Adi Vora, Co-founder and CTPO of open finance provider Ayoconnect, shares his playbook for building technology. He discusses why the best approach is to “start simple,” why a modern IT leader’s most critical skill is being a “people person,” and the need to connect all tech to business outcomes.
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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Start Simple and Keep it Lean.
The biggest mistake in IT is overcomplicating a product from the start. It is always easier to add complexity to a simple system later than it is to change a complex one. - An IT Leader’s Most Critical, Unspoken Skill is Being a “People Person.”
Beyond technical expertise, true success is driven by spending time connecting with your team, clients, regulators, and partners. - Connect Technology to Business Outcomes.
Don’t build technology for its own sake. A leader must ensure every project is part of a unified story that creates clear business value and acts as a growth engine.
Could you please introduce yourself and share your journey into the IT field?
I’m Adi Vora, the co-founder and Chief Technology and Product Officer at Ayoconnect, one of Southeast Asia’s leading open finance infrastructure providers.
My journey into IT started at Penn State University. My strengths had always been in science-related fields like maths and physics, and when I was choosing a major, computer science came up. Technology was growing fast in the days of the web boom, and I felt that my skills were all combined in that field. That’s what started me on the path to becoming a CTO.
What are the most significant challenges you are currently facing?
The biggest challenge at this moment is balancing innovation with regulation, particularly being in the regulated fintech space in Indonesia. Every product we build must be scalable and reliable, but it also needs to be compliant from day one.
At the same time, the AI boom is moving incredibly fast and offering so much capability. The regulators can’t always keep up. So, the real test for me is figuring out how we can harness these shifts without compromising the trust or stability that is essential for our market.
What is the biggest IT-related mistake you’ve seen other companies make?
I would say the biggest mistake is overcomplicating your product, technology, and infrastructure from the start. You always have a big vision, but my advice is to start simple and keep it lean. It is much easier to add complexity on top of a simple system than it is to build a complicated system at the beginning and then try to change it later, especially when the market is moving so fast.
How do you envision the IT sector evolving over the next three to five years?
I see two big shifts. First, existing organisations will continue to modernise by adopting AI to upgrade their technology and improve decision-making. This is similar to the cloud migration wave we saw a few years ago.
Second, we are going to see a lot more AI-native companies—businesses that are designed from the ground up with AI and cloud as their foundation. I think these two shifts will drive the next wave of innovation in the sector.
How are IT leaders navigating the changing regulatory environment?
I can speak with regard to Indonesia, and it’s good to see that the regulators are moving faster than ever to create national frameworks. Going forward, the focus is going to be on AI governance, AI ethics, and data privacy and security.
For us as IT leaders, the key is to embed compliance into the design of our products and to maintain a proactive dialogue with the regulators, rather than treating them as a hurdle.
How do you balance the need for innovation with the demand for stability and security?
Innovation is built into me and my team. To foster it, we have an “Ayoconnect Lab,” which is a sandbox environment where everyone on my team can work on pilots and try new things without affecting our live products or regulatory compliance.
We start small, test ideas, and if the signs are correct, we scale up gradually with the right guardrails. When we decide to launch something to the public, we begin our governance process to ensure we are meeting all requirements and not putting stability or compliance at risk.
What do you consider to be the most critical skill that IT leaders should have today?
You need to be a people person. Of course, you have to be technically strong, but eventually, you are a manager leading a team. You are also the face of the company to regulators, clients, and partners.
For me personally, this was the biggest learning. I wasn’t the most extroverted person before, but I had to understand that this unspoken skill—spending time with your people—is essential for this leadership role.
If you could ask one question to all IT leaders, what would it be?
“How am I connecting technology to business outcomes?”
You shouldn’t build technology just for the sake of building it. Technology is no longer a cost centre; it’s a growth engine. A CTO needs to act as someone who brings all the elements—data, AI, security—into a unified story that creates business value.
How do you approach mentoring and developing the next generation of leaders?
For me, it’s about giving them the ability to try, make mistakes, and learn from them. The culture within my team is, “Make that mistake, learn from it, but don’t make that mistake twice.”
I encourage my team not to be scared to get their hands dirty and try new things. Only when you try something out will you know how you as a person can grow and learn from it.
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