Helen Yu

#DigitalTransformation obsessed #CXO and #GrowthHacker. Find me at the intersection of #Tech and #Humanity. #AI #DataAnalytics #FinTech #CX #IoT #CyberSecurity

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

#books for #Summertime. Pleased to share that my book "Ascend Your Start-Up" hit #3 on @WallStreetJour1 best seller list. Get a copy here and dive into the knowledge I have gathered from over 15 years of hands-on experience: https://t.co/RTvsSsg8md
#startups #GrowthHacking #VC

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Everyone is talking about AI in finance.

Not enough people are talking about the infrastructure AI depends on.

According to @forrester research, on behalf of @airwallex, only 11% of core finance workflows are AI-autonomous today, even though 74% of finance leaders say AI is a top priority.

The AI exists. The challenge is connecting the data, systems, and workflows.

Learn more: https://t.co/HgycsK3hR7

#Finance #AI #CFO

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Is your AI strategy outpacing your ability to govern it?

Most enterprises are. And Boards are paying attention.
91% of organizations run AI agents. Nearly half have zero formal oversight.

That's a governance crisis hiding in plain sight.

AI agents don't arrive through a single decision. They accumulate across teams, vendors, and workflows until no one has a complete picture of what's operating, what it can access, or who's accountable when something goes wrong.

My latest newsletter breaks down why an identity-first approach is the missing link and walks through the nine practices that turn AI governance from a board mandate into a working security foundation.

Read CXO Spice newsletter https://t.co/Wj34buVXWi
And Download the @Okta AI Agent Identity Security Readiness Cheat Sheet: https://t.co/NVeIT7c5HI

#Sponsored by @okta

#IdentitySecurity #AgenticAI

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

“You can develop good things rapidly with AI and bad things rapidly. I've seen both." - David Vidoni, CIO of @pega

The governance conversation every enterprise leader needs to have.

Watch our 8-min interview at PegaWorld: https://t.co/SB3YyrSsxw

#AI #CIO #EnterpriseAI #PegaWorld

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Your AI is only as smart as the context it runs on. Have you built your shared enterprise brain yet?

At @Databricks Data+AI Summit, I spoke with @prukalpa, co-founder and co-CEO of @AtlanHQ, to go deeper on the AI Context Layer in practice. The concept of a shared enterprise brain resonated with me. It is a foundation that every AI agent draws from, learns from, and contributes back to.

"The future of organizations are going to be the fastest learning organizations." - @prukalpa Sankar, co-founder and co-CEO of Atlan

Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://t.co/7HWCOI8vAK

Check out the live demo by Atlan on Building Context for Your AI Agents - https://t.co/PxLJtl7wRl

#EnterpriseAI #ContextLayer #Data #AI #AtlanPartner @atlan

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Is your AI strategy outpacing your ability to govern it?

Mose enterprises are. And Boards are paying attention.
91% of organizations run AI agents. Nearly half have zero formal oversight.

That's a governance crisis hiding in plain sight.

AI agents don't arrive through a single decision. They accumulate across teams, vendors, workflows until no one has a complete picture of what's operating, what it can access, or who's accountable when something goes wrong.

My latest newsletter lays out the identity-first framework that turns AI governance from a mandate into a competitive advantage. https://t.co/FmsDK2XpWf

Download the @Okta AI Agent Identity Security Readiness Cheat Sheet: https://t.co/C4hZDO0fLr

#Sponsored by @okta

#IdentifyManagement #Cybersecurity

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Everyone's fighting over who has the best AI agent.

Almost no one's asking what happens when that agent tries to pay for something or when compliance and reporting need to update in real time.

Agents can decide in seconds. But money still moves at human speed with manual auth, 48hr settlement, spreadsheets.

Intelligence without infrastructure stalls.

@airwallex is betting on the fix: T:0 (AI-native finance platform bookkeeping, continuous) + Airi (a wallet built for agentic commerce).

The interface layer gets the headlines. Infrastructure decides if any of it works.

[Jack Zhang @awxjack]

We’ve raised $320M at an $11B valuation, led by Addition.

AI is changing how companies are built. Teams are smaller, global from day one, and using agents more. We’ve spent 10 years building the financial rails for that world.

We’re now building the intelligent layer on top.

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

What does it take for CTOs and CIOs to build an AI stack where data reaches compute reliably, securely, and at scale?

That’s the strategic question behind my conversation with Kunal Anand, CPO at #F5.

As AI moves into production, the real differentiator won’t just be the model — it will be the infrastructure that delivers data with reliability, security, and visibility.
The last mile of AI is becoming a first-class product decision, not just an infrastructure one.

Watch the full conversation: https://t.co/1bOYM2P5tW

Register for AI Virtual Summit (free)
https://t.co/y80XNlC10t

#AI #CTO #CIO #EnterpriseAI #Infrastructure #Cybersecurity #F5Partner

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Is your organization developing the judgment AI cannot replicate?

That tension is what my latest article is about. The Judgment Gap and why closing it matters more than any tool you deploy.

If this resonates, International Services Week (June 22–26) is where this conversation is happening.

@CertiniaInc founded it as an open forum for free, open access, with voices from IDC, PwC, Deloitte, Salesforce, and more.

Read the #CXOSpice newsletter 👉https://t.co/0Vx6da11Br

Learn more about International Service Week:
https://t.co/SMwrgW5Ski

See you there.

#ProfessionalServices #AIStrategy #ServicesWeek #Leadership #Certinia

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Is the global energy system ready for what's coming?

Demand is rising. Infrastructure is strained. Geopolitical pressure isn't easing.

This November, the world's energy leaders converge in Abu Dhabi to move from strategy to action, strengthening the systems the world depends on.

Energy. Intelligence. Impact.

2–5 Nov 2026 | Abu Dhabi 🇦🇪
Register: https://t.co/iLuWknviw8

@ADIPECOfficial #ADIPEC2026 #Energy #Security

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

How do you de-risk enterprise AI without choosing between moving fast and getting it right?

Most enterprises are solving the wrong problem. At #PegaWorld I built a full retail banking blueprint in minutes and spoke with @pega CPO Kerim Akgonul about what it takes to build AI systems that last.

Watch here: https://t.co/kOvVge3mBR

#EnterpriseAI #PegaWorld #PegaPartner

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

What does customer experience look like when the era of guesswork is over?

At @Cisco Live, the conversation went beyond technology to transformation.

The era of guesswork in customer experience is over.

At Cisco Live, I spoke with Carlos Pereira, Cisco Fellow & Chief Architect for CX, to talk about what "agentic speed" really means for enterprise leaders:
→ From visibility to action
→ From reactive ops to resilient systems
→ From pilots to production

What separates leaders from laggards right now? Courage.

Watch the full conversation 👇 https://t.co/jMhiCpsukd

#CiscoLive #CiscoPartner #CustomerExperience #CX

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Best part of #PegaWorld?

The Innovation Hub getting hands-on with @pega Infinity Studio, building my own blueprint.

Innovation hits different when you're the one creating it.

#PegaWorld26 #PegaPartner

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Is your AI infrastructure ready for the agentic era?

At Cisco Live, I connected with Gordon Macintosh and Dale Tucker from @Equinix to explore how the Secure AI Factory ecosystem is building the physical and interconnection foundations that make agentic AI at scale possible.

Three thing leaders are still overlooking:
→ Distributed infrastructure. Production AI = multiple agents, tools, data sources, and policies
→ Data gravity is real. Sovereignty, regulation, and sensitivity shape where AI can run.
→ Last mile connectivity is where strategies stall. Secure, predictable, low-latency connections aren't optional at production scale.

The @Cisco + @nvidia + @Equinix reference architecture is one of the most concrete answers I've seen with Equinix as the neutral landing zone across 280+ data centers worldwide.

As Dale put it: "Last mile connectivity is where AI strategy can either accelerate or stall."

The companies that win the next phase of AI will be the ones who got the infrastructure and the ecosystem right.

Watch our full conversation here: https://t.co/9akCosNS0M

#CiscoLive #SecureAIFactory #EquinixPartner #CiscoPartner

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

One CIO burned their entire AI token budget in Q1. That was the opening gut punch at #PegaWorld today.

Here are my 3 takeaways from Day 1:
1️⃣Token reality check with @pega CEO Alan Trefler: Most architectures assume tokens are free.
That's a design flaw. Pega's approach → spend at design time, reuse workflows, minimize runtime cost. Predictable AI spend by design.
2️⃣The "muffin moment" with @pega CPO Kerim Akgonul: AI drew a muffin with dog ears instead of his dog… Then generated a perfect face just not his.
AI is confident, not always correct. Funny in demos. Risky in production. Confidence without traceability = liability at scale.
3️⃣Legacy, redefined (@AWS + @pega): The bottleneck is understanding. AWS Transform + Pega Blueprint: 3 hrs assess → 3 wks POC → 3 mos production.

Speed is table stakes. Engineered reliability is the moat.

Check out this 40-second video that captured these moments.

#EnterpriseAI #PegaInfinity26 #PegaPartner

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Frontier AI models like Mythos can find 7x more vulnerabilities. Bad actors can weaponize a patch in 30 minutes.

Our recovery plan was built for a different world.
@Commvault's 4-step resilience framework helps organizations close the gap before an incident hits:

1️⃣Evaluate recovery risks
2️⃣Air-gap & isolate critical data
3️⃣Prioritize must-have systems
4️⃣Automate & test continuously

Resilience is an operating requirement.

Learn more: https://t.co/RhKeeKkyLG

#CyberResilience #ResOps #Cybersecurity #CommvaultPartner

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

AI agents generate 450% more network traffic than humans.

Multiply that by always-on, machine-speed execution.

Most enterprise networks were never built for this.

@Cisco declared that the Networking SuperCycle is here. And the agent swarm already has an off switch.

#CiscoLive #Networking #Cybersecurity #AI #CiscoPartner

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Are you protecting your core or building your future?
Most companies are only doing one.
I joined Stephen Humphrey of @PTC on the Wired In series to talk about what ambidextrous leadership looks like in electronics and high tech, where product cycles can be obsolete in 18 months and the margin for error is shrinking every quarter.

Full conversation linked below.
▶️ https://t.co/3HuGRMADXg

My newsletter goes deeper.
https://t.co/szUdwsi43K

#Innovation #Leadership #Electronics #HighTech #DigitalTransformation #PTCPartner

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Is your billing process costing you more than just time?

As a business owner, every hour lost to billing chaos is revenue left on the table.

I hired help last year. Still spent hours briefing, chasing, double-checking.

These bottlenecks are only getting worse.

As AI and agentic commerce change how companies monetize, legacy systems simply can’t support complex, real-time usage models.

Billing shouldn't slow your growth. It should fuel it.
@airwallex just launched Billing, one platform for invoicing, subscriptions, usage metering, payments & reconciliation.

More time closing deals. Less time fixing tools.

👉 https://t.co/nuBPDoOFPm

#AirwallexPartner #Finance #CFO #SMB #Entrepreneurs

[Jack Zhang @awxjack]

https://t.co/Yt6IIkdExd

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

What does HR agentic moment look like in practice?

In my conversation with Rinky Karthik from @SAP SuccessFactors, we unpacked what SAP Sapphire’s agentic AI announcements could mean for HR leaders, practitioners, and the employees they serve. We talked about payroll, skills, learning in the flow of work, and why the future of HR is less about more tools and more about better outcomes.

Our full conversation: https://t.co/YLYP54OEIN
or SAP Sapphire On Demand: https://t.co/NBzDAVIXtc

#SAPSapphire #AutonomousHCM #AgenticAI #SAPSuccessFactors #SAPPartner

[Helen Yu @YuHelenYu]

Is your back office slowing down SMB growth?

Most SMB finance teams don’t have a strategy problem; they have a friction problem.

Close takes too long. Expenses require too many follow-ups. Cash visibility lags decisions.

Many systems add process instead of removing work.

👉Read the latest CXO Spice newsletter where I shared examples of SMBs fixing this by turning the back offic into operational infrastructure.
https://t.co/elySXa4zfT

Or sign up for your account at Bill- https://t.co/A48UTXl2sZ

#BillPartner #Finance #CFO