We went to SuperAI 2026 so you didn’t have to spend thousands.

Three days. Dozens of speakers. Hundreds of conversations. One clear signal: AI is no longer a future bet — it is becoming a present-day competitive advantage.

At Istana Partners, we invest in and AI-transform Southeast Asian SMEs through technology-driven operational value creation.

Here were some of the biggest takeaways from our conversations on the floor across the week:

Notion:
SMEs looking to build in-house AI capabilities should hire strong FDEs and align them with ESOPs and equity incentives. The best AI talent performs differently when they have genuine skin in the game.

Mistral AI:
Businesses deploying AI strategically are already seeing real-world use cases achieve 10–100x impact today across productivity, decision-making and operational leverage.

Revio Labs:
The best AI systems are not just automated — they are repeatable, context-adaptable and scalable across functions.

Great conversations as well with SkyLab Group and many others across the ecosystem. The energy around AI adoption is real, and we are only in the early innings.

AI adoption is a national competitiveness and business survival conversation.

Excited for Istana Partners to be at the forefront of building the next generation of private equity.

We strongly believe AI will fundamentally elevate the PE model — shifting the industry from financial engineering towards technology-driven operational value creation at scale.