed by Standard Chartered Bank that focuses on helping financial institutions deploy and scale digital banking solutions. He previously conceptualized and led Standard Chartered nexus, the bank’s Banking-as-a-Service business, and has held positions covering transaction banking, retail products, payments and strategic programmes. He has worked across Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand and has been featured by international publications including BBC and Forbes.

Vignesh Ganesan — Application Leader, Enterprise Applications, Platform & Enterprise AI, Meta

Vignesh Ganesan is an Enterprise Technology Strategist specializing in Enterprise AI, cloud transformation and digital workplace modernization. He has more than 16 years of experience across technology, consulting, manufacturing, life sciences, engineering and social media, and currently leads enterprise transformation initiatives at Meta. He is also a six-time Microsoft MVP, international speaker and holder of more than 30 professional certifications.

Samah Alafeef — Program, Project and Risk Management Consultant and Trainer, Metanoia Training and Consulting

Samah Alafeef is a program, project and risk management consultant and trainer associated with Metanoia Training and Consulting. Her background includes project management, risk management and technology consulting. Her qualifications include PMP, RMP, ACP and GreenICT credentials, and her work also covers sustainability and ICT-related initiatives.

Guy Ron — Founder and CEO, Cynapse

Guy Ron is Founder and CEO of Cynapse.ai and a business and technology leader with senior executive experience at startups and Fortune 100 companies. His background includes building businesses from inception through multi-million-dollar operations. He also serves as a board director and technology adviser to AI startups.

Elena Lukyanenko — Head of Sales, APJC, Cisco ThousandEyes

Elena Lukyanenko is a senior technology executive focused on cloud and AI strategy across Asia Pacific & Japan. She leads sales for Cisco ThousandEyes across APJC, Greater China and Japan. Her career spans more than two decades and includes experience with Microsoft, Broadcom and VMware. She is also the founder of The Graceful Edge, a publication focused on leadership, human performance and sustainable high performance in the AI era.

Tabia Rene — Founder and CEO, Kaika AI

Tabia Rene is Founder and CEO of Kaika AI, a Tokyo-based workforce alignment intelligence company. His work focuses on using AI to understand workforce engagement and organizational alignment. Inspired by the concept of Ikigai, he founded Kaika AI to help organizations develop deeper intelligence around their people and support stronger leadership, engagement and sustainable growth.

Cheok Jia Wei — Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Streamhost

Cheok Jia Wei is Co-Founder and CTO of StreamHost, an AI-powered customer communication and operations platform for short-term rental hosts. He leads product architecture, AI integration, infrastructure and engineering execution. His technical background includes full-stack development, scalable SaaS architecture, AI automation and distributed systems.

Goh Waye Leon — Co-founder and Brand Architect, Affinity AI

Goh Waye Leon is Co-Founder and Brand Architect at Affinity AI Pte. Ltd., where he focuses on brand direction, market storytelling, user growth and ecosystem positioning. His background spans digital marketing, Web3 growth and community-driven branding. He has also worked on business growth and digital transformation initiatives, including brand and go-to-market strategy.

Loh Rui — Co-founder and Head of Business Operations, Affinity AI Pte Ltd

Loh Rui is an entrepreneur, business operator and investor with experience in AI trading, digital assets, business development and multi-company operations. At Affinity AI, he focuses on business strategy, operational planning, client growth, partnerships and market expansion. His work centers on AI-powered trading automation and the development of digital finance solutions.

Sutowo Wong — Managing Director, AI x Data, Temus

Sutowo Wong leads the AI x Data practice at Temus, helping organizations apply AI, data and automation to create human-centered digital solutions and measurable business outcomes. He has more than 20 years of experience across consulting and healthcare. Before joining Temus, he served as Divisional Director of Health Analytics at Singapore’s Ministry of Health, where he led teams applying AI, machine learning and analytics to policy and operations.

Anas Jawed — CEO, Next Business Media

Anas Jawed is CEO and founder of Next Business Media Private Limited and serves as Conference Chair for AINext Singapore 2026. His work spans business events, technology and digital solutions, with Next Business Media bringing together industry leaders through conferences and related platforms.

Dr Alexandra Posoldova — Founder, Sigma Services

Dr Alexandra Posoldova is an AI and data science expert with a PhD in Data Science and more than nine years of experience in AI consultancy. She helps organizations transform business challenges into practical, production-ready AI solutions.

Lianne Dehaye — Senior Vice President, Chemin AI

Lianne Dehaye is Senior Vice President at Chemin AI by TDCX. Chemin focuses on AI training data, including data collection, annotation, dataset curation, model evaluation and AI operations. Dehaye has experience across AI, digital transformation and technology leadership, including previous roles at Meta, Google and IBM.

Mukund Srigopal — Co-founder and CEO, Sparsa AI

Mukund Srigopal is Co-founder and CEO of Sparsa AI, a Singapore-based enterprise AI company developing a governed, agentic operating system for industrial enterprises. He has more than 25 years of cross-functional technology experience and previously served as Co-founder and CEO of Xensai, CMO at Tambora Systems and in leadership roles at Automation Anywhere.

Serena Lam — CEO and Founder, Fuzzy AI

Serena Lam is Founder of Fuzzy AI, a relationship-first sales platform designed to help B2B teams build warmer conversations and pipeline while maintaining a human connection. Her work focuses on applying AI to sales engagement and helping teams reduce repetitive outreach.

Yong Jie Wong — Co-Founder, Glints

Yong Jie Wong co-founded Glints and helped build it into a talent platform serving more than 15 million people. He now leads AI implementation, helping businesses deploy AI agents to improve operations and productivity.

Parul Sharma — Director and CEO, Rewired by Parul

Parul Sharma is a leadership and talent expert with 20 years of global experience and a certified neuroscience coach. She specializes in leadership under pressure, organizational transformation and AI-powered leadership development.

Trevor Manokore — Chief Operating Officer, NiuPay

Trevor Manokore leads operations, systems and digital transformation at NiuPay and brings more than five years of experience at Amazon Web Services. He focuses on cloud and AI strategy, delivering secure digital platforms and modernizing public services across Papua New Guinea and the Pacific.

Maggie Kam — Chief Operating Officer, Spaceship

Maggie Kam is Chief Operating Officer at Spaceship, where she oversees business operations.

Achmad Adhitya, Ph.D. — Special Advisor to the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Ministry of State Secretariat

Achmad Adhitya focuses on education, research and innovation, advancing AI, robotics and digital literacy through government-industry partnerships and initiatives that expand scholarship and internship opportunities.

Lance M. — Founder, Bitstric

Lance is an AI engineering leader and founder with a decade of experience designing high-performance systems and managing enterprise IT risk compliance. He heads Bitstric, architecting a Sovereignty-First Agentic AI Trust Framework designed to align agentic AI capabilities with corporate governance, operational trust and legal compliance standards. He previously directed APAC IT risk compliance operations and risk analytics data pipelines for a major EU investment bank. His background also spans enterprise risk management, cloud-native backend architecture and real-time robotics infrastructure.

Marcus Woo — Director of Sales & Marketing, Hong Kong & Greater China, Queue Associates APAC

Marcus Woo is Director of Sales & Marketing for Hong Kong and Greater China at Queue Associates APAC.

Mia Bowyer — Chief Executive Officer, Automate Social

Mia Bowyer is an international AI trainer and keynote speaker whose work has taken her across Dubai, Australia and Asia. She founded Automate Social to help businesses build AI operating systems that remove administrative work that can prevent teams from performing at their best. She is known for making AI practical, easy to understand and useful from the outset.

Camelia Wang — Founder and AI Product Builder, OptivizeAI

Camelia Wang is Founder and AI Product Builder at OptivizeAI.

Shail Barthwal — CEO and Founder, Nexus Ocean AI

Shail Barthwal is a Master Mariner turned maritime corporate leader who held strategy, commercial and innovation portfolios at Maersk, Teekay and Wilhelmsen. He later spent a decade in technology commercial leadership and strategy consulting with Bain & Company. He now leads Nexus Ocean AI, building agentic AI personas for the industry that carries around 90% of world trade. His work focuses on preserving expert knowledge as experienced professionals retire and helping businesses adopt AI without losing that expertise.

Connecting AI innovation with business impact

The Singapore programme focuses on the practical implications of AI across business and society. Rather than concentrating on AI technology alone, the agenda examines how organizations can use AI to transform creative industries, support sustainability goals, modernize businesses, improve construction, generate measurable investment returns, prepare workforces for an AI-enabled economy, establish responsible governance and deploy autonomous AI agents.

The speaker lineup includes enterprise technology leaders from Meta, Snowflake, Cisco, Standard Chartered-backed audax, Temus, TDCX/Chemin AI, Neuratrial-AI, Cynapse, Kaika AI, Streamhost, Affinity AI, Eight Vectors, Sparsa AI, Fuzzy AI, Guard0, Spaceship, Bitstric, Queue Associates APAC, Automate Social, OptivizeAI and Nexus Ocean AI, alongside specialists in communications, project management and AI governance.

Networking, awards and industry engagement

In addition to conference sessions, AINext Singapore will provide networking opportunities through dedicated breaks, an attendee directory, a forum, one-to-one chat and networking connections available through paid passes.

The event portal also provides opportunities to speak, exhibit, sponsor, become a media partner, join as a thought leader or committee member, and nominate an individual or organization for the AINext Awards. The conference will conclude with the AINext Awards Ceremony, recognizing individuals and organizations driving innovation in artificial intelligence and digital transformation. Award nominations remain available through the event portal ahead of the date.

Event details

Event:INext Awards & Conference Singapore 2026

Date: 3 November 2026

Time: 9:00 AM–7:00 PM (GMT+8)

Venue: Ballroom, Crowne Plaza (Changi Airport)

Address: 75 T1 Boulevard, Changi, East Region, Singapore 819664

AINext Awards & Conference Singapore 2026 will take place on 3 November 2026 at Crowne Plaza (Changi Airport), Singapore. The official event portal is

Disclaimer: This article is promotional and was not written or reviewed by the coinwy.com editorial team.