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The past few months have taken Perennial into some of the region's most important conversations around technology, financial services, and AI. From stepping onto the stage at iGnite '26, to joining banking and fintech leaders at the ASEAN Tech Summit, to bringing a smaller group together around the table at Between Us, each moment gave us a different way to connect with the people shaping this region.
But the real story isn't the events themselves. It's the relationships behind them. Years of conversations, collaboration, and trust have brought us into these rooms, and this stretch was a reflection of how those relationships are growing.
Here's a look at what happened.
Nilesh Bafna Takes the Stage on AI Trust
Our first stop was iGnite '26, where our Co-founder and CTO, Nilesh Bafna, took the stage with a talk on "From Human Identity to AI Identity," exploring what trust and security look like when AI systems can act on their own.
At the heart of his talk was a simple question: what happens when the systems we're trusting can act on their own?
Most security systems verify who you are once, at login, and then trust what you do. AI agents are different. They can make decisions and take actions continuously, long after that initial check. As Nilesh highlighted, several real breaches in 2025 showed what can happen when an AI agent has access but its actions aren't continuously monitored.
His answer was a framework we call Continuous Trust: verifying an AI agent action by action, with clear rules, real-time control, and traceability built in. It's an approach shaped by the challenges we've seen while helping clients put AI into production.
"The biggest mistake companies make with AI agents is assuming that trust, once granted, doesn't need to be checked again. It does. Every action an agent takes needs to be something you can explain, control, and trace back to a source. That's the standard we hold ourselves to, and it's the standard the whole industry is going to need to move toward."
Nilesh Bafna, Co-founder & CTO
Showcasing Our Work at iGnite '26
The same event gave us the chance to showcase our work. As a sponsor, we set up our own booth for the day, showing 22 AI agents already living and working for clients across banking, insurance, and customer service.
iGnite '26's focus on trust in an AI-driven world closely matched what we've spent years building our company around. The direction we've been betting on is now becoming a much bigger industry conversation.
Joining a Growing Fintech Community
Days later, our team was at the ASEAN Tech Summit, one of the region's largest gatherings of banking, fintech, and government leaders, with over 4,000 attendees.
A highlight of our time there was Perennial being formally welcomed as a member of FinTech Alliance.PH. In front of the Alliance's board of directors, Nilesh Bafna took the formal oath of membership on behalf of the company. For us, it was an important milestone as we continue to deepen our presence in the Philippines and across the region.
Over two days, we connected with banks, fintechs, and payment companies to understand how they're using AI today across fraud detection, lending, KYC, customer support, and more. One theme came up again and again: AI is already running in production, but very few teams feel confident they could prove, months from now, that it's still working exactly as intended.
"AI is already live in production, but very few teams have a clear way to catch when something goes wrong. That's not a technology gap. It's a governance gap."
Mudit, Principal, Data & AI
"Two days at that summit produced more real, qualified conversations than months of outbound calls usually do. When regulators, banks, and fintechs are discussing the same problem, you want to be part of that conversation."
Omkar Bhagat, Head of Sales
A Dinner That Was Simply About Being Together
We rounded off this stretch by hosting Between Us, a small, invite-only dinner for senior leaders from banks and fintechs across the region.
There were no presentations, no agenda, and no work discussions. Just a shared meal, easy conversations, and a chance to get to know each other beyond the usual industry setting. After two busy days at the summit, it was a chance to slow down, relax, share stories, and simply enjoy the evening together.
"Between Us" is one of my favourite things we did. You learn more about a person over two hours at dinner than you do in ten scheduled meetings. It's about building the relationships that make everything else possible.
Akanksha Sogani (Akay), CHRO
Coming right after the summit, the dinner gave us a chance to continue some of those new connections in a much more relaxed setting.
What This Stretch Told Us
A booth, a talk on stage, a formal oath, two days with banks and fintech's, and a dinner with people we were simply glad to spend time with. Different moments, different settings, but all connected by the same idea.
Perennial isn't showing up to industry events just to be seen. We're showing up to listen, contribute, build trust, and be part of the conversations shaping how AI and financial services evolve across the region.
Every room we've stood in this year has been built on relationships that started well before we walked through the door. We intend to keep building them, one conversation at a time.
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August 28, 2026 9:18 am