<![CDATA[AI Down Under]]>I interview AI experts in Australia.

]]>aihire.auRiverside.fm (https://riverside.com)Thu, 30 Jul 2026 07:13:26 GMTMon, 20 Jul 2026 04:30:22 GMT60Mackenzie<p>I interview AI experts in Australia.</p>episodicMackenziethmpsn.mack@gmail.comno<![CDATA[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

His book Busy Idiots: 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

]]>f1e19db7-6445-4a45-8ff4-ce7f416559d8Sat, 25 Jul 2026 01:27:49 GMT<p>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.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>IN THIS EPISODE</p><p></p><ul><li>The government paperwork that took 1,000s of hours, and the custom build that now does it in minutes</li><li>Why Copilot got lost in the complexity, and the paralegal with unlimited focus they built instead</li><li>The bank that cut 45 contact centre roles for an AI voice bot, then wound it back a month later</li><li>Why an AI tool saving someone 15 minutes often means nothing for the business</li><li>The dangerous, dear or dull test for deciding what to automate</li><li>The rebuild behind 10,000 conservation plans, plus approval onto the Australian government's AI panel</li><li>Composable technology explained with Lego blocks</li><li>How a team of just under 30 keeps beating Deloitte Digital in pitches</li><li>The RFP typo his business partner wanted to keep to prove a human wrote it</li><li>The $2B cow collar company Peter Thiel just backed, and the radiology AI he rates most in Australia and New Zealand</li></ul><p></p><p>CHAPTERS</p><p></p><p>0:00 The man telling us to slow down sells speed</p><p>1:49 A third of New Zealand runs through one agency</p><p>3:04 Copilot got lost, so they built custom</p><p>4:33 A paralegal with unlimited focus</p><p>4:56 Ten years in corporate, then the jump</p><p>7:43 What MakerTech does differently</p><p>11:39 What Busy Idiots teaches about AI</p><p>13:26 "The process is just completely broken"</p><p>14:46 The bank that cut 45 jobs, then wound it back</p><p>16:04 AI saved you 15 minutes. So what?</p><p>18:36 Dangerous, dear or dull</p><p>20:30 Humans know more than they can tell</p><p>22:07 Approved to build AI for the Aussie government</p><p>23:17 The tool behind 10,000 conservation plans</p><p>29:34 What composable actually means</p><p>34:05 The Lego blocks explanation</p><p>35:35 The most valuable lesson of his career</p><p>36:47 "Transparency is kindness"</p><p>39:42 Beating Deloitte Digital with a team of three</p><p>40:32 "Leave the typos in"</p><p>41:56 The AI companies nobody's talking about</p><p>45:28 His offer to every graduate listening</p><p></p><p>CONTACT JOFF</p><p></p><p>Joff's LinkedIn: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joff-outlaw-970a3b11/" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/joff-outlaw-970a3b11</a></p><p>His book Busy Idiots: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://a.co/d/0fuuyDV0" target="_blank">https://a.co/d/0fuuyDV0</a></p><p></p><p>CONTACT MACKENZIE</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>DM me: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson</a></p>no00:47:4215Joff Outlaw - Managing Director (Australia), MakerTechfull<![CDATA[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

]]>14228a78-7cc6-4b7e-b08a-1a52967fe39bThu, 23 Jul 2026 00:36:07 GMT<p>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />ALSO IN HERE<br /><br />- The six layers of sovereignty (most people stop at data centres)<br />- The accidental Bogan AI they built from Reddit data<br />- December's privacy law change that turns black box AI into a legal problem<br />- Why his auntie saying "not too bad" confuses an American model<br />- The war scenario where America turns Australia off<br /><br />CHAPTERS<br /><br />0:00 One of Australia's leading voices on AI<br />0:52 What Sovereign Australia AI is building<br />1:22 Somebody else holds the off switch<br />2:51 Talk fests, and why the money hasn't come<br />5:40 China builds practical AI. America builds God in a box.<br />7:47 The six layers of sovereignty<br />10:01 Why "not too bad" confuses an American model<br />12:54 Anti woke orders and Australian values<br />16:18 Why fine tuning is only "domestic, not sovereign"<br />23:51 Five years out, and the trust problem<br />30:26 The US Cloud Act, explained<br />33:09 "It might as well be sitting in Texas"<br />35:31 Staying at the model layer, and "we built Wi-Fi"<br />38:39 The talent case, and the DeepSeek connection<br />42:17 The Friday evening a model got switched off<br />43:21 Investors can't see the burning bridge<br />44:21 How to spot fake "Australian owned"<br />47:52 The UK playbook he wants to copy<br />51:15 Fencing wire, snow skiing, and having a go<br />53:17 Digital colonisation and the war scenario<br /><br />ABOUT SIMON<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Simon on LinkedIn: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonkriss" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonkriss</a></p>no00:55:5114Simon Kriss - CEO, Sovereign Australia AIfull<![CDATA[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

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"

]]>1df4acf2-d9b0-4d3b-bcda-d535941a5429Wed, 22 Jul 2026 06:55:12 GMT<p>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Brian on LinkedIn: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianslowe" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianslowe</a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />ALSO IN HERE<br /><br />- Why beer ended up in the nappy aisle, and what it says about your data<br />- The "bad debtors" his team discovered that you actually want to keep<br />- The AI he instructed to abuse him, and why it improves his thinking<br />- Why the best AI implementation he has ever seen won a Nobel Prize<br />- Why a $70k graduate might beat your AI subscription<br /><br />CHAPTERS<br /><br />0:00 Who is Brian Lowe<br />1:15 He is building an Australian AI model<br />2:00 The two events that made the case for it<br />5:33 "95% of an AI project is data"<br />7:36 Start from scratch, or fork and fine tune<br />10:15 Most business problems do not need model training<br />11:27 The Industrial Revolution question<br />14:57 A four day week, if we get this right<br />16:45 What a Chief AI Officer actually does<br />18:50 "There's a lot of bullshit out there"<br />23:10 How to spot snake oil before you pay for it<br />25:22 The monorail episode<br />28:01 95% of AI projects never make it<br />30:18 "You are not missing out"<br />33:52 Rebadged RPA with AI sugar on top<br />35:03 Beer in the nappy aisle<br />40:09 What agentic AI really is<br />43:31 The online banking test<br />45:00 The best AI implementation he has ever seen<br />49:18 The infinitely patient tutor<br />53:06 Students who learn with AI do worse<br />55:46 The AI he built to abuse him<br />56:52 Everyone is becoming a manager<br />1:02:08 Why teams cap out at seven<br />1:04:54 Why AI made hiring harder<br />1:09:44 The $70k graduate vs the API bill<br />1:15:08 How AI hacked your brain<br />1:17:44 "You cannot substitute people for AIs"</p>no01:19:2813Dr Brian Lowe - Chief AI Officer in Australiafull<![CDATA[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 Who he is and how he got into AI
0:44 The build that saved a hundred people hundreds of hours
2:15 He custom built it, before n8n existed
3:21 Why one big prompt loses to lots of small ones
6:16 People ask for AI. They mean automation.
9:06 How he picks an orchestration platform
13:35 Everyone moved to Claude
14:00 The biggest mistake businesses are making
16:24 Most people are asking the wrong question
18:12 The projects that keep coming back
21:17 "80% is just automation"
22:44 The surprise waiting for new AI engineers
23:23 Stuck inside the Microsoft ecosystem
26:51 He shipped a worse system to stay Microsoft native
28:13 Is SaaS dead
33:04 Why FDEs are the future

]]>1c5c4375-8e19-4d9d-8686-67d97b42bd13Mon, 20 Jul 2026 04:37:28 GMT<p>He builds AI for a living, and he says most businesses asking for AI don't need it. They need automation.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM">0:00</a> Who he is and how he got into AI<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=44s">0:44</a> The build that saved a hundred people hundreds of hours<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=135s">2:15</a> He custom built it, before n8n existed<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=201s">3:21</a> Why one big prompt loses to lots of small ones<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=376s">6:16</a> People ask for AI. They mean automation.<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=546s">9:06</a> How he picks an orchestration platform<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=815s">13:35</a> Everyone moved to Claude<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=840s">14:00</a> The biggest mistake businesses are making<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=984s">16:24</a> Most people are asking the wrong question<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=1092s">18:12</a> The projects that keep coming back<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=1277s">21:17</a> "80% is just automation"<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=1364s">22:44</a> The surprise waiting for new AI engineers<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=1403s">23:23</a> Stuck inside the Microsoft ecosystem<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=1611s">26:51</a> He shipped a worse system to stay Microsoft native<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=1693s">28:13</a> Is SaaS dead<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2oKKh1VGsM&amp;t=1984s">33:04</a> Why FDEs are the future</p>no00:35:5911AI Engineer @ $3B Software Firmfull<![CDATA[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 A PhD in microbiology, then NASA, then AI
1:03 How good is the thing he built, really
1:47 Three weeks of deal research, now a coffee break
4:11 Why he built instead of buying
7:15 He rebuilt Salesforce in under 12 hours
10:15 The "AI brain" explained
11:54 What the microbiome taught him about finding alpha
14:42 The career path that looks random and isn't
17:34 The hard part isn't building
18:43 Building the agent that does the analyst's work
19:22 The problem with freeing up your juniors
21:01 Benchmarking the models, and why Claude won
22:19 The four things he actually evaluates
25:44 Why cheap models are a false economy
27:26 The local model on his desk

]]>52c503df-bfaf-437a-ae97-17a6a29652b8Mon, 20 Jul 2026 04:34:13 GMT<p>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.<br /><br />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.</p><p><br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM">0:00</a> A PhD in microbiology, then NASA, then AI<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=63s">1:03</a> How good is the thing he built, really<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=107s">1:47</a> Three weeks of deal research, now a coffee break<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=251s">4:11</a> Why he built instead of buying<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=435s">7:15</a> He rebuilt Salesforce in under 12 hours<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=615s">10:15</a> The "AI brain" explained<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=714s">11:54</a> What the microbiome taught him about finding alpha<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=882s">14:42</a> The career path that looks random and isn't<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=1054s">17:34</a> The hard part isn't building<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=1123s">18:43</a> Building the agent that does the analyst's work<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=1162s">19:22</a> The problem with freeing up your juniors<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=1261s">21:01</a> Benchmarking the models, and why Claude won<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=1339s">22:19</a> The four things he actually evaluates<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=1544s">25:44</a> Why cheap models are a false economy<br /><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQUqcRgklcM&amp;t=1646s">27:26</a> The local model on his desk</p>no00:37:1212Head of AI @ $2B Finance Firmfull