Celeste Sangil

Reflecting on some great talks, conversations and new connections made at The AI Summit Australia in Melbourne last week, co-located with Data Center World. A few things stayed with me. • AI has a physical footprint. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is forecasting data centre electricity demand across the National Electricity Market (NEM) rising from around 3% to 13% of grid demand over the next decade. This has implications for generation, energy storage, grid capacity, water use and the pace at which we can bring more renewables online. As the data centre build-out accelerates, community and social licence will matter too. • Transformation has changed. Mahesh Krishnan spoke about dynamic transformation: disruption is continuous, so organisations need to continuously adapt. As AI moves beyond software into agents, machines and operational (IT/OT) environments, security, resilience, governance and human oversight have to evolve with it. • Most organisations are still early. In our masterclass, 58% of the room were still exploring AI and only 5% had it properly embedded. The questions afterwards were very practical: where do we start, which tools should we use and how do we move from pilots to scale? Security, data, trust and governance remain major blockers. • People and value matter. Aligned leaders and capable people came out well ahead of simply building another platform. Paul Monks also challenged the idea of relying on the “highest paid person’s opinion” to decide what gets funded. Mitch Tomazic's point on a Value Realisation Office brought much of this together for me: prioritise the use cases that genuinely create value, define success up front, measure the outcome and stop investing where the value isn't there. That discipline matters beyond the balance sheet too. Better prioritisation means less compute, energy and infrastructure being consumed on AI that doesn't justify it and less pressure on the systems and communities that have to support that growth. I also volunteer with Banyule Clean Energy, a community not-for-profit helping households and local businesses reduce their energy bills by going all-electric, improving efficiency and switching to cleaner energy. It means I spend a fair bit of time thinking about energy, infrastructure, cost and outcomes for local residents and businesses. As AI scales, I think the same lens applies: what value are we creating and what resources are we using to create it? The best part was the conversations that started in the room. I'm looking forward to picking those up with the people I met over the next couple of weeks. Thanks to Mahesh Krishnan, Mitch Tomazic and Paul Monks for the keynote and masterclass, Peter Kilroy for his engaging AI demos and Kathy Sudnik, Sachinie Osaka Wanasinghe, Vivian Lam, Danny Lee and the Fujitsu team who made the whole thing run. Terrific couple of days. #TheAISummitAU

AI requires more than just consultant advice; it needs deep tech expertise. Shin Shuda （習田晋一郎） highlights this issue in an interview with Jason Pollock from techpartner.news. Along with Mat Franklin, they discuss how Uvance Wayfinders is reshaping the traditional consulting model with a foundation built on 90 years of R&D. With over 60 consultants in Australia and New Zealand and strong capabilities in agentic transformation and cyber resilience, we’re ready to accelerate your digital transformation. Read more here: https://okt.to/fAqJpx #DigitalTransformation #UvanceWayfinders #Fujitsu #AI #Consulting

xAmplify is proud to be recognised as one of the Best Workplaces in Technology 2026 by Great Place To Work® Australia, and this a reflection of the people, culture and shared ambition that drive what we do every day. A huge thank you to our team for their everyday dedication, commitment to collaboration, and shared focus on solving complex challenges across government and enterprise. #xAmplify #BestWorkplaces #GreatPlaceToWork #DigitalTransformation #Technology #Culture

Big milestone for the team this week. Last week we rolled out the latest version of the Woolworths app, giving all team members access to the new and improved Olive — a step change toward truly agentic commerce. This has been built on Google's Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, in close partnership with their team, and represents a huge collaborative effort across engineering, product, and design. Today’s activation event at Woolworths Group HQ was a great moment to bring it to life — showcasing what Olive can do and, more importantly, sparking conversations about what comes next. Proud of the work the team has put in to get us here. Even more excited about where we can take it. #AgenticCommerce #AIinRetail #CustomerExperience #RetailInnovation #TechLeadership #Woolworths

Leading a team that manages mission-critical payment services for Australia’s largest retailers, David Broker balances the intensity of high-stakes engineering with a culture that puts people first. For them, technical excellence isn't just about the code, it’s about the supportive, collaborative environment that makes that excellence possible. Come and build the future of payments with David and the team.

🟡 TEAM SPOTLIGHT 🟡Nicholas Taylor brings a practical, execution‑focused lens to Axiere’s mission of delivering modern, reliable gaming compliance solutions for Australia’s hospitality sector. With a background in systems engineering, data analysis, crypto security, technology delivery, and operational reliability, Nick plays an important role in ensuring Axiere’s solutions are not just innovative, but deployable, scalable, and dependable in live venue environments. His work supports Axiere’s core principle that compliance technology must work seamlessly alongside existing operations — without disruption to venues, staff, or patrons. At Axiere, Nick contributes to the design and delivery of systems that prioritise security, integration, and performance, helping to underpin solutions such as real‑time controls, compliant EGM integrations, and statewide operational readiness. This technical discipline is essential to Axiere’s ability to support venues navigating increasing regulatory scrutiny and reform. Nick is known for his calm, methodical approach — translating complex technical requirements into outcomes that operators can trust and regulators can stand behind. It’s a capability that strengthens Axiere’s promise of practical compliance and stronger venues. Nick’s focus on execution and system integrity ensures Axiere solutions deliver confidence not just at launch, but every day they operate in‑venue. #Leadership #HospitalityIndustry #GamingIndustry #Axiere #IndustryInnovation #CryptoSecurity #systemsengineer