The Kind of Moment You Don't Plan For
On February 14, 2026, Pertamina Foundation celebrated its 15th anniversary in Jakarta. The event brought together directors, commissioners, strategic partners, and team members from across the Pertamina (Persero) group. There were MoU signings with 23 partners, a tablebook launch, panel discussions, and exhibition booths showcasing the foundation's programs.
Our team at Pertamina Foundation had been asked to prepare a gallery walk showcasing our Digital Initiatives. The plan was straightforward: present the technology platforms we had been building, explain the impact, and let visitors try them firsthand. I had spent weeks preparing the display, refining the demos, making sure every click path worked, every number was accurate, every story was clear.
What I did not fully prepare for was who would be walking up to it.
The Gallery Walk
We showcased two platforms:
PF Series 2.0, an end-to-end digitalization system for Pertamina Foundation's social programs, which I lead as the architect. What used to be scattered across dozens of spreadsheets is now a single platform serving 5,000+ scholarship recipients, 50+ programs, and 900+ UMKM partners. The highlight we brought to the gallery walk was AI Interview, a real-time AI interview screening feature powered by the OpenAI Realtime API. It runs entirely in the browser with live voice conversations, designed to help the foundation screen scholarship applicants at scale. We had it running live for visitors to try firsthand.
PF Lestari (pflestari.id), our AI-powered biodiversity monitoring platform. It tracks 2,000+ hectares of reforestation land and over 5 million planted trees across Indonesia. The platform uses drone-based LIDAR mapping for 3D terrain models, AI-powered tree counting, and a public portal for transparency. We had the actual DJI Matrice drone on display, which turned out to be quite the conversation starter.
A laptop sat on the table for live demos, and a large TV screen mirrored the applications so everyone nearby could follow along.
Then They Walked In
The exhibition had been running for a while when a group approached our display. I recognized them immediately.
Mochamad Iriawan, Komisaris Utama (President Commissioner) of PT Pertamina (Persero). A retired four-star Police General and former Chief of the National Police of the Republic of Indonesia.
Condro Kirono, Komisaris Independen (Independent Commissioner) of PT Pertamina (Persero). A retired Police Major General with decades of leadership experience.
Simon Aloysius Mantiri, Direktur Utama (CEO) of PT Pertamina (Persero). The person at the very top of Indonesia's largest state-owned energy company.
Agus Mashud S. Asngari, Presiden Direktur (President Director) of Pertamina Foundation. My own CEO, and the person who believed in me enough to entrust me with leading the foundation's digitalization initiatives.
They stopped at our display. They asked questions. And then they wanted to try it themselves.
The Demo
Pak Gusman, our Director of Operations, opened the gallery walk by presenting the history of Pertamina Foundation and UPer partnerships over the past 15 years. Then the group moved to the right side of our display, where PF Series 2.0 and PF Lestari were showcased.
That was when it came to me to demo the highlight of PF Series 2.0: AI Interview. I opened the app and Pak Iriawan stepped forward to try it himself. Talking to an AI interviewer in real time, hearing it respond with natural voice, getting instant feedback. The others watched closely, genuinely curious, asking questions, smiling at how natural the conversation felt. Watching Pertamina (Persero)'s Komisaris Utama talk to an AI interviewer we built was surreal.
The whole interaction lasted maybe eight to ten minutes. But those were eight to ten minutes where the top leadership of Pertamina (Persero) was experiencing something we built firsthand and seeing the value in it.
What It Meant
I want to be honest about what this felt like. I was nervous. These are people who oversee a company with hundreds of thousands of employees and operations spanning the entire Indonesian archipelago. Their time is measured in minutes, and they chose to spend some of those minutes at our display.
For someone who started as an intern at a Pertamina (Persero) refinery, writing small tools to help an HR department work faster, standing in front of the CEO of the entire Pertamina (Persero) group and presenting my work was not something I ever mapped out on a career plan. It just happened because I kept building things, kept solving problems that were in front of me, and kept saying yes when opportunities came.
I am deeply grateful to Pak Agus, Pak Gusman, and Pak Tito, our three directors at Pertamina Foundation, for believing in our digital vision and trusting me to lead it. And to Pak Ikhsan, our VP of HCBS, for the continued support. I am also grateful to our team at Pertamina Foundation who helped set up the gallery walk, test the demos, and make sure everything ran smoothly on the day.
Building technology is one thing. Having the people at the very top of your organization see it, understand it, and appreciate it is something else entirely.
The Road Ahead
This moment was validation, but it was not the finish line. PF Series 2.0 is still growing. AI Interview is still in its early stages. PF Lestari has thousands more hectares to cover. There are features to ship, bugs to fix, users to listen to, and problems we have not even discovered yet.
If anything, standing in front of Pertamina (Persero)'s top leadership reminded me how much further we still have to go. The road ahead is long, and that is exactly what makes it exciting.
For the Builders
If you are early in your career and wondering whether the small tools you build, the side projects you tinker with, or the initiative you take to fix something that bugs you actually matter: they do. You never know who will end up seeing your work.
Keep building. Keep shipping. The right people will notice.
