Applied AI Australia

About Applied AI Australia

Applied AI Australia is the podcast for Australian executives turning AI into measurable business outcomes. Hosted by Ramon Rodriguez - an executive, not a career consultant. This show cuts through AI hype to focus on what matters: Growth and Margins. Now part of Acquire Intelligence, the podcast brings commercially grounded AI strategy and practical executive insight to CEOs, CIOs,CFOs, boards, and senior operators navigating rapid change and competitive pressure. Each week, Applied AI Australia delivers real-world conversations, operator perspectives, and practical frameworks leaders can apply quickly , often within 48 hours. This is not a tech podcast. It is practical AI leadership for executives accountable for results. Subscribe.

Publisher

Ramon Rodriguez

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

21 Aug 2025

Latest episode

20 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

24 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   20 Sept 2026

   Where Do You Start With AI at Scale? | Managing Director, Coca-Cola, Orlando Rodriguez

   Where Do You Start With AI at Scale? | Managing Director, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Aus, Orlando Rodriguez. MIT's 2025 research found that 95% of organizations get no measurable P&L impact from generative AI investment. How does a multi-billion dollar, asset-heavy company actually make AI work at scale? Success requires discipline, business-led prioritization, and applying AI to genuine business problems. In this episode of Applied AI Australia, powered by Acquire Intelligence, Ramon Rodriguez speaks with Orlando Rodriguez, Managing Director of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Australia, about how one of Australia's largest brands approaches AI at scale. CCEP operates across Australia, serving 100,000 customers with 500 products, creating 50 million permutations at any time. Its AI work spans live manufacturing diagnostics, commercial planning, and agricultural crop genetics. Key results discussed: - Live diagnostics on manufacturing lines replacing hours of manual analysis with real-time recommendations for technicians - Commercial planning reviews automated, saving 6-7 hours a fortnight - AI-enhanced sugarcane crops with Avalo improving yield, drought resistance, and fertilizer efficiency - Driverless forklifts and a robot dog for quality checks deployed across manufacturing sites - 50 million customer-product permutations managed with AI precision Key takeaways: - Approaching AI as a core business tool - Fixing the root causes behind failing AI investments - Why business leaders must own and drive AI strategy - Prioritizing use cases using the "headroom to grow" framework - Applying the "point of departure, point of arrival" transformation framework - Why data quality is the essential foundation you can't skip - How hiring shifts toward EQ, learning agility, and curiosity as machines augment IQ 5 Key Leadership Questions: - Where is the headroom to grow in our business? - What genuine business problem or opportunity does this AI solve? - Do we have the data quality and governance to support this? - Does this initiative deliver measurable value? - If we try to do everything at once, what will we actually do well? Your 48-hour action: Choose one AI initiative in your organization and ask: Does this solve a genuine business problem with headroom to grow the top line or take out cost? If not, deprioritize it. Chapters 00:00 Cold open: Business leadership in AI 01:32 Orlando's background and Coca-Cola's scale 04:27 Three core tenets: team, customers, platforms 05:16 100,000 customers, 500 products, 50 million permutations 09:29 AI for live manufacturing line diagnostics 11:17 Partnering with Avalo on AI-enhanced sugarcane genetics 17:26 When Coca-Cola started focusing on generative AI 17:53 Robot dogs and driverless forklifts 20:37 Why AI must be led by business leaders 24:05 Have you seen tangible benefits? 25:05 The 700 million question: who's accountable? 29:01 Point of departure, point of arrival framework 31:26 Lessons learned: data is the basement 36:07 Zero FTE departments and the future of jobs 38:12 Obsessed with benchmarking to top quartile 38:38 What's Pepsi doing with AI? 39:02 Top tips for executives starting their AI journey 42:16 Final takeaways Applied AI Australia is powered by Acquire Intelligence. We help Australian companies turn AI investment into measurable business value, deciding what to fund, what work must change, where value should land, and who owns the result. Get in touch: https://www.appliedaiaustralia.com.au/book-briefing (https://www.appliedaiaustralia.com.au/book-briefing) Ramon: linkedin.com/in/ramonrod (linkedin.com/in/ramonrod) Guest: Orlando Rodriguez, Managing Director, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Australia

2. 

   11 Sept 2026

   You Can't Slap AI Onto a Broken Process: | EasyPark - Jason Marks

   You can't afford to fall behind on AI. Subscribe to Australia's #1 executive AI podcast. ------------------------------------------------- You Can’t Slap AI Onto a Broken Process | Jason Marks, GM, EasyPark for Business (Arrive) AI doesn’t magically fix messy processes or poor data. Often, it exposes them. Jason Marks, GM at EasyPark for Business, joins Ramon Rodriguez to unpack what AI adoption looks like inside an operating business, covering product experimentation and the practical application of AI across sales and commercial workflows. Key topics covered: Why clean and consolidated data is essential before introducing AI agents Using hackathons and controlled experimentation to stress-test workflows Accelerating tender responses by reusing proven answers and identifying content gaps Deploying "Parker" (EasyPark's Salesforce SDR agent) within strict knowledge boundaries rather than open internet access Why human judgement remains non-negotiable at key operational gates 00:00 You can’t slap AI onto a broken process00:37 Meet Jason Marks and EasyPark01:08 What work looked like before AI01:46 Why EasyPark started pushing into AI02:19 The evolution from product AI to business AI02:42 Why adoption happened iteratively03:42 Where AI is working today04:43 Hackathons, trial and error, and trying to break the product07:31 What actually got faster08:44 Tender responses as a practical AI use case11:59 Where humans stay in the loop13:42 More people, more AI - not simply fewer jobs15:48 Governance and controlled experimentation18:10 Meet Parker, EasyPark’s SDR agent18:55 Why data readiness matters before agents22:28 Avoiding AI slop24:49 What messy data exposes28:16 Knowing when to switch AI off29:16 Jason’s personal AI toolkit30:36 The leadership takeaway Applied AI Australia is powered by Acquire Intelligence. We help Australian companies turn AI investment into measurable business value - deciding what to fund, what work needs to change, where value should land, and who owns the result. Book a briefing: https://www.appliedaiaustralia.com.au/book-briefing (https://www.appliedaiaustralia.com.au/book-briefing) Ramon Rodriguez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramonrod/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramonrod/) Jason Marks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-marks-32bb28a1/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-marks-32bb28a1/)

3. 

   26 Aug 2026

   Build vs Buy: What Should Your Business Own in AI? | Chief Digital Officer, Fisher & Paykel, Rudi Khoury

   Build vs Buy: What Should Your Business Own in AI? What should your business build with AI versus buy? What is too strategically important to hand over? The answer depends on where you create value, what data makes you different, and which parts of the AI stack are becoming commodity infrastructure. In this episode of Applied AI Australia, powered by Acquire Intelligence, Ramon Rodriguez speaks with Rudi Khoury, Chief Digital Officer at Fisher & Paykel, about making that decision inside a real enterprise. Fisher & Paykel has more than 90 years of organisational knowledge. Its AI work includes making roughly 35,000 documents and 100GB of information usable, applying AI across hundreds of thousands of customer enquiries, and deciding which capabilities to own versus where external technology and partners make sense. The results discussed include: AI resolving around 60-80% of enquiries across targeted use cases A double-digit reduction in contact-centre volume AI-agent volume increasing roughly fourfold Decades of product and organisational knowledge made accessible to AI Customer experience measured through satisfaction and effort, not just traditional NPS How to decide what AI capability to build, buy or access through a partner Why build versus buy is not one enterprise-wide decision Identifying the layers of AI where ownership matters Why proprietary data, product knowledge and customer experience change the equation What Fisher & Paykel learned from turning 90+ years of knowledge into usable AI context How AI is used across hundreds of thousands of customer enquiries Why resolution rate, customer satisfaction and effort matter more than measuring AI adoption Why narrowing the scope of an AI agent can improve customer experience How privacy and customer data affect build-versus-buy decisions Why businesses should avoid rebuilding technology layers that are rapidly becoming commodities How hackathons build internal AI capability even when technology is bought externally What part of this differentiates us? What proprietary data, knowledge or customer experience sits underneath it? Do we need to own that layer, or control how it is used? What could a specialist partner or platform do better than us? If the underlying model changes dramatically in 12 months, what have we built that still matters? The bigger leadership question is where your organisation creates unique value - and how much control you need over the AI that touches it. Your 48-hour action: Choose one significant AI initiative already being discussed inside your organisation and ask: Chapters00:00 Build vs buy: the decision every executive is about to face 01:00 Where Fisher & Paykel is focusing its AI strategy 04:38 More than 90 years of organisational knowledge 05:06 Making roughly 100GB of information usable by AI 06:35 AI handling hundreds of thousands of customer enquiries 06:56 Resolution rates of around 60-80% 07:14 Double-digit reduction in contact-centre volume 07:18 AI-agent volume increasing approximately fourfold 09:18 Measuring AI with customer satisfaction and effort 10:35 Rudi’s framework for deciding build versus buy 14:10 Why narrowing the scope of an AI agent can improve the experience 14:51 Privacy, customer data and changing Australian obligations 17:30 Where AI should sit inside the organisation 20:48 What rapidly changing AI models mean for businesses building today 24:52 Why hackathons have been one of Fisher & Paykel’s most powerful AI initiatives 27:28 Final takeaways: know what you own and where your value sits Applied AI Australia is powered by Acquire Intelligence. We help Australian companies turn AI investment into measurable business value, deciding what to fund, what work must change, where value should land and who owns the result. Get in touch - https://www.appliedaiaustralia.com.au/book-briefing (https://www.appliedaiaustralia.com.au/book-briefing) Ramon: linkedin.com/in/ramonrod (https://linkedin.com/in/ramonrod) Guest: Rudi Khoury, Chief Digital Officer, Fisher & Paykel

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