AI Down Under

About AI Down Under

I interview AI experts in Australia.

Publisher

Mackenzie

Category

business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Jul 2026

Latest episode

26 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

12 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Aug 2026

   CTO (Ex-Google) Helps $10B Companies Use AI | Akhilesh Singh (CTO, Aviato Consulting)

   80% of the engineering on an AI project is not AI. It is cloud, data, networking, and security. Until that part is right the model has nothing to stand on. That is the view of a man who spent 9 years at Google as Head of APAC in their Customer Data Platform, and who now builds those foundations for companies turning over more than $10 billion. Akhilesh Singh is Chief Technology Officer at Aviato Consulting, the Sydney firm Google named its 2026 Cloud Partner of the Year for Australia and New Zealand. Founded in 2023 by former Googlers, Aviato builds the cloud, data and AI foundations underneath some of Australia's biggest companies, including Chemist Warehouse, Officeworks, Endeavour Group and Lendlease. Before Aviato, Akhilesh spent 9 years at Google as a cloud engineer and then Head of Customer Data Platform for APAC, leading the professional services team across Australia and New Zealand. Across a career of more than 20 years he has built petabyte scale data and machine learning systems at Walmart, Flipkart, Google and YouTube. If you have shopped on Walmart's website, something he built was working behind the scenes. CHAPTERS 0:00 The systems behind everything you buy online 1:20 Why he left nine years at Google 3:39 What Australia's biggest companies are asking for now 5:50 Why he says Google Cloud wins on AI 7:13 Open source models are still a factor of 10 out 9:00 The screening spot no human analyst would have picked 10:35 A genomics run that fell from thousands to tens of dollars 11:58 Why 80 percent of an AI project isn't AI 13:41 Winging a talk for thousands at Google Cloud Next 16:22 The conversation has moved from demos to production 17:06 What the companies actually getting a return do first 21:08 The companies quietly winning with AI since 2015 26:00 His 2030 bet on how many engineers there will be 28:31 Stop pointing AI at your cost base 31:01 Will coding still matter 33:55 "Go read C" and why he still means it 36:55 Specialise, or become replaceable 38:59 The apps he can break in ten minutes 39:45 The katana you cannot hand to a monkey 43:00 Where the LLM architecture actually stops 45:39 Why agents beat a smarter model 48:12 Robotics is next, and he is calling it CONTACT AKHILESH Akhilesh's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhilesh-singh-ml/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhilesh-singh-ml/) Aviato Consulting: https://www.aviato.consulting/ (https://www.aviato.consulting/) Aviato is hiring: https://careers.aviato.consulting (https://careers.aviato.consulting) vivaLAB, the genomics work he mentions: https://www.vivalab.health (https://www.vivalab.health) CONTACT MACKENZIE (YOUR HOST) My name's Mackenzie. Ex-KPMG consultant, built coaching and recruitment businesses to just under $2m in revenue, now all in on (and obsessed with) AI. I help Australian CEOs and founders hire AI, ML, data and software engineers, from first hire through to CTO, backed by a 40k+ LinkedIn network. I build with AI daily! If you're hiring, or working out where AI fits in your business, message me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson) Subscribe for more conversations with the people actually building AI in Australia!

2. 

   20 Aug 2026

   3x exit Aussie founder (ex-AWS, ex-Microsoft) | Nick Holmes à Court

   Nick Holmes à Court founded 3x VC backed startups (with exits). One of his companies, a sales marketplace with Stanford Endowment on the register, generated customers $100M in revenue. Now, he is Founder and CEO of Altitude Group, an agentic studio in Sydney that builds and operates agentic software factories. Before that he spent 4 years at AWS in venture capital business development, connecting founders to capital across Blackbird, Square Peg, AirTree, Peak XV, OneVentures and Startmate. He is also ex-Microsoft and ex-Betfair, he has been angel investing for 10+ years across 100+ companies that raised capital in North America, and he chairs Post Exit Founders in Australia. CHAPTERS 0:00 3 exits, and the agent studio he runs now 0:41 "How do I automate myself" 2:53 The brain he built so his agents decide the way he does 5:50 He asked it his hopes, fears and desires 7:07 How to build one, starting with your own data sources 9:00 The agent that builds his agents 9:40 The $5,000 bill that arrived in a day 10:50 The security hole most people miss 12:50 8 agents running, and none of them knew about each other 15:03 A tinny with a 400 horsepower engine 16:37 The AI events agent he built, then gave away 18:00 He hired an agentic CEO 19:07 The daily standup that made his agents start shipping 19:50 Every agent gets an adversary, and only 3 rounds 20:57 $2k in recurring revenue, then 45 competitors in 3 weeks 24:45 The wall between every founder and what they want 26:54 The barrier was $1M for a server. Now it's distribution 28:20 His brother in law's trading app, built in a hard hat 29:28 The one advantage nobody can vibe code 32:25 Inside Altitude Group, and the work he turns down 35:27 Why he thinks it's the worst time ever to be an entrepreneur 37:00 The vibe coded wave heading for production 38:10 Offensive cyber is booming, and the next Optus moment 39:47 The silly sounding business of 2031 41:30 "The best boss I've ever had", said about an agent 43:12 Sabots, printing presses and 60 year old truckers 44:50 Agents won't take your job. Humans running agents will 47:39 Clean fuel and dirty fuel 49:40 Build the thing you'd be delighted to use yourself CONTACT NICK Nick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nholmesacourt (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nholmesacourt) Altitude Group: https://altitudegroup.org (https://altitudegroup.org) CONTACT MACKENZIE (YOUR HOST) My name's Mackenzie. Ex-KPMG consultant, built coaching and recruitment businesses to just under $2m in total revenue, now all in on (and obsessed with) AI. I help Australian companies hire AI, data and software engineers, backed by a 40k+ LinkedIn network. If you're hiring, or working out where AI fits in your business, message me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson) Subscribe for more convos with the people building AI in Australia!

3. 

   15 Aug 2026

   The CEO Who Built Voice AI for Domino's | Kath Blackham (CEO, VERSA Agency)

   Kath Blackham built voice ordering for Domino's back when every single word a bot said had to be scripted. Then Amazon switched off the platform her entire business stood on. Kath is the Founder and CEO of VERSA, the Melbourne agency she started in 2010 that grew into one of Australia's first conversational AI agencies. Before that she was head of product at Seek and realestate.com.au (http://realestate.com.au), and helped float a business on the ASX that raised about $42 million. By 2017 she was selling voice AI to some of the biggest brands in the world, building on Amazon Alexa for Domino's, Netflix, Village Cinemas, Huggies, Pfizer and the American Red Cross, with 70 staff and offices around the world at the peak. VERSA has also run a four day work week for eight years. And at 19, before any of it, she opened one of the first foreign supermarkets in the Russian Far East. In this conversation she tells the story she says she's never told before. Amazon killed smart speaker skills in 2020, COVID landed the same year, she looked over the abyss financially, pivoted three times, raised money in the US and won Mint Mobile. Plus how the four day week really works (100 percent of the pay for 80 percent of the time at 100 percent productivity), why she calls it the antidote to AI, and her prediction that we will spend the next five years catching up to the technology we already have. CHAPTERS 0:00 The woman who goes in headfirst 1:16 Her first sale, a heavy metal festival 4:28 The trend she missed, and the one she caught 7:05 Hey Alexa, order my usual 8:18 Scripting all 27 ways to say hello 10:46 Netflix, Huggies and the Alexa skills era 12:19 Late 2022, when everything changed 14:03 Amazon switches off her platform 20:27 The story she's never told before 23:16 Three pivots, one lane, one mission 27:33 Gut over data 31:34 Eight years of the four day week 33:26 Measuring a four day week, and the antidote to AI 39:06 Her prediction, five years to catch up 46:37 Autonomous cars and what keeps her up at night 48:48 A business idea born live on air 54:56 Why do we still work five days? 56:57 Feel the fear, and your business is not your family 1:01:43 Wrapping up CONTACT KATH Kath's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathblackham/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathblackham/) VERSA: https://versa.agency (https://versa.agency) CONTACT MACKENZIE (YOUR HOST) My name's Mackenzie. Ex-KPMG consultant, built coaching and recruitment businesses to just under $2m in revenue, now all in on (and obsessed with) AI. I help Australian CEOs and founders hire AI, ML, data and software engineers, from first hire through to CTO, backed by a 40k+ LinkedIn network. I build with AI daily! If you're hiring, or working out where AI fits in your business, message me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson/) Subscribe for more conversations with the people actually building AI in Australia!

4. 

   12 Aug 2026

   Her Team Built an AI Brain ($2.1M Per Week) | Anneliese Urquhart (CPO & AI Lead, Think & Grow)

   Anneliese says many businesses that use AI to change how they operate are outpacing their peers on revenue growth by more than 2x, and the difference has almost nothing to do with the technology underneath. Her team just finished a live segmentation model for a med tech business that generates $2.1 million a week, new revenue and revenue saved combined. Anneliese is Chief Product Officer and AI Practice Lead at Think and Grow, a growth advisory business of more than 100 people based in Melbourne. She has spent more than 20 years building software platforms, including work with companies like Xero and Deloitte, and she has been running machine learning at commercial scale for more than a decade, well before Gen AI. She was CEO of the AI platform Amplified Intelligence, and she has been named one of the top women in media and adtech. In this interview, we get into the elephant problem, why she reaches for automation over AI more often than you would expect, the marketing team that shipped its own API keys inside a vibe coded app, and the build her team just delivered for a med tech business. CHAPTERS 0:00 The gap that widens every quarter 2:24 The businesses outpacing their peers by 2x 3:49 Why AI is not the change, data is 6:14 Every business has an elephant problem 10:00 Synthetic panels, richer personas, and your ideal salesperson 14:04 When automation is the better answer than AI 16:25 Where she would start with AI for an ordinary business 19:56 Data, tools, training or people - what goes in the roadmap 22:28 Centralise or decentralise? 25:37 The marketing team that shipped its API keys 30:34 The harness, the horse, and why model choice is a commercial lever 33:52 The build it or buy it test 38:04 The build that proved their ideal customer was not who they thought 44:07 Why an LLM is the most influential media ever made 48:08 The live segmentation model for a medtech 52:47 $2.1 million a week 54:19 The agent watching what competitors do 59:34 They are not resistant, they are overwhelmed CONTACT ANNELIESE Anneliese's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annelieseurquhart (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annelieseurquhart) Think and Grow: https://www.thinkandgrowinc.com (https://www.thinkandgrowinc.com) CONTACT MACKENZIE (YOUR HOST) My name's Mackenzie. Ex-KPMG consultant, built coaching and recruitment businesses to just under $2m in revenue, now all in on (and obsessed with) AI. I help Australian CEOs and founders hire AI, ML, data and software engineers, from first hire through to CTO, backed by a 40k+ LinkedIn network. I build with AI daily! If you're hiring, or working out where AI fits in your business, message me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson) Subscribe for more conversations with the people actually building AI in Australia!

5. 

   7 Aug 2026

   He Builds AI Agents For $15B Revenue Companies | JC Gosselin (Enterprise AI & Tech @ Terem)

   Most companies buy a pile of AI licences, watch usage peak in week 3, and by month 6 nothing has actually changed. Jean-Christophe (JC) Gosselin is Principal of Enterprise AI and Technology at Terem, an Australian tech consultancy. He has spent his career shipping data and machine learning inside large organisations, including loyalty and freight analytics in aviation, and these days running agentic engineering uplifts inside some of Australia's largest enterprises and government agencies. He is also French, an aviation geek, and the funniest man on Australian enterprise AI LinkedIn. In this conversation he walks through the 6 levels of agentic engineering in plain English, where Australian companies honestly sit on that ladder, what a 4 week uplift actually looks like inside a client, and why making your engineers 3 times faster can leave you no better off. CHAPTERS 0:00 The funniest man in Australian enterprise AI 1:21 Battle scars from real clients 2:47 The 6 levels of agentic engineering, in plain English 9:34 How companies actually move up the levels 13:42 Find the bottleneck before you automate anything 14:44 Restructuring a team without cutting it 16:49 What to measure, and the 3 hours per person per task 19:54 Pick one thing, get it right, measure it properly 20:54 The 2 roles a project team turns into 23:28 Inside a 4 week uplift, week by week 25:40 The stack, and picking the right model for the job 28:58 What those 4 weeks actually look like for the client 32:49 The engineer a vendor sends to lock you in 34:52 How his own day changed, and AI brain fry 39:44 Automate the 80% they hate, protect the 20% they love 41:35 Where the jobs go next, and why he expects rehiring 44:15 Building an iOS app at night knowing nothing about iOS 46:08 Start small, take one thing all the way to production 47:30 Who else is doing good work in Australia 49:30 How to reach him CONTACT JC JC's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jean-christophe-gosselin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jean-christophe-gosselin) Terem: https://terem.tech (https://terem.tech) CONTACT MACKENZIE (YOUR HOST) My name's Mackenzie. Ex-KPMG consultant, built coaching and recruitment businesses to just under $2m in revenue, now all in on (and obsessed with) AI. I help Australian CEOs and founders hire AI, ML, data and software engineers, from first hire through to CTO, backed by a 40k+ LinkedIn network. I build with AI daily! If you're hiring, or working out where AI fits in your business, message me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson) Subscribe for more conversations with the people actually building AI in Australia!

6. 

   5 Aug 2026

   The AI CEO Who Backed Startups Worth $3.5B+ | Michael Batko (CEO, Hourglass AI Consulting Services)

   Most companies build AI backwards. They start with agents, the agents break, and they think AI "doesn't work". Michael Batko is the co-founder and CEO of Hourglass AI consulting services, a Sydney and Melbourne AI implementation firm that makes Australian companies AI native. Before this he ran Startmate, Australia's most active startup accelerator, for 8 years. He raised $50M and backed 230 startups worth $3.5B, including Heaps Normal, Lyrebird Health and Amber Electric. He is a 2x founder with two exits, one of them his Saturday morning run club, which he sold with a single LinkedIn post. In this conversation he lays out the order it all has to happen in, foundation then infrastructure then agents, what every piece actually costs in dollars, why 95% of his clients arrive by referral, and the build he tells clients to stop paying him for. CHAPTERS 0:00 The best connected man in Australian startups 1:24 Why he went all in on Hourglass AI 3:06 How Hourglass AI was born, and how fast 5:25 The values card exercise that made them co-founders 6:45 The moment he knew Finlay was the one 8:24 What makes Hourglass AI different 10:28 The one number they run the company on 11:13 The enquiry form he replaced with an AI roadmap 15:08 Where their clients come from 17:02 The 3 layers for implementing AI agents 22:33 Why build a thin AI layer instead of a year long data cleanup 25:03 The tech stack, and why it is boringly simple 27:26 Your data, your servers, and who gets to see what 29:21 Inside the company brain they built for themselves 31:16 Why the foundation is the hard part 33:13 The build he tells clients to stop paying him for 33:48 Nobody wants half price heart surgery 36:27 What it costs, priced line by line 40:09 The service he has never sold, but might 43:58 The businesses this works best in, and the size sweet spot 45:32 The operators he watches, and the PE roll up trend CONTACT MICHAEL Michael's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/batkomichael (https://www.linkedin.com/in/batkomichael) Hourglass AI: https://thehourglass.ai (https://thehourglass.ai) CONTACT MACKENZIE (YOUR HOST) My name's Mackenzie. Ex-KPMG consultant, built coaching and recruitment businesses to just under $2m in revenue, now all in on (and obsessed with) AI. I help Australian CEOs and founders hire AI, ML, data and software engineers, from first hire through to CTO, backed by a 40k+ LinkedIn network. I build with AI daily! If you're hiring, or working out where AI fits in your business, message me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson) Subscribe for more conversations with the people actually building AI in Australia!

7. 

   4 Aug 2026

   Evgueni Iakhontov - Partner, Revity (AI Consultancy)

   Australia is 2 to 3 years behind other countries when it comes to adopting AI at scale. That assessment comes from Evgueni Iakhontov, a Partner at Revity, a Melbourne-based technology consultancy helping organisations turn AI from experimentation into practical business value. Evgueni has more than 20 years of experience leading technology teams and delivering large-scale transformation programs across Australia. Today, he works with organisations ranging from small businesses to major enterprises, helping them identify where AI can make a real difference, implement it safely and ensure the investment delivers a measurable return. CHAPTERS 0:00 3 decades in Australian tech, Sausage Software to Revity 1:42 Who Australia is behind and what the gap looks like 5:00 Why the big end of town can't test and learn 6:29 The business functions AI still hasn't touched 8:12 Voice bots at scale, what's already normal overseas 10:29 Why the big pilots fail, every scenario instead of one 13:45 7 months iterating a beauty salon voice bot 14:44 The API advantage enterprises don't realise they have 19:11 Why generative AI should never calculate payroll 22:16 The 4 layers a company must change to catch up 25:33 Your next job, managing and quality checking AI agents 28:03 Necessity, scale and the real cost of frontier models 30:35 Inside the salon voice bot experiment 33:56 Admit it's AI and more callers ask for a human 36:19 How to launch a voice agent without losing customers 40:49 The fastest ROI is inside the business 41:51 Recruitment rebuilt end to end with AI 45:42 Don't automate the workflow, redesign it 48:03 Agentic product development, not just coding 53:04 AI is an ongoing program, not a project CONTACT EVGUENI Evgueni's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evgueni-iakhontov (https://www.linkedin.com/in/evgueni-iakhontov) CONTACT MACKENZIE (YOUR HOST) My name's Mackenzie. Ex-KPMG consultant, built coaching and recruitment businesses to just under $2m in revenue, now all in on (and obsessed with) AI. I help Australian CEOs and founders hire AI, ML, data and software engineers, from first hire through to CTO, backed by a 40k+ LinkedIn network. I build with AI daily. If you're hiring, or working out where AI fits in your business, message me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson) Subscribe for more conversations with the people actually building AI in Australia!

8. 

   25 Jul 2026

   Joff Outlaw - Managing Director (Australia), MakerTech

   His team's tool for New Zealand's Department of Conservation turned 1,000s of hours of paperwork into minutes. The uncomfortable part is what he sees everywhere else. Clients keep bringing him AI ideas, and often when you pull back the process underneath is completely broken. AI is a logic beast, and it chokes on messy human workflows. Joff Outlaw is Managing Director for Australia at MakerTech, a design and engineering consultancy of just under 30 people building custom AI, digital products and composable platforms across ANZ. Everything is designed, built and supported onshore. Before this he spent a decade inside the big firms. Most recently he ran Designit, Wipro's global design firm with 100s of designers worldwide, as Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, while a Partner in Wipro's consulting business. Earlier he worked at Accenture and PwC. He also wrote Busy Idiots with psychologist Brad Marshall, a Wiley published book about how modern work keeps us busy with things that don't matter. IN THIS EPISODE The government paperwork that took 1,000s of hours, and the custom build that now does it in minutes Why Copilot got lost in the complexity, and the paralegal with unlimited focus they built instead The bank that cut 45 contact centre roles for an AI voice bot, then wound it back a month later Why an AI tool saving someone 15 minutes often means nothing for the business The dangerous, dear or dull test for deciding what to automate The rebuild behind 10,000 conservation plans, plus approval onto the Australian government's AI panel Composable technology explained with Lego blocks How a team of just under 30 keeps beating Deloitte Digital in pitches The RFP typo his business partner wanted to keep to prove a human wrote it The $2B cow collar company Peter Thiel just backed, and the radiology AI he rates most in Australia and New Zealand CHAPTERS 0:00 The man telling us to slow down sells speed 1:49 A third of New Zealand runs through one agency 3:04 Copilot got lost, so they built custom 4:33 A paralegal with unlimited focus 4:56 Ten years in corporate, then the jump 7:43 What MakerTech does differently 11:39 What Busy Idiots teaches about AI 13:26 "The process is just completely broken" 14:46 The bank that cut 45 jobs, then wound it back 16:04 AI saved you 15 minutes. So what? 18:36 Dangerous, dear or dull 20:30 Humans know more than they can tell 22:07 Approved to build AI for the Aussie government 23:17 The tool behind 10,000 conservation plans 29:34 What composable actually means 34:05 The Lego blocks explanation 35:35 The most valuable lesson of his career 36:47 "Transparency is kindness" 39:42 Beating Deloitte Digital with a team of three 40:32 "Leave the typos in" 41:56 The AI companies nobody's talking about 45:28 His offer to every graduate listening CONTACT JOFF Joff's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joff-outlaw-970a3b11 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joff-outlaw-970a3b11/) His book Busy Idiots: https://a.co/d/0fuuyDV0 (https://a.co/d/0fuuyDV0) CONTACT MACKENZIE Ex-KPMG consultant, built coaching and recruitment businesses to just under $2m in total revenue, now all in on AI. I help CEOs and founders hire AI, ML, data and software engineers, from first hire through to CTO. 40k+ LinkedIn network. DM me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson)

9. 

   23 Jul 2026

   Simon Kriss - CEO, Sovereign Australia AI

   Simon Kriss is building Australia's own AI. His argument is simple. Every model Australian businesses and governments use today is rented from overseas, and somebody else holds the off switch. Simon spent more than 35 years in the corporate world, held the chief AI officer role, and has keynoted at the UN in Geneva. He mentors boards and executives on AI adoption, and he is now CEO of Sovereign Australia AI, raising the backing to build a large language model from the ground up right here. He explains why fine tuning an open weight model doesn't get Australia there. You still don't know what data went in, what biases came with it, or whether it starts spewing hate speech in six months. He calls that "domestic, not sovereign". A true foundation model means knowing every data source, paying Australian copyright holders (a public minimum commitment of 10 million dollars, and he thinks the honest number is closer to 30), and around 256 of NVIDIA's latest Blackwell chips, which he says would make it bigger than any supercomputer in Australia today. Then he gets into the part most people have never heard of. The US Cloud Act. He says the American government can compel any American company to hand over the contents of any server it owns or leases, anywhere in the world, and the provider is not allowed to tell the client anyone is looking. On his telling, Australian data sitting in an Australian data centre doesn't help if the server is American owned. His words, it might as well be sitting in Texas. He also walks through what building it here would involve. Copyright holders get paid properly, every data source gets meta tagged so anyone can ask for their content to be pulled out at the next retrain, and there is the question of how to include the indigenous voice without appropriating a storytelling culture. ALSO IN HERE - The six layers of sovereignty (most people stop at data centres) - The accidental Bogan AI they built from Reddit data - December's privacy law change that turns black box AI into a legal problem - Why his auntie saying "not too bad" confuses an American model - The war scenario where America turns Australia off CHAPTERS 0:00 One of Australia's leading voices on AI 0:52 What Sovereign Australia AI is building 1:22 Somebody else holds the off switch 2:51 Talk fests, and why the money hasn't come 5:40 China builds practical AI. America builds God in a box. 7:47 The six layers of sovereignty 10:01 Why "not too bad" confuses an American model 12:54 Anti woke orders and Australian values 16:18 Why fine tuning is only "domestic, not sovereign" 23:51 Five years out, and the trust problem 30:26 The US Cloud Act, explained 33:09 "It might as well be sitting in Texas" 35:31 Staying at the model layer, and "we built Wi-Fi" 38:39 The talent case, and the DeepSeek connection 42:17 The Friday evening a model got switched off 43:21 Investors can't see the burning bridge 44:21 How to spot fake "Australian owned" 47:52 The UK playbook he wants to copy 51:15 Fencing wire, snow skiing, and having a go 53:17 Digital colonisation and the war scenario ABOUT SIMON Simon Kriss is the CEO of Sovereign Australia AI, which is making the case for Australia to build and own its own AI models rather than rent them from overseas. He is a keynote speaker who has taken the stage at the UN in Geneva, an author, a former chief AI officer, and a mentor to boards and executives on AI adoption, after more than 35 years in the corporate world. Simon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonkriss (https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonkriss)

10. 

    22 Jul 2026

    Dr Brian Lowe - Chief AI Officer in Australia

    Brian Lowe has held the title of Chief AI Officer—one of the few in Australia to do so—and brings a clear message for business leaders concerned they are falling behind on AI: you are not missing out. In fact, up to 95% of AI initiatives never reach production, and much of what is presented as progress is often little more than hype. Brian began his career with a PhD in Information Systems and has since built deep experience across enterprise AI and data. His roles have included Assistant Director at the Bureau of Meteorology, CTO of an AI startup, Head of Data Architecture at one of Australia’s big four banks, and Director at a major university, where he helped the institution navigate the early emergence of AI. Most recently, as a Chief AI Officer, he advised organisations across government, utilities, and global retail. He is now focused on building a sovereign Australian AI model—trained on Australian data, hosted domestically, and governed by Australian law. Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianslowe (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianslowe) In this episode, Brian explains what a Chief AI Officer actually does day to day, and much of it involves cutting through noise and challenging misplaced optimism. He has seen conferences showcase questionable case studies, consultancies promote solutions that fail to deliver, and executive sponsors persist with struggling initiatives to avoid admitting failure. His approach to navigating this landscape draws on an unexpected source: a lesson from a Simpsons episode about a monorail. Then he takes apart agentic AI. Much of what is sold as agentic is just automation, a technology that has been around for 20 years, rebadged with a bit of AI sugar on top. The properly agentic systems are useful but they misfire, and his test for where you can trust them is simple. Would you hand your online banking to an assistant who gets it wrong 3% of the time? He also explains why the US government accidentally handed Australia the business case for its own AI model, why students who learn with AI do worse, why everyone running a team of AI agents has become a manager whether they like it or not, and why AI has made hiring good people harder than it has ever been. ALSO IN HERE - Why beer ended up in the nappy aisle, and what it says about your data - The "bad debtors" his team discovered that you actually want to keep - The AI he instructed to abuse him, and why it improves his thinking - Why the best AI implementation he has ever seen won a Nobel Prize - Why a $70k graduate might beat your AI subscription CHAPTERS 0:00 Who is Brian Lowe 1:15 He is building an Australian AI model 2:00 The two events that made the case for it 5:33 "95% of an AI project is data" 7:36 Start from scratch, or fork and fine tune 10:15 Most business problems do not need model training 11:27 The Industrial Revolution question 14:57 A four day week, if we get this right 16:45 What a Chief AI Officer actually does 18:50 "There's a lot of bullshit out there" 23:10 How to spot snake oil before you pay for it 25:22 The monorail episode 28:01 95% of AI projects never make it 30:18 "You are not missing out" 33:52 Rebadged RPA with AI sugar on top 35:03 Beer in the nappy aisle 40:09 What agentic AI really is 43:31 The online banking test 45:00 The best AI implementation he has ever seen 49:18 The infinitely patient tutor 53:06 Students who learn with AI do worse 55:46 The AI he built to abuse him 56:52 Everyone is becoming a manager 1:02:08 Why teams cap out at seven 1:04:54 Why AI made hiring harder 1:09:44 The $70k graduate vs the API bill 1:15:08 How AI hacked your brain 1:17:44 "You cannot substitute people for AIs"

11. 

    20 Jul 2026

    AI Engineer @ $3B Software Firm

    He builds AI for a living, and he says most businesses asking for AI don't need it. They need automation. Edward Budiman is an AI engineer at NiCE, where he does client facing AI implementation. Before that he was an AI and automation engineer, and before that he studied data science. 0:00 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM) Who he is and how he got into AI 0:44 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=44s) The build that saved a hundred people hundreds of hours 2:15 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=135s) He custom built it, before n8n existed 3:21 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=201s) Why one big prompt loses to lots of small ones 6:16 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=376s) People ask for AI. They mean automation. 9:06 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=546s) How he picks an orchestration platform 13:35 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=815s) Everyone moved to Claude 14:00 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=840s) The biggest mistake businesses are making 16:24 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=984s) Most people are asking the wrong question 18:12 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=1092s) The projects that keep coming back 21:17 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=1277s) "80% is just automation" 22:44 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=1364s) The surprise waiting for new AI engineers 23:23 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=1403s) Stuck inside the Microsoft ecosystem 26:51 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=1611s) He shipped a worse system to stay Microsoft native 28:13 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=1693s) Is SaaS dead 33:04 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&t=1984s) Why FDEs are the future

12. 

    20 Jul 2026

    Head of AI @ $2B Finance Firm

    His AI agents do the analyst's work at a $2B finance firm. Deal research that took analysts three weeks now takes a coffee break. Ivan Wong has a PhD in microbiology. He now runs data and AI at LVP, a $2B Sydney private equity firm, where he built the entire AI capability himself as one of their first tech hires. 0:00 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM) A PhD in microbiology, then NASA, then AI 1:03 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=63s) How good is the thing he built, really 1:47 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=107s) Three weeks of deal research, now a coffee break 4:11 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=251s) Why he built instead of buying 7:15 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=435s) He rebuilt Salesforce in under 12 hours 10:15 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=615s) The "AI brain" explained 11:54 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=714s) What the microbiome taught him about finding alpha 14:42 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=882s) The career path that looks random and isn't 17:34 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=1054s) The hard part isn't building 18:43 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=1123s) Building the agent that does the analyst's work 19:22 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=1162s) The problem with freeing up your juniors 21:01 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=1261s) Benchmarking the models, and why Claude won 22:19 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=1339s) The four things he actually evaluates 25:44 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=1544s) Why cheap models are a false economy 27:26 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&t=1646s) The local model on his desk

Contact AI Down Under

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.