IDC & Affinidi Roundtable
From Pilot to Scale
Who Vouches for Your AI Agents?
In Partnership with
IDC research shows that only 15.6% of Asia/Pacific enterprises have a unified AI governance model. Without one, agents cannot be inventoried, permissioned or scaled with confidence.
Looking further ahead, as agents begin to act across organisational boundaries, the question sharpens: what would you need a partner’s agent to prove before you let it act on your systems?
Join IDC and Affinidi for a closed-door executive roundtable that follows the agentic adoption journey: building confidence in your own AI agents, governing them at scale and, looking ahead, what it takes to trust someone else’s.
71%
of Asia/Pacific organisations are considering greater agent autonomy over the next 18 months, with governance consolidating through IT, centres of excellence, and cross-functional committees.
Key Discussion Points
Building confidence before you scale
What guardrails, testing, observability and cost controls do you need in place to see what your agents are doing and what they cost before expanding their use?
Governing agents at scale
How do you maintain an accurate inventory of every agent acting on your behalf, define what each is permitted to do, and assign a named human who is accountable for it?
Singapore versus Asia/Pacific peers
How do Singapore’s technology leaders compare with regional peers on unified AI governance, agent ownership and identity-first controls, and what can they learn from each other?
The art of the possible
What must a partner’s or supplier’s agent demonstrate before it is trusted to act on your systems, and what are early cross-organisation pilots already showing?
The standards to watch
What do MCP, A2A and W3C Verifiable Credentials mean for how agent identity is built, verified and governed as agents begin to work across organisations?
Speakers
Michael Yeo
Associate Research Director, Financial Insights
Asia/Pacific IDC
Read bio
Michael Yeo
Michael Yeo is the Associate Research Director for IDC Financial Insights and Retail Insights in the Asia/Pacific region. Mr. Yeo’s core research coverage focuses on payments including the uptake of mobile payments in the Asia/Pacific region, digital banking, and the evolution of joint digital ecosystems involving ecommerce, mcommerce, and payments. Mr. Yeo has also significant experience in advising financial institutions on their fintech management strategies, placing particular emphasis on organizational and technology restructuring within banks to better cope with the demands of current-generation digital customers.
Prior to IDC, Mr. Yeo headed all financial services–related research at KPMG Malaysia. Previously, he served as a project manager at an advisory firm in China, where he advised multiple international clients with their China market entry strategies. Mr. Yeo started his career in an advisory role for financial services at Ernst and Young.
Credentials:
- B.A Accounting and Economics from the University of Reading, United Kingdom
- Frequent speaker in the region on mobile payments and digital ecosystems. Contributor to major global and regional media outlets including CNBC, South China Morning Post, Straits Times, and Global Finance
Brian Kim
VP of Strategy & Growth
Affinidi
Read bio
Brian Kim
Brian Kim is VP of Strategy & Growth at Affinidi, where he focuses on how trust, identity and governance can enable the next generation of AI-powered experiences. He works closely with enterprises, technology partners and developers to explore practical applications of agentic AI and the infrastructure needed for AI agents to interact securely across systems and organisations. Before Affinidi, he launched GrabDefence, Grab’s first B2B SaaS business, and scaled it to US$4 million in annual recurring revenue within two years. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA in Statistics and Economics from the University of Chicago.
Contact: Brian.k@affinidi.com / +65 90067836
Agenda
IDC & Affinidi Roundtable
Thu, Nov 12
Registration, Tea/Coffee & Networking
Welcome Address by IDC
Michael Yeo
Associate Research Director, Financial Insights, Asia/Pacific IDC
IDC Keynote: From Pilot to Scale: Governing the Agentic Enterprise
Asia/Pacific enterprises are moving quickly from experimentation to execution on agentic AI, with 62% of business processes now having agentic initiatives underway and 71% of organisations considering greater agent autonomy within 18 months. Yet only 15.6% have a unified AI governance model. This keynote examines where Asia/Pacific enterprises stand today, how Singapore’s technology leaders compare with regional peers, and why governance, ownership and accountability must keep pace with autonomy.
Michael Yeo
Associate Research Director, Financial Insights, Asia/Pacific IDC
Who Vouches for Your AI Agents? Identity-First Trust for the Agentic Enterprise
As agents move from pilot to production, the question shifts from “can we trust what they produce?” to “who authorised this agent, what is it permitted to do, and which human is accountable?” This session explores how identity-first controls give organisations an accurate inventory of the agents acting on their behalf, with clear permissions and a named human owner for each. It also looks ahead to cross-organisation scenarios, including what a partner’s or supplier’s agent must prove before it is trusted to act on your systems, and what MCP, A2A and W3C Verifiable Credentials mean for how agent identity is built, verified and governed.
Brian Kim
VP of Strategy & Growth, Affinidi
Open Discussion: Building Confidence, Governing at Scale, and Trusting Beyond Your Walls
Michael Yeo
Associate Research Director, Financial Insights, Asia/Pacific IDC
Brian Kim
VP of Strategy & Growth, Affinidi
Summary & Close
Networking
In Partnership With
Affinidi
Affinidi, a Temasek-founded technology company headquartered in Singapore, builds the trust infrastructure the agentic economy runs on. It lets enterprises scale AI agents with confidence through one control layer to identify, govern, and audit every agent interaction, within their walls and beyond, on open standards to avoid vendor lock-in.
Venue
