Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?

I have been part of the Data, Insights & Analytics industry for over 20 years, working across various industry segments and driving client engagement through a range of roles, including operations, service delivery, solution building, pre-sales, and sales. All of the engagements have provided strategic insights across the end-to-end value chain of services in each of the sectors I have worked on, spanning from lead generation and opportunity identification to cash operations & management.

Q2. How do you see the size of the data analytics market evolving across Asia in the next 3–5 years, and which industries are driving the most growth?

The Data Analytics market in Asia is less evolved than the Western markets; the discussion primarily centers around cloud migration, adopting a poly-cloud approach, and exploring analytics use cases focused on predictive analytics. In my view, the market should grow at a CAGR of 20-25% for the next 5-7 years. Companies are shifting their focus to prescriptive analytics and the exploration of Gen-AI use cases. South Korea, Japan, China, and the Middle East will lead the charge in this growth story.

Q3. What key opportunities are shaping the analytics services market in Asia—are they more led by cost optimization, customer experience, or digital transformation initiatives?

Most opportunities arising out of the Asia market are in the space of Customer Experience and Digital Transformation. These can further be clubbed into three distinct broad Areas of services:
1.    Business Intelligence & Real-time Insights
2.    Customer Analytics with focus on Journey Mapping, Big Data Analytics, Analytics Consulting Services, and Prescriptive & Descriptive Analytics
3.    Data Management, Governance, and Data Quality
If you are looking at industry-specific solutions (highlighting solutions that can be common across)
1.    Customer Insights
2.    Marketing Analytics
3.    Fraud & Risk Management
4.    CLTV (Customer Life Time Value)
5.    Insights & KPIs

Q4. Where in the Asian market do you see the most underpenetrated opportunities for analytics adoption, and what data points or client behaviors suggest those opportunities are ripening now?

South East Asia, barring Singapore, has not seen the adoption of Data and AI services in tune with the adoption we see across the globe, of which enterprises in countries like Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia have started to realize the importance and are working towards assessing and understanding the need for Data & AI services. 
In terms of industries, SMEs/Local manufacturing, Logistics & Government sector are lagging as compared to others (BFS, Retail, etc.)
There has been a significant amount of engagement and conversations happening in BFSI, Retail, Healthcare & Government sectors in the recent past. The focus of these conversations is around data foundation & modernization, quality, industry-specific AI use cases, as well as real-time insights.

Q5. How have you seen criteria like data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, or AI ethics begin to influence purchasing decisions across the region?

Absolutely, though the adoption of AI & Analytics is not as aggressive compared to their western peers, enterprises that have started or are already on the path towards being Data & AI native are working with purpose to have compliance, sovereignty & AI ethics as the bedrock of their strategy towards being Digital Native enterprises. It is a mandate to ensure sensitive data is stored, processed, and managed within the country and jurisdictions. Additionally, many countries already have laws towards local data residency, which they see as a means to ensure national security, protect citizens' personal data, and also enable local digital innovation.

Q6. Who are the providers that clients most often benchmark against, and what makes them stand out in delivery or pricing?

Across Asia, general preference is given to local vendors and organizations, which does not necessarily mean the global SIs are not present or do not compete. Benchmarking is done keeping due consideration of scale and capability that Global SIs bring vis-à-vis local expertise, nuances of culture, and understanding of the domestic market that the local SIs bring to the table. While working towards finalizing a service provider, clients are looking at ‘Value for Money’, Cost of POC/Pilot, TAT & ability to scale. Decisions are also based on references and past examples of successful delivery and handover.

Q7. If you were an investor looking at companies within the space, what critical question would you pose to their senior management?

Top 5 things I will look for in a potential target are:
1.    Value Proposition – How clear, direct, and market-facing is it
2.    Differentiation – Most of the providers are building GTM solutions and are not being mere service providers; it is important to look at the inventory and pipeline of solutions & offerings.
3.    Customer Stickiness – Number of customers who have moved to an annuity model and have been associated with the company for >1 year
4.    Strategic Partnership & Alliance – In today’s dynamic environment in which the industry is operating, it is essential for survival and growth. The key thing will be to evaluate solutions that are built and can be easily integrated with the existing products.
5.    Talent – Who are the people running the company (including Technical leadership), their vision, as well as the people who are working in the trenches
A few other critical items to look at will be what the exit run rate growth has been over the years, customers that are likely to discontinue services, employee attrition (especially high-value/critical talent), and how well diversified the company is, both from a geographic standpoint and an industry segment standpoint.