Peter Bauld

Scoop: OpenAI has signed its first ever Australia government contract, quietly inking a deal with Treasury amid the ChatGPT-maker's charm offensive on policymakers. This modest contract is an ideal foothold into future, more lucrative deals, according to one firm's analysis. https://lnkd.in/grB6CRmb

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Energised after an insightful and empowering Abundium Sisterhood session with Dr Kellie Nuttall, National Lead Partner, AI Institute, Deloitte yesterday on the state of AI in Australia and what it means for C-Suite leaders! Sharing some reflections: • AI is not just a technology play, it’s a business strategy play. The CEO is the most important driver of adoption and impact. • AI fluency at the top matters, boards and executives must balance ethics, innovation and organisational redesign while keeping human connection at the centre. • The opportunity is bigger than productivity. It’s about reimagining business models, customer relationships and even what a business is. • Loved one of Kellie's practical tips: create your own GPT-powered virtual advisory board of thinkers you admire, a sparring partner in your pocket! The challenge: moving from pilots to scale, from disconnected use cases to true transformation, and from productivity to imagination. The question I left with: Are we ready, as leaders, organisations and a nation to not just adopt AI, but to shape the market before it shapes us? Thank you Kellie for such a rich and future-stretching conversation 🙏 Would love to hear from the LinkedIn community, how are you and your organisation approaching AI right now: as a productivity tool, a growth driver, or a way to reimagine the business? #Abundium #Sisterhood #Leadership #AI #FutureofWork #CourageousLeadership

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Chris Crozier (GAICD), the top tech guy for the Department of Defence, has described market-leading global platforms as offering the right architecture for the kind of digital resilience the federal government needs. Joining a panel to discuss how to build the foundations for a future-ready government, Defence’s chief information officer told an audience of public sector IT and data leaders that choosing so-called “best-in-class” technology platforms would attract the best talent. “Underpinning that we need best-in-class sovereign capability as well, and a number of the [private sector representatives here] today are part of our sovereign ecosystem,” Crozier told an audience in Canberra. The conversation also included ACT government chief digital officer Bettina Konti and ATO cyber security and service manager deputy commissioner Michael Rowell led by business leader David Thodey. #defence #technology #canberra https://lnkd.in/gbJfvcp3

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Federal Roundtable Risks Missing the $116 Billion AI Prize The Australian Treasurer’s Economic Reform Roundtable begins today, and it’s already overlooking the single biggest lever for productivity this century: Artificial Intelligence. From the steam engine to the internet, every major leap in productivity has been driven by technology. AI is the next, and perhaps the most transformative, step. The Productivity Commission estimates Australia could gain $116 billion if we accelerate AI adoption. Yet when Treasurer Jim Chalmers gathers a star-studded guest list in Canberra, few in the room will have the expertise to speak with authority on the AI challenge. This is not a minor omission. And I will find it particularly ironic if the 900 submissions have been summarised by Generative AI, instead of having a credible resource in the room. Australia’s problem is not that we lack access to AI tools, it’s that we don’t trust them. Not as individuals, not as consumers, and certainly not in the C-suite. The evidence is stark. A recent KPMG and University of Melbourne study of 48,000 people across 47 countries found Australia ranked dead last in believing AI’s benefits outweigh its risks - just 30 per cent of Australians agreed. Without trust, adoption (and productivity) will stall. Trust rests on two pillars: transparency and data sovereignty. Transparency means knowing what data an AI model was trained on, how it was obtained, and what biases are embedded. That’s not information we will get from a US mega-tech provider - not now, not ever. Data sovereignty means ensuring Australian data stays under Australian control, from storage to processing. Many “onshore” AI services quietly send your information offshore for processing on GPUs located in the US, Brazil or beyond. Most Australians have no idea this is happening. If we want teachers, doctors, lawyers - anyone in critical roles - to embrace AI, they must know the systems they use are trained on Australian-relevant data and their inputs never leave our jurisdiction. This is achievable through sovereign models and federated learning, where data is used for training without ever leaving the state in which it resides. Tesla chair Robyn Denholm is right to warn that we are still in “inning zero” of the AI game and that if we only adopt AI, we might see a $115 billion benefit, but if we build and own the technology, the returns could be ten times greater. That future won’t happen without urgent action now. Yet none of this will reach the Treasurer’s ears if the right voices aren’t in the room. By ignoring AI trust, the roundtable risks squandering the $116 billion productivity prize. If we fail to act now, Australia will fall further behind and no amount of post-summit spin will disguise that failure.

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50% of Australians say access to nature is what makes a place liveable. Why isn’t that in our definition of productivity? The RBA defines productivity as output per hour worked. Useful, yes. But incomplete. Because productivity isn’t built in spreadsheets — it’s built in communities. The Living in Australia 2025 survey asked nearly 5,000 people what makes a place liveable. 50% said access to nature — behind only safety and affordable housing. Australians rated access to green space 7.6/10 nationally — compared with just 4.5/10 for housing. And those with excellent access to nature reported better health (7.0 vs 5.9/10), lower stress, and stronger community ties. That’s not lifestyle fluff. That’s productivity. Healthy, connected communities mean stronger workforce participation, lower health costs, and more resilient local economies. Yet too often, housing growth is planned without accounting for green space, transport or health access. At .id, this is why we build independent, hyper-local evidence bases: to give leaders the full picture of place when making decisions that shape our future. It’s time to expand Australia’s definition of productivity — from measuring outputs, to recognising the liveability foundations that truly drive them.

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Research analysing 26,000+ startups globally reveals founder personalities predict success with 82.5% accuracy. Teams combining diverse personality types are twice as likely to achieve successful exits. Six distinct founder personalities identified, from technical "Fighters" to business-focused "Leaders." For Australian innovation policy, this suggests moving beyond supporting individual entrepreneurs to fostering personality-diverse founding teams through redesigned incubators, immigration policies, and university programs : https://wix.to/8p5cYKm #Leadership #InnovationPolicy #StartupSuccess

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Deloitte has been caught blatantly using AI to generate reports for commissioned consulting projects and will now repay the Albanese government after using AI in a $440,000 report, a fact uncovered by a professor on the government committee.It’s not about one firm or one government. Governments across the world should be cautious about blindly trusting consultants who are often not subject-matter experts, but rather glorified salespeople.

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Trust, Attitudes and Use of Artificial Intelligence | prepared by KPMG in collaboration with The University of Melbourne This report examines the evolving landscape of #AI adoption, #publictrust, and organizational deployment strategies, highlighting the nuanced interplay between technological capability, regulatory frameworks, and societal perception. Drawing on survey data from over 5,400 participants across #Australia, #theUnitedKingdom, and #theUnitedStates, and interviews with 87 senior executives, the study situates AI not merely as a tool but as a socio-technical system where trust, governance, and ethical alignment directly impact adoption rates and value creation. The research frames AI deployment within three interdependent dimensions: organizational readiness, user perception, and accountability mechanisms, revealing systemic disparities across sectors and geographies that influence both uptake and efficacy. Quantitative findings underscore the critical role of trust in AI adoption: 64% of respondents expressed cautious optimism about AI’s benefits, yet only 38% indicated strong confidence in existing oversight mechanisms. In organizations actively deploying AI, 71% reported integrating ethical review boards or AI governance committees, yet only 29% had formalized explainability protocols for end-users. Cross-sector analysis highlights that highly regulated industries such as finance and healthcare demonstrate higher trust scores—averaging 58%—relative to #consumertech and #retail, where confidence falls to 41%. Moreover, AI literacy emerged as a significant predictor of acceptance: participants with moderate to high AI familiarity were 2.3 times more likely to endorse AI-assisted decision-making in critical operations, emphasizing the interaction between competence, transparency, and trust. The report introduces a conceptual framework of “Trust-Enabled AI,” integrating perceptions, governance structures, and adoption metrics into a single evaluative model. Pilot case studies illustrate that firms embedding continuous monitoring, algorithmic transparency, and stakeholder engagement in AI systems achieve adoption rates 22–27% higher than peers with minimal governance interventions. Additionally, public sentiment analysis reveals that narrative framing and proactive communication about AI limitations can improve perceived legitimacy, thereby mitigating reputational and #operationalrisks. In summary, AI adoption and efficacy are inextricably linked to the triad of trust, competence, and governance. Building resilient AI ecosystems requires organizations to implement robust oversight, enhance user literacy, and align algorithmic decision-making with societal values. The findings signal that without deliberate #investment in trust infrastructure, AI #risks engendering skepticism and uneven uptake, undermining its transformative potential across both public and private sectors.

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