AI-led IT & corporate transformation · Led by operators
Four transformations led from the inside.
The fifth is yours.
We have run this job, not advised on it — at Standard Chartered, Central Group, one of Asia’s largest retail groups, and today at Siam Piwat. We cut what you pay IT vendors, build the capability in-house, and reinvest the savings in new AI products and services.
Rent less. Own more. Grow new.
$2bn
online business built inside a retail conglomerate
5,000+ ops/sec
on a global BNPL platform we moved to open source
−25% opex
after moving ONESIAM onto an in-house platform
$40M → <$1M
a consulting quote beaten by a lean, AI-assisted build
Faculty, TAB Global — Building the AI Bank: London · Kuala Lumpur · Cape Town · Independent Non-Executive Director, GXBank · CEO, Xponential
Why us
Few advisers have sat in all three seats. We sit in them today.
AI is moving the customer to platforms and assistants, and turning banks and suppliers into services those platforms call. We see that shift from every side of the table.
01 · We run the platform
Where the customer journey starts
Through Xponential, our joint venture with Siam Piwat, we operate the ONESIAM SuperApp and the group’s AI — the platform that decides which partner its agent calls, and on what terms.
02 · We build banks
Cores, credit and payments
Core banking taken in-house at Standard Chartered. Two digital banks in Europe built on open-source cores. A global BNPL platform at 5,000+ ops/sec. Instant payments across 19 banks.
03 · We sit on and teach boards
The questions boards are not asking yet
A seat on the board of GXBank, Grab’s digital bank. Faculty with TAB Global, teaching bank leaders to build the AI bank in London, Kuala Lumpur and Cape Town.
Track record
Every transformation built a business inside a legacy group — and the capability stayed.
Banking · From the inside
Standard Chartered
As Global Chief Architect, led the shift to build core banking, CASA and payments in-house — the platform that made SC Ventures possible.
Retail · From the inside
Central Group
As Group CTO, built a $2bn online business with its own engineers, data and product — and launched the JD.com e-commerce joint venture.
Retail · Rescue
One of Asia’s largest retail groups
Replaced a Big-4-led transformation with 12 senior practitioners, rebuilt the architecture and turned a failing platform into a regional online leader.
Retail · Now
Siam Piwat & Xponential
The group behind ICONSIAM and Siam Paragon: ONESIAM SuperApp on a fully owned platform, and a group-wide AI transformation underway.
Pivot Digital engagements
Global payments leader
The global BNPL lending platform, moved off a licensed core onto open source: 5,000+ ops/sec, without the licence bill.
Two digital banks in Europe
Greenfield journeys from licence to launch, on open-source cores — owned by the bank, not a vendor.
Digital assets
The region’s first property token exchange and first corporate NFT marketplace.
Live proof · Xponential × Siam Piwat, 2026
A mall group runs agentic AI in production on general models. Built and owned in-house.
One decision layer, four surfaces. No recommender model trained, no platform licence — and the controls built in from day one.
Live · Aug 2026
App personalisation
Vouchers on the ONESIAM homepage ranked in real time for each member.
Live · Aug 2026
Agentic assistant
Router, shop, mall and FAQ agents: 4,788 sessions and 212 intents in its first six weeks.
In build
Next-best-action
Car-park arrival, receipt scan, dwell without buying — the engine decides whether, what and when to reach out.
In UAT
Creative generation
Campaign copy and translation today, images next: around 220 hours a month saved.
Also owned, not rented: a full CRM built in-house with AI at the core, a gamification platform in one month, a contact-centre module in two weeks, and ONESIAM on its own platform at −25% opex. Read the full Xponential story →
How we pass it on
The technology gets cheaper every month. The hard problem is now the organisation.
What we learned building it ourselves, turned into four things no vendor can deliver for you.
1
Strategy
Set before the technology: where to play, how to grow, what to stop renting, and what the AI unit is for.
2
Operating model
Who decides and who owns the result. Guardrails in the loop, not gates at the end.
3
Team
Senior experts running agents, not managers reporting up. Hire for depth, not span of control.
4
Culture
A startup inside an incumbent, visible by design. Measure the loop from idea to production: days, not quarters.
Technology is the part you can buy. Strategy, operating model, team and culture are the parts you can only build — and they decide whether the technology ever pays back.
Ways to start
Run the old for less. Build the new with AI. The savings fund the transformation.
Fixed scope and fee, or part of the fee linked to the savings. Every engagement is led by a Pivot partner — strategy and board-level work by Axel, architecture and engineering by Istvan — with senior delivery capacity from our centre in Europe.
For banks: build the AI bank. For retail and consumer groups: build the AI business. Same principle — rent less, own more, grow new.
1–2 days · Board / exco
Board bootcamp
The in-house edition of the TAB Global bootcamp: where your hard problem sits, an agent built by your own leaders, and the questions for your board.
3–4 weeks · CFO / CEO
IT Vendor Spend Review
Integrator, SaaS and outsourcing contracts reviewed: what to keep renting, what to own, and what it saves.
6–8 weeks · CEO
AI Blueprint
Build the AI bank — or the AI business: proposition, operating model and team, own-vs-rent architecture and the decision layer, with a business case funded by the savings.
6–18 months · CEO / board
Build & rewire
An operator in your corner through delivery: a steering-committee seat, vendor challenge, and senior engineers on demand until your own team runs it.
No dependency by design: when we leave, you keep the team, the IP and the momentum.
For banks · Building the AI Bank
The interface is leaving the bank. Your products will be called by agents you do not own.
Agentic payments are already live at banks across Asia. We have built the bank side — cores, credit at 5,000+ ops/sec, instant payments — and we run the platform side that calls it. We help banks decide what to become before the assistants decide for them.
Rewire the organisation
Experts running agents. A data science function reshaped for agent design, evaluation and decision policy.
Own the core
Business logic moves into agents; applications thin down. A migration path from today’s estate, not a big bang.
Own the decision layer
Most banks should orchestrate frontier models, not train their own. Next-best-action live in weeks, as we did in retail.
Be the bank agents call
Pre-approval, instalments and limits as callable tools, decided in under a second — with Know Your Agent at the door.
Three questions for your board
- If building were nearly free, what would you stop renting?
- How long is your loop from idea to production — days, or quarters?
- Who in your bank actually ships — and who reports on it?
Faculty · In partnership with TAB Global
We teach bank leaders to build the AI bank. On three continents.
Pivot Digital delivers sessions in TAB Global’s Building the AI Bank bootcamp. Leaders leave having configured an agent themselves, and with the questions to take back to their own board.
Europe
London
University of London
Asia
Kuala Lumpur
May 2026 · Agentic AI: the hard problems boards are not asking yet
Africa
Cape Town
October 2026 · Agentic AI, and foundation models in banking
Who you work with
Practitioners, not career consultants.
Axel Winter
Founding Director · Strategy, transformation and board engagements
Group Chief Digital & AI Officer of Siam Piwat and CEO of Xponential. Independent Non-Executive Director of GXBank. Formerly Global Chief Architect at Standard Chartered and Group CTO at Central Group. Faculty, TAB Global.
Istvan Molnar
Founding Director · Architecture & engineering
MIT graduate and former Chief Architect at DBS Bank. Leads our architecture and engineering from Budapest — the team behind the BNPL platform and the European digital banks.
Nithinan Boonyawattanapisut
Director · New businesses
Venture builder and Co-CEO of Next Play Technologies. Turns the new AI products and services in a blueprint into businesses that launch.
We’ve done it four times. Let’s talk about yours.
A 30-minute call with a Pivot partner: your situation, your vendor landscape, what you want to build. A clear proposal within a week — fixed scope and fee, or linked to the savings.
Pivot works vendor-independently and accepts engagements subject to conflict review. Singapore · Bangkok · Budapest — operating across Southeast Asia and Europe.
