NEWS
Okta, a leading independent identity provider, has announced a strategic alliance with Deloitte across Asia Pacific and Japan( APJ). Together, Deloitte and Okta will help organisations strengthen identity governance, improve visibility and control and establish stronger security foundations as AI, automation and evolving regulatory requirements create new challenges around access, accountability and oversight.
The alliance will focus on highly regulated and complex industries including financial services, government, healthcare and other sectors undergoing large-scale digital transformation. Across APJ, organisations are at different stages of cloud, identity and AI adoption and operate across a diverse range of regulatory environments, creating different challenges around security, governance and modernisation.
Deloitte and Okta to modernise identity and secure AI adoption across APAC
connect to more applications and data, organisations need greater visibility over what has access, what it can do and how that access is governed.
By combining Deloitte’ s cyber, identity and business transformation expertise with
Okta’ s Workforce Identity and Customer Identity platforms, the alliance will help organisations integrate identity more effectively into broader transformation, security and AI initiatives, while improving access management and oversight across increasingly complex environments.
At the same time, the rapid introduction of AI agents and automation is changing who and what needs access to enterprise systems. As AI agents and other nonhuman identities take on more tasks and
Women in AI( WAI) celebrates excellence across Asia Pacific
Women in AI( WAI), a nonprofit thinktank working towards inclusive AI that benefits global society, recently announced the winners of its 2026 awards for women working in AI in the Asia Pacific region.
Now in its sixth year, the WAI Awards honour women from diverse backgrounds working, leading, researching, creating or innovating in AI across public, private and NGO sectors as well as universities. At the same time, it recognises outstanding women leading change across AI, ML, data science, robotics, research and social impact and shines a spotlight on individuals making a real difference through AI.
This year’ s overall Grand Winner is Grace Chung, Engineering Director and Head of Google Research APAC, with Associate Professor Dr Sharifah Sakinah Syed Ahmad named First Runner-up and Rita Arrigo, Founder of AI Native Futures, as Second Runner-up.
Chung played a leading role in building Google’ s AI research capability in the region. A long-standing Google engineering leader, she founded and built Google’ s first AI research lab in Australia, established as part of the company’ s $ 1 billion Digital Future Initiative, and now leads Google Research across APAC.
“ At Women in AI Australia and APAC, we empower women and minorities to become AI and data experts, innovators and leaders,” said Angela Kim, President of Women in AI Australia.“ This awards platform elevates innovation, builds visibility, creates connections and strengthens the future of responsible AI. We’ re delighted to celebrate the vision, resilience, excellence and inspiration which each of this year’ s award winner trailblazers, visionaries and individuals represents for the next generation of AI leaders.”
More than 1,000 nominations were submitted this year with 50 finalists, demonstrating the wealth of talent and expertise in the regional AI arena. www. intelligentcio. com
INTELLIGENT CIO APAC
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