Connect with us

Technology

PwC Singapore welcomes 13 new partners–majority of which work with AI, technology and data

Published

on

SINGAPORE, July 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PwC Singapore is pleased to announce the appointment of 13 new partners, strengthening the firm’s capabilities to help its clients and people move forward with clarity and confidence in an AI-driven world.

With eight of the 13 new partners working with AI, technology and data, these appointments underscore PwC’s continued investment in a future-ready partnership—one that brings together deep sector expertise, human judgement and technology to deliver more connected, insight-led and outcome-driven solutions.

With diverse professional capabilities, the new partners bring deep industry experience across technology, energy, healthcare, banking and capital markets, among others. They will play an important role in helping the firm stay ahead of the AI momentum—combining sound judgment, robust governance, and a strong sense of responsibility in the way AI is leveraged to improve the quality, speed, and depth of how we advise our clients. 

On the new appointments, Marcus Lam, Executive Chairman, PwC Singapore, said:

“This year’s cohort reflects how we are scaling our ability to deliver in the era of AI. Beyond embedding technology and AI across how we think, work and deliver, it is equally important that we stay grounded in what matters most: our people, our relationships and the trust we build through every piece of work. By combining AI with sound judgement and trust, we are helping clients make quality decisions faster.”

“I am proud to welcome our new partners, who will move the needle in shaping how we deliver for our clients as AI and emerging technologies become increasingly embedded into the fabric of how businesses operate.”

The new partners include:

Assurance

Andrew Tan

Andrew focuses on credit and treasury, working with leading local and international banks. His work centres on helping clients navigate complex accounting and regulatory requirements, including emerging asset classes such as digital assets and evolving risk landscapes. Andrew translates technical complexity into practical, workable solutions, enabling clients to respond to change with greater clarity and confidence.

Audrey Tong

Audrey is a trusted financial reporting advisor to clients in the energy and healthcare sectors, with experience across Singapore and international markets. She is often called on for complex and unique engagements, where sound judgement, technical depth, and commercial pragmatism are critical. In addition to supporting multinational clients, Audrey helps Singapore businesses and founder-led businesses strengthen their financial resilience, enhance reporting quality and respond to evolving regulatory requirements. She focuses on simplifying complexity into clear, workable solutions that support confident decision-making.

Dyane Blythe Uy

Dyane specialises in financial services assurance and risk governance with a focus on the insurance and payments sector. With a strong focus on business development, Dyane works closely with clients to navigate complex and evolving business challenges, bringing together the right elements to deliver practical, outcome-focused solutions. She has led regional audits and coordination efforts for regulated, multinational companies with operations across Asia Pacific, ensuring consistent financial reporting and governance across jurisdictions. Dyane is also a subcommittee member of Women in FinTech of the Singapore FinTech Association.

Jack Chew

Jack specialises in assurance and financial reporting, supporting clients across technology, digital infrastructure, energy and automotive sectors. He has deep experience in PCAOB integrated audits, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance, and advising on US IPO readiness, with a strong track record of leading complex, large-scale audit engagements and seamlessly delivering global audits from Singapore for multinationals operating across multiple jurisdictions. A strong advocate for responsible AI in audit, Jack applies AI to enhance quality and insight while continuing to provide practical, business-focused solutions and trusted advice to his clients.

Wei Kit Soo Tho

Wei Kit specialises in assurance services within the asset and wealth management sector, with a focus on private markets, particularly private equity and infrastructure. He also works closely with clients to bring new products to market, supporting the adoption of emerging technologies, including through his recent involvement in the audit of a retail tokenised fund. His broad range of experience across the asset management space enables him to deliver practical insights to his clients while also addressing evolving financial reporting considerations, particularly in today’s constantly evolving digital landscape. 

Deals

Bertrand Truong

Making deals happen, Bertrand advises clients on originating and executing M&A transactions, specialising in private equity deals and with a strong focus on optimising outcomes. He supports clients across the full divestment or acquisition process, balancing pricing negotiation, deal certainty and high-quality execution to deliver tailored, end-to-end support for complex transactions. He has extensive experience in private and listed company transactions, leveraging the capabilities of PwC Deals Advisory and its global network, and using AI to accelerate impact.

Khai Chuan Ng

Khai Chuan specialises in Financial Due Diligence and Valuations, supporting financial services clients and top-tier private equity firms across the full deal cycle, from origination and target evaluation to execution and post-deal value creation. He brings deep sector expertise and has led complex, multi-transaction roll-ups across Southeast Asia. He has also stepped in as interim CFO to help clients with post-deal operations and drive value creation after completion. Khai Chuan is also focused on advancing the firm’s AI agenda, driving the exploration and adoption of emerging tools and agent-led solutions to enhance efficiency and deliver greater value to clients.

Risk Services

Bhagya Perera

Bhagya is deeply experienced in cybersecurity, with expertise in safeguarding critical infrastructure and strengthening resilience across complex digital environments. He works with organisations across sectors to design and secure systems from the ground up, including developing cybersecurity capabilities for state-level entities locally and regionally. As AI reshapes the risk landscape, Bhagya focuses on advancing AI security—helping clients decode emerging risks and build secure, future-ready systems, while strengthening their cybersecurity posture as technologies evolve.

Charmaine Wee

Charmaine specialises in internal audit and risk management, with a strong focus on SOX engagements. She supports companies preparing for or listed in the US market across their IPO journey—strengthening internal controls, identifying gaps and addressing risks early to build robust governance frameworks. Known for her problem-solving approach, Charmaine works closely with clients to navigate complexity and deliver practical solutions. She is part of the AI adoption team across governance, risk and compliance (GRC), leveraging AI to realise time savings while strengthening oversight and enabling better decision-making.

Tax

Benjamin Tan

Benjamin focuses on tax compliance and advisory, particularly Pillar Two, with deep experience working with clients across energy, utilities and resources, transportation and logistics, and technology. As disparate systems and data silos continue to limit connected tax compliance for many organisations, he supports clients in transforming fragmented, manual processes into streamlined, technology-enabled, end-to-end solutions. His wealth of experience includes leading projects operationalising tax and Pillar Two compliance for multi-jurisdictional clients, helping to reduce the overall burden and cost of compliance.

Gary Foo

With a focus on the healthcare and pharmaceuticals sector, Gary specialises in intellectual property (IP) structuring, tax incentives, and Pillar Two tax advisory. Supporting multinational corporations in an increasingly heightened tax environment, he finds meaning in translating regulatory requirements into actionable insights that enable confident business growth while building trusted, long‑term relationships. His current projects include supporting MNCs with operationalising Pillar Two globally across more than 20 jurisdictions with differing and diverse local implementation nuances.

Kingston Ng

Focused on delivering with clarity in dynamic tax environments, Kingston specialises in international taxation, tax accounting and Pillar Two tax advisory. Committed to helping clients cut through fragmented data and evolving regulatory requirements, Kingston’s experience includes cross-border restructuring, high-value inbound intellectual property transactions, regional tax, and grant incentive negotiations and business divestures. Kingston is also part of the firm’s core Pillar Two and tax accounting team, and is advancing the use of AI to distil complex rules, enhance consistency and deliver sharper, more actionable insights.

Yan Ling Lam

Yan Ling is a specialist in tax planning and advisory, supporting multinational corporations and high-growth businesses with complex restructuring, particularly in their internationalisation plans. Working closely with business founders and entrepreneurs, she helps clients establish a strong presence in Singapore while navigating complex regulatory, commercial, and immigration and planning considerations. Known for her well-rounded and practical approach, Yan Ling is a trusted advisor who combines deep technical expertise with a strong commercial perspective.

Read more about our new partners at: https://www.pwc.com/sg/en/about-us/new-partners.html

About PwC

At PwC, we help clients build trust and reinvent so they can turn complexity into competitive advantage. We’re a tech-forward, people-empowered network with more than 364,000 people in 136 countries and 137 territories. Across audit and assurance, tax and legal, deals and consulting, we help clients build, accelerate, and sustain momentum. Find out more at www.pwc.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/pwc-singapore-welcomes-13-new-partnersmajority-of-which-work-with-ai-technology-and-data-302815709.html

SOURCE PwC Singapore

Continue Reading

Technology

Toku launches Makimoto Flows, a visual builder for speech AI pipelines, taking its open-source initiative beyond transcription

Published

on

By

Developers can chain transcription, summarisation and call tagging on one canvas, test each step and export the pipeline as code, with every step processed in Singapore

SINGAPORE, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Toku Ltd. (SGX: TKU), a Singapore-headquartered AI-powered customer experience (CX) platform, has launched Makimoto Flows (“Flows”), a visual builder within its open-source conversational AI initiative where developers assemble speech AI pipelines block by block and test each stage on a recorded call. Flows is now live at makimoto.ai.

On the Flows canvas, developers connect blocks to build a speech AI pipeline and test each step individually. The Transcribe block converts audio into text using Kawa, the Summarise block generates a topic and short summary from the transcript, and the Tags block classifies each call across seven categories, including customer sentiment. Developers can see how audio moves from transcription to analysis, and control how each stage connects and runs. Every block runs in Singapore, so audio, transcripts and the resulting analysis stay in-country.

The Chained Analysis starter template puts these blocks together in one click, and developers can adjust any block and rerun it to compare results. Each block maps to a Makimoto API endpoint, and any flow can be exported as ready-to-run Python code, so developers can take the same capabilities into their own code for applications such as call recaps and call triage.

“Developers should have control over how their voice AI works, from the models they use to the way each stage connects. That is the principle behind Makimoto. Flows puts the orchestration layer in front of them: they can build a pipeline, run a recorded call through it and see what each step produces before anything reaches their customers. Models will keep changing. The ability to compose them, and to know where they run, is what lasts,” said Thomas Laboulle, Founder and CEO at Toku.

Flows builds on the composable architecture Toku set out when it introduced Makimoto in April 2026, and takes the initiative beyond transcription. Kawa, released on schedule on 1 July 2026, established the transcription layer through a Singapore-hosted API; summarisation and tagging endpoints followed in September; Flows now lets developers compose them visually. Next, Makimoto plans to add audio preparation blocks, starting with noise filtering, giving developers more control over how recordings are processed before transcription.

By pairing open-source development with enterprise-grade deployment, Makimoto complements Toku’s existing customer experience platform and supports long-term innovation opportunities across the Group’s AI roadmap.

Developers can create a free account at makimoto.ai, open the Chained Analysis template and run a sample recording, or one of their own call recordings, through it; each account includes 1,000 free minutes. Feedback reaches the Makimoto team directly from the portal.

About Toku

Headquartered in Singapore, Toku Ltd. (SGX Catalist: TKU) is a cloud-native, AI-powered customer experience platform purpose-built for enterprises operating in complex, multi-market environments. With deep roots in the APAC region and an expanding global footprint, Toku’s modular 360° CX Platform orchestrates customer interactions across voice, chat, email and digital channels while managing regulatory, linguistic and infrastructure complexity at scale.

Built on end-to-end ownership of its technology stack, from carrier-grade connectivity to AI applications, Toku delivers enterprise-grade security, reliability and deployment flexibility in commercial cloud, private data centres and hybrid environments. Its AI capabilities include transcription, summarisation, sentiment analysis, conversation analytics and governed virtual agents, designed to integrate seamlessly with enterprise systems and customer data.

Trusted by leading enterprises and public-sector organisations, Toku helps organisations streamline operations, scale customer engagement and deliver consistent experiences in fragmented markets worldwide.

For more information about Toku, visit toku.co.

About Makimoto

Makimoto is Toku’s open-source initiative, operated through Makimoto Technology Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Toku Group, dedicated to building composable conversational AI infrastructure for Asia-Pacific. Its releases include Makimoto Kawa, a Singapore-hosted transcription API; summarisation and tagging endpoints; and Makimoto Flows, a visual builder for composing speech AI pipelines. For more information about Makimoto, visit makimoto.ai.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Toku’s expansion plans, business strategy and planned product releases. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Toku undertakes no obligation to update these statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Sponsor’s Statement

Toku Ltd. (the “Company”) was listed on Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the “Exchange”) on 22 January 2026. The initial public offering of the Company was sponsored by PrimePartners Corporate Finance Pte. Ltd. (the “Sponsor”). This press release has been reviewed by the Sponsor. It has not been examined or approved by the Exchange and the Exchange assumes no responsibility for the contents of this press release, including the correctness of any of the statements or opinions made or reports contained in this press release. The contact person for the Sponsor is Ms. Ng Shi Qing, 16 Collyer Quay, #10-00 Collyer Quay Centre, Singapore 049318, sponsorship@ppcf.com.sg.

Investor Relations Contact:
investor.relations@toku.co

Developers and Partners:
contact@makimoto.ai  

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/toku-launches-makimoto-flows-a-visual-builder-for-speech-ai-pipelines-taking-its-open-source-initiative-beyond-transcription-302914906.html

SOURCE Toku Ltd.

Continue Reading

Technology

Conscious Spark LLC Launches Alphimiya® Neuro-Recalibration Framework Designed to Resolve C-Suite Revenue Plateaus

Published

on

By

New research-backed neuro-recalibration framework targets the autonomic nervous system’s threat response to managing high financial amounts, offering enterprise leaders a biological pathway to scaling.

ANTALYA, Turkey and ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Conscious Spark LLC, a research and advisory firm specializing in applied neuroscience for executive leadership, today announced the official launch of Alphimiya®, a proprietary C-suite neuro-recalibration framework designed to resolve corporate revenue plateaus by upgrading the biological capacity of enterprise decision-makers.

Developed to address the root causes of stalled enterprise growth, the Alphimiya® framework targets the human autonomic nervous system’s subconscious threat response to managing high financial amounts. When commercial leaders and CEOs attempt to scale past historical capital thresholds without recalibrating their stress response, the body’s natural survival mechanism triggers decision fatigue, strategic risk aversion, and systemic self-sabotage. Alphimiya® recalibrates this biological safety brake, enabling executive teams to hold, absorb, and scale larger financial volumes without physiological or operational friction.

“A corporate revenue plateau is rarely an operational or marketing failure; it is a biological safety brake embedded within executive leadership,” stated Dr. Ahmed Al-Nashi, Founder of Conscious Spark LLC. “When managing high financial amounts triggers an underlying physical stress response, the enterprise subconsciously contracts to remain in its perceived safe zone. Alphimiya® removes that biological friction, allowing C-level leaders to multiply revenue with calm, biological authority.”

The Alphimiya® framework restructures executive performance across three core operational pillars:

Sovereign Enterprise Scaling: Expands the nervous system’s tolerance for high-stakes capital, allowing leadership teams to scale revenue without experiencing executive burnout.

High-Value Deal Execution: Regulates autonomic stress responses during multi-million-dollar negotiations and volatile market entries, eliminating hesitation under pressure.

Restored Strategic Clarity: Removes chronic decision fatigue across C-suite teams, restoring mental focus and strategic presence inside and outside the boardroom.

By recalibrating the autonomic nervous system’s response to high capital exposure, Alphimiya® removes the subconscious biological brakes that lock corporate revenue at a standstill. Senior C-level executives and enterprise leadership teams seeking to evaluate their organization’s biological capacity can access the official executive briefing, case studies, and framework assessment directly at https://alphimiya.co/.

About Conscious Spark LLC

Conscious Spark LLC is a U.S.-registered firm specializing in executive education, training, and strategic performance consulting. Pioneering applied neuroscience for C-level leaders, founders, and commercial decision-makers, the firm utilizes its proprietary Alphimiya® methodology to enable leadership teams to recalibrate biological stress responses, resolve revenue ceilings, and build scalable corporations.

Media Relations Team
Conscious Spark LLC
Email: hello@consciousspark.online 
Website: https://alphimiya.co/

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/conscious-spark-llc-launches-alphimiya-neuro-recalibration-framework-designed-to-resolve-c-suite-revenue-plateaus-302901454.html

SOURCE Conscious Spark LLC

Continue Reading

Technology

Daffodil Software Brings Multilingual Conversational AI to Aadhaar’s Udai Mascot

Published

on

By

GURUGRAM, India, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Daffodil Software showcased an AI-powered conversational experience featuring UIDAI’s Udai mascot at Aadhaar Samvaad 2026. Developed by Daffodil Software, the assistant is designed to help users access Aadhaar-related information through natural conversation, using official UIDAI as its reference knowledge base.

Daffodil Software has developed Udai, an AI-powered virtual mascot that helps users get clear, reliable answers about Aadhaar simply by talking to it. The assistant was showcased at Aadhaar Samvaad 2026, held in Kolkata on 29 September, coinciding with the 17th Aadhaar Day, where visitors watched it listen, respond, and gesture in real time in their own language.

For most people, questions about Aadhaar come up in daily life, and they usually need answers fast. Which documents do I need for an address change? How much does an update cost? How do I link Aadhaar to my bank account or mobile number? The answers exist, but finding them usually means working through long help pages and documents.

 Udai is designed to answer exactly these questions in a natural conversation, without anyone having to search through long help pages.

A conversation in the user’s own language

Udai speaks and understands 11 languages: Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, and English. A user simply asks a question. Udai listens, works out the answer, and replies in the same language, with natural speech, matching lip movements and expressive hand gestures.

What sets Udai apart is how it is built. AI avatars rely on expensive, specialised graphics hardware to bring a face to life. Udai takes a simpler route. The character is created from pre-filmed footage, and its lip movements are matched to its speech in real time using lightweight processing that runs in a web browser.

The result is a smooth experience at 24 frames per second on ordinary servers, at a fraction of the usual cost per user. For a programme that serves hundreds of millions of people, that efficiency is what turns a nationwide rollout from an ambition into a practical plan.

“Our focus with Udai was to make Aadhaar-related information easier to access through natural conversation. Combining multilingual voice interaction with official reference content allowed our team to build an experience that is practical, approachable, and useful to users,” said Yogesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Daffodil Software.

Answers drawn only from official sources

The assistant uses official UIDAI material as its reference knowledge base: frequently asked questions, provisions of the Aadhaar Act, and government policy documents on Aadhaar services. It covers the topics users ask about most:

Enrolment and registrationAddress and demographic updatesFees, required documents and eligibilityeKYC and Virtual IDLinking Aadhaar with bank accounts, PAN and mobile numbersmAadhaar servicesGrievance redressal

Users don’t need to phrase their questions in any particular way. Udai understands everyday language, whether a question is spoken in English, Hindi, or asked in a mix of both, and finds the most relevant official information to answer it.

Built to be accurate, respectful, and secure

When a public service speaks directly to users, trust matters as much as convenience. Udai is protected by three layers of safeguards.

Accuracy first. Udai answers only from its verified knowledge base. Responses are grounded in a curated knowledge base of official UIDAI material. If a question falls outside Aadhaar, it guides the user back rather than offering an answer it cannot stand behind.

Respectful conversations. A screening layer catches abusive or offensive language in English, Hindi, and Hinglish before it reaches the assistant. Screening is designed to identify abusive language while supporting legitimate queries

Protection against misuse. Udai cannot be talked into abandoning its role, pretending to be someone else, revealing its internal setup, or answering beyond its approved scope. These checks work almost instantly, so users experience no delay.

What comes next?

Udai is planned to roll out in two phases.

In the first phase, the mascot will be placed in Aadhaar Centres. Visitors will be able to check information and understand processes on their own, such as which documents they need for an address change. This frees centre staff to focus on their core work instead of answering the same questions again and again.

In the second phase, Udai will come to the Aadhaar website and mobile app, taking the place of the current text-based chatbot, which was also built by Daffodil.

About Daffodil Software

Daffodil Software is a software engineering and AI solutions company serving businesses across industries. Its services span software consulting, product engineering, UI/UX design, AI/ML development, quality assurance, cloud and DevOps, and maintenance. The company serves sectors including healthcare, fintech, banking, technology, and digital commerce. Its client portfolio includes organizations such as the Reserve Bank of India, Mount Sinai Hospital, Maruti, Samsung, Pramerica Insurance, and Dangote Group. Daffodil Software has also been featured in industry research and recognition by Gartner, Everest Group, Zinnov, and Frost & Sullivan. For more information, visit https://www.daffodilsw.com

Media contact

Kunwar Pal Singh
media-relations@daffodilsw.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/daffodil-software-brings-multilingual-conversational-ai-to-aadhaars-udai-mascot-302914965.html

Continue Reading

Trending