CEO Update: Australia's AI game plan should make the most of our advantages

I’ve still got a spring in my step from CEDA’s AI Leadership Summit in Brisbane last week. Presented in partnership with the National AI Centre (NAIC), this annual summit has gone from strength to strength, attracting a sold-out audience of more than 600 attendees keen to hear from a stacked program of speakers.

Discussions focused on how Australia can best catch up and compete with the rest of the world. My simple takeaway: we need to create more AI skills and jobs and inject far greater dynamism into our economy.

While it might be tempting to follow the game plan of other countries, many of the conversations instead considered how we manage complexity and leverage areas where Australia has advantages, and where in the AI stack we can play in specialised ways, rather than replicating big general-purpose models.

I think all in the room were inspired by examples of Australia leading the world, including from Silicon Quantum Computing CEO and founder Michelle Simmons, and excited by the opportunities of these truly breakthrough technologies.

We also heard from Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy Andrew Charlton, leading economist Daniel Susskind on the impact of AI on growth and jobs, and leaders from Nvidia and OpenAI to name a few.

While the Summit focused on big ideas, it also addressed actions for today, including improving AI literacy and ensuring that AI is adopted and used in a way that builds trust.

NAIC released updated guidance for Australian businesses on adopting AI safely and responsibly based on six practices – now nicknamed the ‘AI 6’ – which should go a long way to lifting AI take-up and trust.

Please check out the Summit content hub and our AI Community of Best Practice. As always, a huge thank you to our Summit partner Department of Industry, Science and Resources and NAIC; major sponsors Clayton Utz, KPMG, Amazon and Fujitsu; and supporting sponsors Actuaries Institute, Nous and RMIT University.

Over the past fortnight, members will have received a couple of important updates from us including a welcome email from our new Director, Membership and Impact Sam Mackay as well as our 2024-25 Impact Report.

We are continuing to reinforce our strategic purpose and intent, working with our members for collective impact across the economy in line with our Progress 2050 agenda. We are proud of our achievements to date, as outlined in the Impact Report, and are keen to do more with you. As always, if you have questions or ideas, please reach out to me and the team at CEDA.

In the coming weeks you will also see a refreshed events listing and booking section on our website. This is part of our ongoing work to improve our member experience.

With the Support at Home reforms coming into effect this weekend, there is a fair bit of focus on aged care. I will be in Perth later this week for Charting the Future of Aged Care: WA and will attend a summit on innovation in aged care in Canberra next week. I look forward to updating you on the insights gained from these events.

In other CEDA events, join us in Perth on November 5 for WA Energy Outlook, bringing the state’s diverse energy sector together to focus on the big opportunities for WA's energy leaders in a shifting global landscape.

As AI reshapes financial services, hear from two international executives from Block (formerly Square) on navigating AI integration and making hard choices between innovation and risk in fintech at AI: New frontiers in Fintech in Sydney on November 10.

And hear from Federal Minister for Aged Care and Seniors Sam Rae at Charting the Future of Aged Care on November 10 in Melbourne, as we examine new sector reforms and opportunities for providers to chart more sustainable models to meet growing demand.

To finish, I would like to warmly welcome CareerTrackers as a new CEDA member joining us this month.

Melinda Cilento
Chief Executive, CEDA