CxO Insights – Building for the future: AI and agile businesses with Ruwan Hewawitharana
As ANZ businesses start a new financial year, they’re not just updating budgets; they’re rethinking their digital playbooks. From AI agents to unified data platforms, the focus is shifting toward intelligent transformation. We spoke to Ruwan Hewawitharana, Vice President – Business Development, ANZ at Fortude, about the trends shaping business strategy in the region, what’s next with Microsoft technologies, and how Fortude is helping enterprises unlock value with data, AI, and automation.
1. With the start of a new financial year, how are ANZ businesses rethinking their tech priorities for the year ahead?
“ANZ businesses are entering a phase of strategic recalibration, moving from reactive execution to proactive innovation.”
Ruwan Hewawitharana: The focus is shifting toward intelligent transformation, where data analytics, automation, and AI, converge to drive resilience and agility. Sometime ago, I heard that data was becoming the new currency. Today, I see that it’s become a reality, and I see organizations prioritizing platforms that enable real-time decision-making, predictive insights, and scalable digital ecosystems. The guiding principle is no longer just cost efficiency, but “intelligent value creation”.
2. Fortude recently unlocked the Microsoft Digital App & Innovation Solutions Partner designation and has strong Data & AI capabilities. Which Microsoft Build announcements do you think hold the most promise for businesses in the region?
“With innovations like Microsoft Fabric, Copilot Studio, and AI agents, Fortude is helping ANZ businesses build unified, insight-driven ecosystems powered by next-gen data and AI architecture.”
Ruwan Hewawitharana: The announcements around Microsoft Fabric, Copilot Studio, and AI agents are particularly exciting in Fortude’s context. These innovations empower businesses to build context-aware, task-oriented agents that integrate seamlessly with enterprise data. For ANZ businesses, this means unlocking new levels of productivity, personalization, and operational intelligence. Fortude’s strength in data architecture and AI positions us to help our customers harness these tools to create adaptive, insight-driven ecosystems. Our customers explore business insights for data-driven decision making to drive their businesses profitably and stay resilient, so I believe Microsoft Fabric will play a pivotal role in building one platform for a single source of data, a single source of analytics, and a single source of insights.
3. What shifts do you see emerging across industries like fashion and F&B? Could you highlight some standout tech trends?
“To stay ahead, ANZ leaders must move beyond pilots and embed AI into their IT strategy and core business processes.”
Ruwan Hewawitharana: We see many IT and business leaders in data-driven organizations piloting AI in various areas of their businesses, and it’s a good sign. But leaders must move beyond pilot projects and start embedding AI into their IT strategy and core business processes. This involves assessing their IT landscape and rethinking workflows, investing in workforce augmentation, and fostering a culture of data fluency. The goal is to create environments where AI doesn’t just automate tasks, it amplifies human potential, supports decision-making, and drives innovation. Fortude’s approach enables organizations to scale AI effectively and, more importantly, responsibly.
4. In your opinion, what should businesses keep in mind about data analytics and governance as they scale their AI initiatives?
“As AI scales, data governance isn’t just about control, it’s about enabling innovation through trust, transparency, and disciplined architecture.”
Ruwan Hewawitharana: As AI initiatives scale, data governance becomes mission critical. Businesses must ensure that data is accurate, secure, and ethically managed. This means investing in metadata management, data lineage, and compliance frameworks that support transparency and trust. Fortude helps clients build governance models that are not just protective but enabling, allowing innovation to flourish within a secure and compliant environment. This comes by design, and we at Fortude follow the principle of “discipline at the core and flexibility at the edge” when supporting our clients with data analytics initiatives.
5. Can you share a Fortude success story where a future-ready, enterprise-scale data ecosystem solution made a real impact?
“By building a unified, enterprise-scale data ecosystem, we enabled one of Australia’s largest furniture retailers to eliminate silos, empower self-service analytics, and scale AI across the business.”
Ruwan Hewawitharana: One of our standout success stories is a leading Australian Furniture retailer, with a nationwide footprint.
Our client faced significant challenges with fragmented reporting systems, inconsistent data sources, and a lack of governance across tools. These issues created bottlenecks in generating timely and accurate business insights, limiting their ability to scale and respond quickly.
Fortude partnered with them to design and implement a future-ready, enterprise-scale data ecosystem. We delivered a lakehouse-based data platform and an enterprise data warehouse on Microsoft Fabric, enabling unified, governed reporting with near real-time capabilities. This transformation empowered business users with secure, self-service analytics, reduced reliance on IT for insights, and eliminated data silos.
The outcomes also included improved business agility through consistent and governed reporting, scalable infrastructure on Azure to support cloud-native growth, master data consolidation using Infor M3 ERP, and a strategic roadmap to support long-term data maturity.
This initiative was so impactful that it contributed to Fortude winning the Digital Transformation Award for APAC by AICPA & CIMA in 2024, with the solution proposed for this company featured as a key case study.
We’re now expanding the solution to support analytics across finance and supply chain, and integrating intelligent automation using advanced AI technologies.
6. Finally, what excites you most about Fortude’s growth journey in the ANZ region?
“Our growth in ANZ is about more than scale; it’s about impact. With a strong team and proven practices, we’re helping clients reimagine operations through intelligent, human-centric transformation.”
Ruwan Hewawitharana: What excites me most is our ability to bring together highly experienced and qualified Data Architects, Fabric Analytics Engineers, and AI Specialists, applying proven best practices to deliver unified data platform solutions. Our presence in ANZ is growing not just in scale, but in impact. With a strong team, we are helping clients reimagine their operations, from supply chain to sustainability, through intelligent, human-centric transformation.
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