CEO Insights Magazine

As AI continues to revolutionize industries and technological advancements accelerate, businesses face growing pressure to become tech-enabled with speed and precision. This shift presents a transformative opportunity for IT service providers to guide organizations in integrating AI-driven tools, like GPT models, into their operations. However, achieving this requires not just technical expertise but also visionary leadership capable of staying ahead of the technology curve. At the forefront of this evolution is Alain F, CEO of You Source. Under his leadership, You Source has consistently delivered forward-thinking solutions, leveraging deep technical knowledge and strategic foresight to help businesses integrate AI seamlessly and navigate an ever-changing digital landscape.

A techie at heart, Alain is fuelled by a passion for innovation and delivering transformative solutions through technology. A computer science graduate, Alain’s leadership focuses on leveraging emerging technologies to empower businesses in adopting AI and automation seamlessly. Through his forwardthinking approach, he ensures You Source remains a leader in the industry, meeting the evolving needs of clients.

You have a stellar academic background. Could you tell us how your journey took you to incepting You Source? I am a computer science graduate from a Dutch university of applied sciences. Growing up in the Netherlands, I began my career as a software developer in Africa, where I worked for five years. Starting as a junior developer, I quickly advanced to the role of CTO, where I honed my ability to align technology with strategic goals. In 2012, I founded You Source in the Philippines with a clear vision, which is to build a company that bridges innovative technology with evidence-driven solutions. At You Source, this means prioritizing measurable value, leveraging proven frameworks, and eliminating unnecessary complexity to deliver high-performing software tailored to both immediate needs and longterm growth opportunities.

How do you foster a culture of innovation among your team? What methodologies do you follow as a leader? I believe innovation thrives when the end goal is clear and quantifiable. In my early career as a junior developer, I had the freedom to experiment and made every mistake in the book. While this was a valuable learning experience, it showed me the importance of setting clear objectives to minimize avoidable errors and keep efforts focused.  As I advanced to a CTO role, I realized that clearly articulating the end goal not only guides the team but also simplifies the path to achieving results. Building on this understanding, I focus on cultivating a culture of innovation by providing teams with the right tools, frameworks, and a safe environment to explore ideas and even fail. I believe failure, when managed well, becomes a great learning opportunity. What methods do you employ to stay informed of the latest technological advances/trends in the market? I’ve always had a passion for technology, and I consider myself a techie at heart. Even though my role is now more high-level, especially when it comes to building architectures and solutions, I still stay closely connected to the technical side. I enjoy reading about new technologies whenever I have the opportunity, and I constantly think about how emerging technologies could be applied. Our team also plays a big role in staying informed. I keep an open ear for suggestions from them, as they often recommend new technologies for us to experiment with. Sometimes, we adopt these technologies early on. 

What is your take towards dynamic technology trends in the industry? I believe one of the most significant trends in the industry right now is the global talent shortage, particularly in the IT sector. As companies increasingly seek to leverage AI, there is a growing demand for skilled professionals who can integrate these technologies into their operations. This presents a big opportunity for us as an IT service provider. We are already working with companies, including SMEs, to help them become AI-enabled by integrating tools such as GPT models into their systems.

This trend is only going to intensify in the coming years, with no signs of slowing down. I believe we’re well-positioned to not only meet this demand but to take a leadership role in our region by staying ahead of these trends and helping our clients navigate this fast-evolving landscape.

What is your vision for You Source over the next five years? How are you aligning it with AI-driven industry trends? I have a well-structured, growth-oriented plan for the next few years to drive the development of the company. Recently, we established an ambitious long-term goal, which hasn’t been publicly disclosed yet. Over the last six months, I’ve been focusing on laying the groundwork, particularly by building and strengthening key capabilities such as business intelligence, automation, and integration, areas closely tied to the growing influence of AI. For this year, our efforts are centred around enhancing these capabilities and adapting to industry demands. Embracing AI is a crucial part of our strategy. Looking ahead, I believe developers will increasingly rely on AI and developers themselves will spend more effort at the end of the workflow, using it to generate and assemble parts of the code. While I don’t anticipate AI being advanced enough to autonomously build entire systems within the next five to ten years, it will undoubtedly streamline parts of the development process. Companies that resist the integration of AI and automation risk falling behind. What are your current hobbies and interests? I’ve always been passionate about technology, and I have always been fascinated by the financial markets. During the pandemic, I had some extra time on my hands and decided to pursue this and taught myself how to write trading algorithms. Since financial data it is generally a random walk (with some drift and scaling), it is a never-ending learning curve to train AI and ML models for just minor optimizations. In the not too distant future, I hope to turn this hobby into a business. For the time being, it has also served me well in creating deeper knowledge in AI models, and to approach trading with a more mathematical approach by quantifying the targets and trusting the statistics. Alain F, CEO, You Source Alain is a tech visionary, known for seamlessly combining technical expertise with forwardthinking leadership, driving the integration of AI to redefine the future of business solutions.