Jobs in Singapore: “Why I believe in a future where humans will lead with AI”

Lavanya Karthikeyan is a Senior Community and Customer Marketing Manager at Workato, a leading agentic orchestration platform headquartered in Palo Alto, California. In 2015, Workato opened its first office in Singapore, and later launched its Digital Automation Hub here in 2022, which now serves as its second global headquarters. The company recently announced that it would be launching its first ever AI lab outside of the US in Singapore, creating over 65 high-value jobs and providing more than 1,000 local students and educators with access to advanced AI tools and real-world industry projects.
 

1) Tell us more about what you do at Workato.

As a Senior Community and Customer Marketing Manager at Workato, my work spans three interconnected areas:

1. Storytelling for impact, where I work with C-suite leaders and technical teams across Asia-Pacific to document and share their transformation journeys.
2. Community building, where I design experiences that bring innovators together: An example of this is the National Developer Challenge, where we partnered with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on a monthlong hackathon that engaged over 100 teams.
3. Talent development: To meet our community’s growing demand for young, trained talent, I built Workato's Education Partnership Programme from scratch in Singapore, training over 3,000 students across six local institutions and matching them with customers like IMDA, the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), and FairPrice Group.
    

2) Tell us more about Workato and its focus in Singapore and the region.

Think of Workato as the conductor of a digital orchestra. In any modern organisation, you have dozens or hundreds — sometimes thousands — of applications and systems that need to work together. Traditionally, getting these systems to communicate required an army of developers writing thousands of lines of custom code, which is often expensive to maintain and risky to secure. But Workato orchestrates all of this seamlessly. We connect your business systems, automate workflows across them, and make it safe for people to trust how AI works with their systems through what we call "Agentic Orchestration”. It's like having a universal translator that allows both IT and business teams to build sophisticated workflows at speeds that were never possible before.

In Singapore and the region, we're focused on enabling trusted AI transformation at scale. We're empowering enterprises across APAC — from technology leaders like Grab to government agencies like IMDA and GovTech — to innovate and deliver better experiences. We’re also building the talent ecosystem for the agentic era through partnerships with institutions like the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Singapore University of Social Sciences, as well as the five local polytechnics.

With our new AI Lab, we’re now bringing together industry, academia, government, and community partners to drive applied AI research. What excites me most is that we're not just selling software; we're building a movement. Every student we train, every customer story we share, every community event we host contributes to Singapore's reputation as a leader in the AI-powered automation era.
 

3) You graduated with a law degree. Tell us about the path that you took to get to where you are today.

I studied law at NUS and then joined Enterprise Singapore, where I worked on the National Robotics Programme and Singapore’s first Industry Transformation Roadmap for Precision Engineering. That's where I fell in love with the intersection of policy, technology, and human capital development. I was then seconded to and headhunted by PBA Group, a robotics and automation company, to helm business development and serve as its in-house legal counsel. But what truly changed my trajectory was when I volunteered to turn around the company’s training academy startup, the Robotics Automation Centre of Excellence (RACE).

I had no background in adult education, but I saw the opportunity to build something meaningful. I strategically repositioned RACE as an experiential training academy, convinced seasoned practitioners to teach there, and created real-world project opportunities with PBA, its customers and partners. Within a year, we boosted revenue and went on to impact over 700 people. That's when I realised my calling wasn't to iron out legal agreements — it was about transformation and people. When the pandemic hit and I was offered the chance to reimagine HR at PBA, I took the plunge and went on to earn my Post Graduate Diploma in Strategic Human Capital Management.

I recognised that companies can only truly scale their impact if they have robust processes in place to empower people to be their best, and this belief drew me to Workato’s platform and mission, where I saw I would have the chance to merge everything I’d learned: storytelling, community building, education, and technology evangelism.
 

4) You’re one of 10 women globally selected for Workato’s Women’s Accelerated Leadership Programme (WALP). Can you tell us more about WALP and what this means for your professional development?

WALP is an intensive year-long programme that offers executive coaching, leadership workshops, peer learning circles, and recognition. Out of Workato's global workforce of close to 1,000 people, only 10 women are chosen for the programme. All of us are high-performers from different functions, geographies, and backgrounds — sales, engineering, operations, and marketing — but we are all committed to lifting each other up. WALP gives us a sisterhood that understands the unique challenges we face.

For my professional development, WALP is stretching me in important ways. I'm already managing dual portfolios and leading regional initiatives, but WALP is preparing me to think at the executive level: how do we scale programmes globally and drive change across organisations? More broadly, WALP signals Workato's commitment to women's leadership in tech — an industry where women hold only 28% of computing roles and far fewer C-suite positions. Programmes like this don't just develop individual leaders; they change organisational culture. When companies invest in women's development deliberately and visibly, it sends a message to all employees about who belongs in leadership. Representation matters.
 

5) What advice do you have for fresh graduates or professionals making a mid-career switch who are looking to navigate the realm of tech and AI?

The tech sector rewards mindset over skillset. I came into tech with no tech background, and have been relentless about upskilling. I learnt from my leaders and teammates, pursued courses that hone my craft, regularly experimented with new capabilities, and also adjunct lectured at Nanyang Polytechnic's HR Analytics programme because teaching forces me to stay sharp. That said, my non-tech background is possibly my superpower. While technical experts can explain how something works, I can translate why it matters and what it enables.

For fresh graduates entering tech, know that your willingness to learn will be your biggest asset, not your field of study. Tech companies need people who understand customers, markets, and human behaviour. Demonstrate capability through action: build projects, contribute to communities, create content. Join hackathons, attend meetups, engage on LinkedIn, seek mentors, and volunteer with organisations. Opportunities flow through networks. For me, every role I took on in my career taught me something new: legal work taught me to think systemically, business development taught me to sell a vision, running RACE taught me to build from zero and empower a team, and HR taught me that at the heart of every business transformation is a people transformation.

For professionals pivoting from non-tech industries, your experience is an asset. Tech companies need diverse perspectives, so frame your transition as bringing domain expertise to tech, not abandoning your past. Upskill strategically — I earned Workato certifications not to become an engineer, but to have credible conversations. Be clear about your goals and leverage your unique background.
 

6) There's currently a lot of anxiety and uncertainty surrounding AI and how it will affect the future of work. What are your views on this, and how do you think fresh graduates can thrive in this climate?

The anxiety around AI is real, but so are the opportunities that come along with it. Our Chief Go-To-Market Officer reframes it brilliantly: "human in the lead, not just human in the loop." The future isn't humans or AI — it's humans leading with AI. AI can draft emails, analyse data, generate code, but it needs human judgment for strategy, ethics, and context. The most valuable workers won't resist AI; they'll orchestrate it effectively while leading with empathy.

So while AI will displace certain tasks, especially repetitive, rule-based work, it also frees us to do more meaningful work. Growing up, I watched my mother pivot to become a special needs teacher and my father transition from a lab technician to a union leader. They taught me that purposeful work requires reinvention, and opportunities are plentiful if you embrace change. This philosophy shapes how I work: I strive to work myself out of every job I do. To prepare for an AI-powered future, we need to multiply our impact beyond what we can achieve alone — by building systems and empowering people, not creating dependencies.

Singapore is uniquely positioned because we've always invested in our people. Through partnerships between the government, industry, community, and academia, like our AI Institute Alliance and AI lab, we're building an agile workforce that can navigate this transition successfully. Ultimately, tech is a mindset: it’s about solving problems creatively, embracing change, and believing tomorrow can be better than today. If you have that mindset, you can thrive in tech.