Recap the event
The Thoughtworks Technology Exchange
Bringing tech-led changes into focusFor technology leaders, maintaining a broad, strategic perspective on both current and emerging tech trends is essential.
The Thoughtworks Technology Exchange series is designed to unite the tech leadership community, fostering dialogue and exploring innovations that are transforming operations today—and those just over the horizon.
At our inaugural event, our Chief Scientist, Martin Fowler, shared his perspective on the evolving tech landscape for business in 2025. Our local tech leaders also provided a deep dive into the five key technology lenses covered in our Looking Glass 2025 report:
Operationalizing AI for business impact
Strengthening the data value chain
Reimagining responsible tech for the era of generative AI
Enabling richer experiences through multimodal interactions
Unlocking greater value from physical-digital convergence
Technology Exchange February 2025
Watch the recordings
Tech trends in focus: A fireside chat with Martin Fowler
Martin Fowler, Chief Scientist, Thoughtworks
Fireside hosted by Andy Nolan, Director of Emerging Technologies, Thoughtworks.
Watch this engaging discussion where Martin and Andy delve into Martin's deep roots in software development and agile, the importance of understanding and managing change and how AI is shaping the future of technology trends.
Operationalizing AI for business impact
Heiko Gerin, Technical Director, APAC, Thoughtworks
The mainstreaming of AI — and generative AI in particular — is continuing apace. But as AI proliferates, it’s more evident that successfully operationalizing AI models and bringing them to production remains a challenge. From questionable output to unintended consequences, there are a host of real and projected scenarios that prevent organizations from leveraging AI to its full potential.
Strengthening the data value chain
Mariano Giuffrida, Principal Technologist, Thoughtworks
As enterprise adoption of AI gains pace, there’s rising awareness of data’s role as a differentiator, and a source of competitive edge. Developing the capabilities to leverage data at speed and scale, and become truly data-driven, has become an emerging priority. Treating data as a product represents one of the most effective means to achieve this goal, and the best way to build and distribute data products is through data platforms.
Reimagining responsible tech for the era of generative AI
Lilly Ryan, Global Secure Innovation Lead, Thoughtworks
The importance of ‘responsible tech’ has been widely discussed for a number of years now. However, across the industry it has struggled to properly cut through, remaining a somewhat marginal concern. While this might not be unsurprising during a period of economic uncertainty and tighter budgets, the rise of generative AI has made the topic more urgent than ever. This is because the ethical, legal and even philosophical questions raised by the technology can, at least in part, be addressed through responsible technology principles and practices.
Enabling richer experiences through multimodal interactions
Nic Smythe, VP of Customer Experience, Product & Design APAC, Thoughtworks
Modes of interaction between people and machines have proliferated rapidly in recent years, to encompass text, voice, images, video, gestures — and with affective computing, even emotional cues that may be unconscious. This presents new possibilities, but also a challenge in requiring organizations to think through how different forms of interaction can be combined and used across the entire customer experience.
Unlocking greater value from physical-digital convergence
Mara Cajar-Robinson, Principal Strategy Consultant, Thoughtworks
The convergence of the physical and the digital, or hybrid trend is advancing in both industry and consumer tech — even if progress isn’t always smooth, or readily evident. One of the bigger recent developments in the space was the launch of Apple’s Vision Pro in early 2024. While it garnered much fanfare initially the excitement quickly dwindled, and adoption has proven disappointing. But that shouldn’t be viewed as emblematic of the trend as a whole, which continues to develop in lower-profile ways that will present opportunities and gain traction beyond the current core base of power users.
About the speakers
Martin Fowler
Chief Scientist at ThoughtworksMartin Fowler is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and software development expert, known for his work on creating adaptable software that can evolve with future needs. A key figure at Thoughtworks since 2000, Martin has mentored numerous technologists who have gone on to become influential leaders in the industry. As a pioneer of agile software development, Martin was instrumental in drafting the Manifesto for Agile Software Development in 2001. He is the author of several seminal books, including Refactoring and Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, which continue to shape the field.
Sarah Taraporewalla
Chief Technology Officer, APAC, at Thoughtworks
Sarah Taraporewalla is a visionary technology leader renowned for her strategic acumen and ability to inspire innovation across the Asia Pacific region. As Chief Technology Officer for Thoughtworks in APAC, she champions technical excellence and drives forward-thinking solutions that align with business goals.
Mariano Giuffrida
Principal Technologist at Thoughtworks
Mariano Giuffrida is a technology leader with a passion for creating simple, elegant solutions to complex problems. Since joining Thoughtworks in 2016, he has worked across Australia and Spain, designing scalable, resilient architectures—including event-driven systems on cloud technologies. Mariano provides expert guidance on software architecture, technology strategy, and software delivery practices.
Mara Cajar-Robinson
Principal Strategy Consultant at Thoughtworks
Mara Cajar-Robinson brings over 20 years of experience as a futurist, strategist, and corporate executive. Specializing in "the business of experience," she excels at identifying innovative ideas that resonate with customers and deliver extraordinary impact.
Nic Smythe
VP of Customer Experience, Product & Design APAC at Thoughtworks
Nic Smythe joined Thoughtworks in 2013, specializing in product management, user experience, digital innovation and strategy. With over 20 years’ experience in digital and technology, including with some of Australia's biggest media organizations, today Nic leads the Customer Experience, Product and Design service line at Thoughtworks Asia-Pacific.
Thao Dang
Head of Enterprise Modernisation, Platforms and Cloud, APAC, at Thoughtworks
Thao Dang joined Thoughtworks in London 2012 before moving to Singapore in 2015. With a passion for helping businesses to transform their operations through scalable applications, Thao has led many technical teams to deliver products and platforms across different domains and industries.
Heiko Gerin
Technical Director, APAC at Thoughtworks
Heiko Gerin is a technology leader with a long history of successfully delivering digital products and services in a variety of roles from deeply technical to non-technical. He is currently Thoughtworks’ Head of Technology, Australia and New Zealand, and is accountable for ensuring the quality of technical work delivered by local teams and distributed teams across many countries.
Kate Linton
Experience Design Principal at Thoughtworks
Kate Linton is a designer who is a champion for ethical, responsible and creative uses of technology. She thrives on new opportunities to collaborate with diverse clients across a spectrum of industries. With a background steeped in UX design and research, she has spearheaded creative teams across APAC and the globe, partnering with product and CX teams to craft consistently exceptional customer experiences.
Lilly Ryan
Global Secure Innovation Lead at Thoughtworks
Lilly Ryan is a recovering historian and current information security specialist who, over the last decade, has worked as a Python developer, Linux wrangler, and penetration tester specializing in web application and cloud security. In her current role, Lilly provides security assurance and advice to Thoughtworks delivery teams with a focus on secure development practices, threat modelling, and the attacker mindset.
