Jimmy Go is a man from the future. When you have oversight over the distribution of more than 100 IT brands from Apple to Zoom, there’s a foresight you develop across several decades in the tech space.
We are at Shangri-La Boracay for the VST ECS CXO Summit, a yearly event bringing together the actual do-ers in the IT space. Where we leave behind the smartphones and action cameras and instead put agentic AI solutions and server racks forward.
In a short interview with Go, he said there’s no doubt that everyone has taken the AI plunge. The difference this year is that the focus is now on more in-depth discussions about how AI solutions can be implemented in your own company, whether it be a mom-and-pop store or an SME. He said that AI isn’t anymore about the hyperscalers like Google or Microsoft, but about how it can realistically improve efficiency.
At the summit, conversations revolved around agentic AI companies such as ReN3 that help businesses automate mundane processes for maximizing efficiency. On-premise AI solutions like H3C and Elastic can help companies build their own GPTs and eventually lead to AI avatar investments. Conversations around cybersecurity in the age of AI continued to dominate the agenda.
Go’s keynote set the tone for the entire event. Standing before hundreds of CXOs and IT leaders, he declared that “the future has arrived — and it’s moving faster than anyone anticipated.” What used to take years to transform in business can now happen in months, or even weeks. “The map we once relied on,” he said, “is being redrawn by one powerful, undeniable force: Artificial Intelligence.”
He called this new phase the era of Agentic AI — a world where autonomous systems are no longer just tools, but digital teammates capable of making decisions, executing strategies, and collaborating with humans. “This is the dawn of the Augmented Enterprise,” Go said. “Technology is no longer here to replace us but to amplify human capability.”
But Go also reminded the audience that AI’s potential is tethered to one thing: data. “AI feeds on information,” he said. “Without high-quality, relevant, and timely data, even the most advanced systems are ineffective.” He challenged executives to ask hard questions: Are we collecting the right data? Are we using it wisely? Are we removing silos that prevent it from flowing across departments?
The heart of his message was a call to action. Companies, he said, must define what AI means for their business today — not tomorrow. “The AI revolution is going to be bigger than the Internet,” Go told the room. “The decisions you make now will define your organization five years from today.”
Go cited regional momentum, noting that Southeast Asia is fast becoming the epicenter of AI adoption, with a young, digitally native population and a business culture that thrives on agility. “Eighty-five percent of leaders in the region believe AI will be the single most critical factor for competitiveness — higher than the global average,” he added.
He also outlined the pillars of the next-generation enterprise — Agentic AI, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure, connectivity, data centers, high-performance computing, storage, and AI applications — all key areas that VST ECS has helped bring to market across industries.
But perhaps his most important message was human. “The goal is no longer man versus machine, but man with machine,” Go said. He emphasized the need to upskill the workforce, nurture creativity, and lead with clarity and purpose. “Technology can only amplify human capability if humans remain at the center of transformation.”
This comes as a message of hope in a time where there is real fear of AI taking away jobs. It seems that as the AI boom creeps into more enterprises, it is clear that artificial intelligence is not a job taker, but a job enhancer.
