Two major European tech events. One consistent theme. If VivaTech Paris and GITEX AI Europe Berlin made anything clear, it’s that third-party risk has stopped being a niche compliance concern and become a boardroom-level question, across every market we visited.
Here’s what came up again on the floor and why it matters as we head into B2B Tech Asia in Jakarta :
“We Have a Vendor List. We Don’t Have Vendor Confidence”
This was, by far, the most common framing from conversations at both events. Companies aren’t short on vendor data; they have spreadsheets, questionnaires, and risk registers going back years. What they don’t have is confidence that any of it reflects current reality.
That gap between having data and trusting data is exactly the problem a verification-first approach is built to close.
AI Is Everywhere in the Conversation, Including the Risk Side
Unsurprisingly, AI dominated the conversation at both VivaTech and GITEX AI Europe. But the angle security leaders kept returning to wasn’t “how do we use AI faster”, but it was “how do we assess the AI vendors we’re already bringing in.”
New AI tools are being adopted faster than most procurement and security teams can properly vet them. That’s created a fresh wave of third-party risk that didn’t exist in this form even two years ago: vendors whose core product is a model nobody outside their walls can fully audit.
Regulation Is No Longer a Europe-Only Conversation
At GITEX AI Europe specifically, we heard from teams operating across the EU, UK, and Gulf region who were tracking NIS2 and DORA obligations alongside region-specific frameworks. The pattern was clear: multinational teams don’t want five different compliance processes for five different regions. They want one verification standard that can flex across jurisdictions.
That’s a theme we expect to hear again in Jakarta, where APAC-specific frameworks add another layer for teams operating regionally.
What This Means Heading into B2B Tech Asia
akarta brings a different mix of conversations: rapid digital growth, cross-border vendor relationships, and compliance teams often build TPRM processes from scratch rather than modernizing an existing one. The questions may sound different, but the underlying need is the same one we heard in Paris and Berlin; confidence, not just documentation.
Want to set up time to talk more than what we’ve had at B2B Tech Asia? [Reach out.]