Advertise on podcast: AI Australia Podcast

In today's episode we speak to Samantha Garrett (AI & Automation Platform Lead at Canva) who reveals Canva's internal roadmap for deploying AI across business units, balancing user freedom with enterprise risk. Canva's AI journey moved from "AI everywhere" to "AI impact" and then "AI native". Now Samantha Garrett believes the next phase is AI accountability. The experimentation honeymoon is ending, the bills are arriving, and organisations need to know whether their AI spend is creating genuine value. Samantha explains why usage metrics are not the same as ROI, how to encourage experimentation without wasting money, and why AI financial literacy may become one of the most important leadership challenges of the next few years. Key takeaways from this episode: Multi-Model Strategy: Why Canva gives employees total choice between Claude, Glean, ChatGPT, and Gemini. Automation vs. Pure AI: Why the biggest operational wins come from combining automation platforms with AI. Measuring What Matters: Why traditional ROI frameworks fail for personal productivity, and how to measure real team transformation. Navigating AI Fatigue: How leaders can support their teams through constant tech disruption and burnout. Essential insights for CTOs, CDOs, and business leaders seeking a real-world playbook for enterprise AI adoption.

Most organisations treat AI governance as the thing that slows innovation down. Luli Adeyemo believes the opposite is true. A technology executive, entrepreneur and former BMX world champion, Luli has spent decades breaking into rooms where she was not expected to belong. Now she is challenging leaders to rethink what responsible AI looks like—and who gets to define it. She explains why appointing a single "AI person" is not governance, why a policy document cannot replace shared accountability, and why the best governing body looks more like a complete executive team than a compliance tick box. This is a practical and provocative conversation about moving fast without moving blindly: building AI literacy, bringing the right perspectives into decisions and creating the confidence to innovate safely. If you'd like to find out more about the AI Governance Practitioners Programme, run by Tech Diversity, which Luli talks about during the show you can find out more here.

As part of our Aussie Start-Up Series we talk to Jo Thomas, founder of Enrola  an AI sales agent platform helping B2C sales teams convert more leads into customers. Jo and her co-founder have built an AI sales agent that her own customers now refer to by name, and love. In this episode, she breaks down the maths behind why a $80,000-a-year employee might only be delivering $15,000 of real value, why AI works best as an amplifier for humans rather than a replacement, and where she draws a hard line: no AI should be helping someone choose their health insurance or their degree. A clear-eyed look at where automation earns its place, and where it doesn't.

Everyone's convinced AI is coming for engineering jobs. Tom Goerke, National President of Engineers Australia, thinks that fear is almost exactly backwards, and he's got 19th-century coal miners to prove it. In this episode, Tom unpacks Jevons' paradox: the counterintuitive economic pattern where making something more efficient doesn't reduce demand for it, it explodes it. He walks through what that means for software engineers right now (spoiler: more code is being written than ever, and more bugs with it), why "coders are the typists of the '70s," and why the real crisis isn't job losses, it's a widening skills gap between engineers who've mastered AI and everyone else. We also cover the one stat that stopped us in our tracks: 66% of engineers have had zero formal AI training from their employer.

Lee Hickin has spent 30 years at the frontier of technology, from IBM and AWS to serving as CTO of Microsoft Australia. Now, as Executive Director of the National AI Centre, he's asking a confronting question of every boardroom in Australia: when the risk and the opportunity depends on AI, who in the room is actually the expert? In this episode, Lee breaks down why AI governance is failing in most organisations, what boards and executives must do differently right now, and why he believes Australia's greatest risk isn't moving too fast, it's not moving with enough confidence. Lee's view is that many Australian boards are fundamentally unprepared for the AI decisions landing on their desks, that technology literacy must become a first-class citizen in board composition, and that the greatest failure isn't having an AI incident, it's not knowing how to respond when you do. We also discussed that we might be underestimating Australia's sovereign AI, with Australia's AI-start up community showing true innovation and not just building more AI product bolt-ons. This is a conversation about courage, governance, and what it means to lead in an age defined by a technology that changes everything.

Before ChatGPT changed everything, Arvind Jain was already four years deep into solving a problem every knowledge worker knows but no one had fixed: why is it so impossible to find anything at work? In this episode, the CEO of Glean, the enterprise AI platform used by some of the world's most iconic companies, takes us inside the founding story that started not in a garage, but in the wreckage of hypergrowth. When his previous company grew from 500 to 2,000 people in a single year, things started to break. Software releases stalled, teams lost each other, and the lowest-scoring question in their employee survey? Do I have the information I need to do my job? That moment of failure became a billion-dollar idea. Arvind opens up about his time in the early days of Google, co-founding Rubrik, and then walking away from success, again to build something that didn't exist yet. This one is for anyone who's ever wasted an afternoon searching for a file that should have taken 30 seconds to find.

Why are the world's most powerful executives "resting and vesting" in the corner instead of innovating? Dom Price joins the podcast to discuss the psychological warfare happening inside modern boardrooms. He breaks down his "Minus 1, 0, plus 1" framework, a strategic ladder for moving from fixing broken processes to discovering "net new" value that didn't exist two years ago. From the importance of human-in-the-loop coaching to the surprising power of storytelling in a digital age, Dom shares how to build a psychologically safe environment where experimentation is rewarded and AI becomes an amplifier for human genius, not a replacement for it.  Dom is a work futurist, formerly Atlassian's in-house team doctor, where he helped scale one of Australia's great tech success stories from 600 people to over 16,000. He's a director of Deloitte alumni, a TED speaker, a keynote provocateur who's taken his ideas across 53 countries and someone who genuinely believes that AI isn't our biggest challenge right now, people are. Dom is now a leader at Be Luminous, who are helping organisations spark movements, accelerate impact and unlock the full potential of their people.

What if the knowledge locked inside the heads of the world's most elite scientists could be downloaded into a "nervous system" for everyone? Craig Rayner spent decades watching life-saving drugs fail simply because the right person wasn't in the room. Now, he's built a Peer Review Agent that mimics a full development committee with 95% accuracy. We discuss the white-knuckle ride of leaving a high-flying corporate career to democratize medicine, the "Kodak moments" facing the industry, and why he believes it is now "unethical" not to use AI to save lives. Oktopi's purpose is to democratise world-class drug development expertise: embedding it within human-guided, AI-enabled workflows and amplifying innovation through a connected global community.

Can AI truly understand the nuances of a busy commercial kitchen or a retail floor? Ciaran and Deepesh from Deputy join the podcast to discuss the journey of launching Deputy AI, an agentic framework designed specifically for the mobile-first, fast-paced world of frontline work. We delve into the Deputy's unique approach to early testing with customers, the challenges of driving AI literacy amongst non-desk workers, and why the next frontier of workforce management might be entirely voice-activated. Plus, hear about their personal "life-hack" AI agents: from managing global friend groups to optimising solar energy at home.

In the world of FinTech, there are those who talk about AI, and those who ship it. Tracy Moore, GM of AI and Data at MYOB, is firmly in the latter camp. In this episode, Tracy reveals how one of Australia's leading tech innovators is leveraging the latest in generative tech to solve the most enduring challenges for small businesses: time and cash flow. We explore the "AI Sandwich"—a framework for understanding that while the "filling" (the LLM) is exciting, the "bread" (data foundations and UX) is what actually determines success.  Tracy shares a masterclass in building a culture of "AI as a team sport," where cross-functional ambition meets practical execution. From managing parallel streams of "no-regrets" features to exploring the exciting white space of autonomous agents, this conversation is a roadmap for any leader looking to turn complex tech into beautiful, human-centric products. Tracy shares her personal experience of "Vibe Coding" as a modern love language, and why the secret to high-performing AI teams might actually just be... more cake. Key Takeaways: The 20/80 Rule: Why successful AI products are 20% technology and 80% organisational mindset. Building Beautiful UX: Moving beyond the chatbox to create intuitive, invisible AI experiences. The Power of Ambition: How MYOB's executive team set the tone for ambitious AI goals. Practical Guardrails: The importance of "Steel Threads" and rolling out agents gradually to ensure mission-critical accuracy.

We change things up in today's episode and grill two Mantel Leaders, Samuel Irvine Casey and Vihan Patel, who have been in the trenches over the past 12 months building AI and Agentic Solutions. They help us unpack 2025 and predict what 2026 will bring including: The ROI Reality Check: As the hype of 2025 settles, 2026 is framed as the year of accountability, where organisations must prove the economic value of their AI deployments. The Token Economy: we deep dive into the sustainability of AI costs, questioning whether Silicon Valley will continue to subsidise token prices or if costs will spike as models move into high-scale production. Knowledge Collapse & Ethics: We explore the risks of "AI feeding on AI," the potential loss of critical thinking as we increasingly rely on AI generated knowledge, and the importance of new Australian legislation regarding AI traceability. The AGI Debate: we question how imminent "Artificial General Intelligence," including how current progress is driven more by clever engineering and high token usage than a fundamental breakthrough in machine consciousness. If you want to hear more about Samuel's lessons learnt from building Agentic Systems take a look at his blog from 2025: https://mantelgroup.com.au/taking-agents-to-production-our-agentic-ai-approach/

Forget building dashboards! The CEO of ThoughtSpot reveals how conversational AI is killing traditional business intelligence and putting a personal, 24/7 data analyst on every employee's desktop. Are you ready to fire your dashboard and start talking to your data and can you trust the answer when you do? In this episode, we talk to Ketan Karkhanis the CEO of Thoughtspot, a former Salesforce and Cisco executive, who explains that "AI is the new BI," arguing that businesses should stop building dashboards and start having conversations with their data. He introduces ThoughtSpot's AI agent, which acts as a personal analyst that provides actionable insights (what, why, and what to do next), with a new "A-Team" of specialised BI agents coming soon. To address trust issues, we explore who you can use deterministic analytics and transparency to combat AI hallucinations and secure enterprise adoption. Ultimately, Keten stresses that successful AI integration—like automating data modeling or transforming his own staff meetings—must be tied to clear corporate ROI and a culture that empowers change across the organization. Read Mantel's recent take on Natural Lanugage insight tools: https://mantelgroup.com.au/dashboards-natual-language-insights/

Discover how Swimming Australia is diving deep into data and AI to secure Olympic gold! Today we chat to Jess Coronas, Head of Performance Insights at Swimming Australia, and discuss the digital transformation journey of Swimming Australia. From the initial ideation and data driven insights to the development of the groundbreaking Training Insights platform, powered by cutting edge computer vision techniques. Learn why human-in-the-loop AI is crucial for coach buy-in, how data creates a competitive edge, and the future vision for scaling analytics from the 50m sprint to the 1500m race. It's a masterclass in applying design thinking and marginal gains to a high-stakes, world-class sporting environment. Learn more about Mantel and AWS partnering to support Swimming Australia and their Training Insights platform:

What does factory floorplan design during the Industrial Revolution have to do with re-imagining user experiences in the ages of AI? In today's episode, we chat to Dr. Haijun Xia, an assistant professor at UC San Diego and Director of the Foundation Interface Lab, discussing the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Dr. Xia, whose work focuses on developing foundational interfaces for the future information environment, explains HCI in simple terms and outlines the criteria for a good user experience, emphasising the need for interfaces that leverage and amplify human cognitive abilities while introducing new capabilities smoothly. We discuss the shift from "one-size-fits-all" interfaces to adaptive and personalised experiences driven by AI and how large language models, allow users to interact at a higher level, simply stating their problem instead of manually performing low-level system manipulations. The conversation delves into the future of product design, including the prospect of personal AI agents that interact with software via APIs on the user's behalf, creating a "digital version of ourselves" and influencing how new products must be designed for both humans and agents.  To find out more about Mantel's partnership with Dr Haijun Xia and download our recent white paper: https://mantelgroup.com.au/mantel-partners-with-ux-leader-and-expert-dr-haijun-xia-to-advance-next-generation-ai-experiences/ Want more detail on Mantel's Exec AI Literacy, visit our website: https://mantelgroup.com.au/ai-executive-literacy-program/

Join us for a conversation with Sharryn Napier, Vice President for APAC at GitHub, as she discusses leading the company's strategic direction and business growth across the region. Sharryn talks to GitHub's evolution from a code storage platform to the world's leading platform for building software with AI, now supporting over 150 million developers. The episode explores the democratising power of AI in software development, through tools like GitHub Copilot, which lowers the barrier to entry (even for non-coders) and addresses challenges like the language barrier in coding for non-native English speakers. We discuss how enterprise customers, like the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), are leveraging AI coding agents to manage and refactor significant legacy tech debt, seeing projects completed in a fraction of the time. She highlights that the "risk of not moving fast enough" with AI is now a greater concern than the risk of adoption. The discussion also delves into regional challenges, particularly Australia's flatlining productivity and the tech skills gap. Sharon advocates for AI as a mechanism to work "smarter" and compete globally. She also addresses the future of the developer role, viewing AI as a tool for augmentation, not replacement, that handles tedious tasks, increasing developer happiness, creativity, and shifting the role toward that of an orchestrator.