Simon Belousoff

Major news flash: leveraging part of Google’s $1B Digital Futures Initiative we just signed a 1-plus-1-equals-15 deal. Bringing together the two AI and Science powerhouses CSIRO and Google, this partnership will be an inflection point in AI-powered scientific discovery. Press releases with more info here: Google: https://lnkd.in/gDxbsR4b CSIRO: https://lnkd.in/gG2EyqMz Professionally speaking, for my whole career I’ve been passionate about two things more than about anything else- and by far at that: #science and #AI. Can you imagine the enthusiasm I’m feeling at this moment about getting to marry the two so spectacularly…we only got here because of so many others who share that enthusiasm and determination - just calling out a few names on both sides of the aisle: Jon Whittle Scott Riddle Astitva Chopra Heather Tompkins LINDA ALLARD Dr Rebecca Michael Eliza Keck Alison Donnellan Grace Chung Melanie Silva - and thank you to many more whose relentless work has made this possible, you know who you are. To all scientists out there: don’t just watch this space: get in touch and check out the links in the press releases - you do NOT need to be an AI expert or seasoned data scientist to have fun at this party…this is for all scientists and we’re just getting started!! Nicholas Thompson Cade Metz Melissa Heikkilä Mike Cherney https://lnkd.in/giitUt7E

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Overwhelmed with the sheer number of #GenAI / #LLM usecases that are bubbling up in your enterprise? Have a read of this whitepaper and come and chat to us. Thomas Maas James Wilson Emma Bromet Kathryn Collier James Hayes Marty Conneely Brett Thebault

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In my work at NZDOTech I've been spending a lot of time recently on PMO improvement and driving to results. I was asked recently if a PMO should focus on driving to outcomes or outputs, I'm a big believer that you can deliver a lot of "stuff" without delivery value. Most organizations follow a basic framework: - The business defines the desired outcome. - The PMO develops a plan—with input from all stakeholders—to achieve the necessary outputs that meet that desired outcome. Everyone in the plan participates and contributes as long as required to achieve the planned outputs. However, this often leads to breakdowns in achieving the desired results. Let’s explore why: Over time, plans evolve, business goals shift, and the value of a project to the organization changes. As a result, outputs need to be adjusted. But who is tracking these shifts? * The PMO should be monitoring changes to the plan and ensuring alignment with the defined scope. * The business sponsor should focus on whether the project’s objectives (outputs) are still delivering the desired business outcomes. * How effective are we at doing this? * Who catches these shifts? (How many times have we seen someone fully committed to delivering something, even when they know it’s no longer the right thing to do? Because we're measuring their success at delivering an output?) If you are solely delivering according to the plan, you might miss the fact that the outputs no longer achieve the intended outcome. We are all, in some way, stewards of the business. Therefore, it’s essential for teams to understand the outcomes being delivered and how their outputs contribute to those outcomes. This is the only way to catch misalignments and ensure you’re still on track to meet objectives. One added benefit of this shift in mindset is increased motivation. Many people are driven by the desire to add value to their company or team. When you tie their day-to-day work to the project’s outcomes, it helps them see the value they are contributing. I’ve seen numerous projects fail where the focus was solely on outputs. As the landscape shifted—whether in terms of business goals, market conditions, or internal priorities—the project was completed on-time, on-budget, and within scope, yet it failed to meet the business’s needs because it was no longer relevant. The PMO was tracking outputs, but not outcomes. You need to embed enough intelligence into your PMO (and across your organization) to ensure that every person understands and actively supports the business goals. Ultimately, only the outputs that support the current desired outcomes matter.

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The Director's Guide to AI Board Governance is definitely worth a read, and highly recommend this for any directors / boards to both understand the context and how to move forward both with pace, but responsibly.

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Congrats to AI Forum NZ on the release of this AI Blueprint for Aotearoa, that describes some of our existing strategic advantages and how these can be further leveraged to avoid becoming mere consumers of new and emerging AI capabilities. Also includes a range of very practical recommendations across 6 key sector groups including: - Agriculture - Architecture Engineering and Construction - Creative Industries - Education - Environment - Health https://lnkd.in/gjmAf9iv

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CSIRO writes "Everyday AI: Artificial intelligence in pregnancy and the early years - AI is breaking new ground in the earliest stages of our lives, revolutionising fertility care and improving the wellbeing of premature babies by enabling early detection of developmental challenges." https://lnkd.in/eF2i5cj4. #artificialintelligence #pregnancy #earlyyears #fertilitycare #revolution #healthcare #csiro

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Micro-credentials and digital qualifications are the way to go, but require blockchain maturity and a consistent system-wide adoption. I think we’re a good few years from that but we need to start somewhere, right? #Microcredentials #DigitalQualifications #Blockchain #HigherEducation #FutureTrends

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‘Use Cases are sexy. Governance? Not so much. And yet in a fascinating twist…mature AI adopters have already learned their lesson: ➡️ We're at the start of an AI marathon; not a sprint. ➡️ AI Governance is the fuel for sustainable value; the antidote to short term AI productivity hype. 🌟 In the long term, responsible AI and ROI are more linked than you think…’ Great post from Sam Burrett. #ai #roi #aiusecases #responsibleai #aigovernance

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This comprehensive new report from CSIRO in Australia explores the case for the creation of sovereign AI foundation models, given their dependency on models developed elsewhere - a similar situation to the current state here in Aotearoa. Elanor Huntington, CSIRO Director of Digital, National Facilities & Collections says "But they are rarely made in Australia. The vast majority come from the United States and China. Our industry is becoming increasingly dependent on these models. On one hand this is an opportunity. All these great tools are appearing at our fingertips. But there is also risk. Will these models boost the competitive interest of Australian companies and workers? Will they behave according to our norms, cultural and ethical expectations? Can we be adapting, fine-tuning or building our own AI foundation models to support our own industry and workers? If so, how should we go about doing this? What's Australia's best placement in the global value chain for AI foundation models? There are many more questions. And we are at the beginning of a journey" While not relying on or endorsing its output, the report also puts the same questions and challenges to ChatGPT and provides a transcript of that conversation - an interesting addition to the report. https://lnkd.in/gxC3wuP8 #genAI

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Excited to be part of the panel discussion on Achieving Data and Digital Trustworthiness at the upcoming State of the Nation IoT event! - What does data trustworthiness mean in today’s digital landscape? - How can Generative AI help us ensure the accuracy and reliability of our data? - What best practices can organizations adopt to build trust in their data systems? I look forward to sharing insights and engaging with industry leaders on these critical questions. Join us on November 14th, for an enlightening conversation! #DataTrustworthiness #GenerativeAI #Innovation #IoT

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Today's blog post covers three recent reports on AI in New Zealand. Climate change, data assets and strategy definition appear to be the main themes.

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Insight into how Flight Centre is defining a new age of CX with AI and Qualtrics in Australia. "...with the help of Qualtrics, we took the next step...integrating everything so that where previously we were just soliciting information and data is structured, we've moved into an unsolicited and solicited environment with structured, unstructured data.. That allows you to drive change. We work through a listen, learn, act framework, and act is the most important. That's where AI, and natural language understanding, plays a bigger role. The natural language understanding has really helped us with that particular component." #AI #CX #EX #productivity #talentmanagement #leadership #futureofwork #datadriven #digitaltransformation #innovation #qualtrics #experience #experiencemanagement #XM #experiencematters #customerexperience #employeeexperience #employeeengagement #employeelistening #employeeretention #HR #talent #talentacquisition #CHRO #CMO

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Digital transformation is now a bandaid fix to a faster moving challenge. Why is govt still investing in this strategy? I’d love to see what Aussie companies are heavily investing in broader CX outcomes moving into 2025 - #LCAisthenewCX

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Ever heard of “Insights Governance”? I first heard it mentioned by David Rohan Exec Manager of Data, Tech & Analytics at Qantas Group. It immediately made sense. It's never been easier to turn data into insights. Chuck it into ChatGPT, Gemini or CoPilot. You get back a summary, an interpretation and a recommendation. On the one hand, it's great: fast and effective! But it presents challenges... The main one is consistency. As you can imagine, run the same prompt twice, and you'll get a different result. If two teams send variations in prompts and/or slice of data, you might end up with very different insights. The last thing you want is two teams pulling into different directions. Traditionally, the analytics and research teams controlled the insights narrative. But that's no longer possible. We live in a world of democratization of insights, thanks to access to data and tools. The role of the analytics & research teams is now changing to ensure insights governance. - Data governance makes sure that the data collection, storage and protection is correct. - Insights governance makes sure that the insights are created in the right way. How to achieve this? 1. Ensuring data privacy and security, particularly data sources with sensitive data 2. Ensuring data is clean, complete and up to date 3. Providing the right tools that deliver insights easily consumable by decision makers, and educating on how to use them 4. Educating decision makers in how to verify insights 5. Providing playbooks and how-tos for research projects 6. Making sure people are following legal and ethical standards Have I missed anything? It feels like an emergence of a new discipline. And it's becoming more critical with Gen AI tools. #insightsgovernance #insights #uxr #mrx #voiceofcustomer

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We are working on an intricate challenge in modern healthcare in #Australia to tackle the portability issue of causal CDSS from one healthcare provider to another healthcare provider by leveraging the meta-heuristic approach and AI. To mitigate this challenge, we have proposed an Adaptive Semantic Framework (ASF) which will do the needful adjustments in the existing CDSS according to a new environment. The abstract of our paper is given below: Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) are a critical part of modern healthcare, assisting healthcare practitioners in making precise decisions. However, most of the existing CDSSs are static, which makes adaptation to a new environment or changes in the same environment challenging. This is where the Adaptive Semantic Framework (ASF) comes in. In a recent paper, a team proposed an ASF for CDSS adaptation to a changing environment. The framework includes various methods such as Knowledge-Based Systems (KBS) and Data-Driven Elements (DDE) to adjust the CDSS to new conditions. This framework addresses two significant challenges of CDSS: its maintenance and the issue of portability across different hospitals with varying data ecosystems. With the ASF, CDSS can now adapt to a new environment or local changes in the same environment, including different types of patients, different ecosystems, and varying guidelines. #CDSS #HealthcareTechnology #AdaptiveSemanticFramework #DataDrivenElements #KnowledgeBasedSystems #Research

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Are you the leader of a data team in a NZ Government Agency and do you have training budget you need to spend by June? #AgileDataCourse Does your team struggle to quickly capture data reqiurements from stakeholder using a shared language? Have I got the course for your team: https://lnkd.in/dgMBjy-K I delivered this course to an awesome data team yesterday. I love delivering this course. I love sharing a pattern template that allows teams to remove the drudgery and waste that comes with traditional data requirements processes. I love watching and hearing the conversations the teams have on how they can improve their way of working. So if you have training budget left to spend, then get in touch and we can discuss how that money can be used to help your data team deliver more value, more often, while having more fun. And I can run it as a remote only course or in person in Wellington, the choice is yours.

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We released our 2024 Voice of Consumer survey last week, and I can't look past the pattern that keeps showing up across our research this year: 1️⃣ 1 in 5 Australians who responded to our Voice of Consumer survey said that they would still not trust AI to perform any activities in place of human interactions, which was ~ double the global average. https://lnkd.in/gnumBwRK 2️⃣ Our AI Jobs Barometer revealed that Australia had 27% slower AI jobs growth compared to its global counterparts. We advertised circa 30 AI roles recently and had 850+ applicants for some of those roles. Many strong local candidates. https://lnkd.in/gQY4YHjg 3️⃣ In our Hopes and Fears survey, 2 in 3 workers felt that GenAI will change the nature of their work in a negative way - 17 points higher than the global average. https://lnkd.in/gVBCwQdc 4️⃣ Our Annual Global CEO Survey found that Australia’s CEOs were less optimistic about the benefits of AI than their global counterparts (51% vs 70%) and that businesses in Australia were slower than the global average at shifting their business models to generate revenue from new products and services. https://lnkd.in/g5yiJzDg It's cause for reflection... how do we bridge the gap in AI trust, adoption, and job growth to help Australia stay competitive globally? Lee Hickin Tracy Moore Kobi Leins (PhD, GAICD) Anton van den Hengel Toby Walsh Stela SOLAR Jon Whittle Aurélie Jacquet Ed Santow Fang Chen, Distinguished Professor Kevin Burrowes Thomas Bowden Jahanzeb Azim Mohamed Abdelrazek Chris Kelkar Ian Oppermann Victor Dominello Dr. Eric Lim Alan Hsiao Robert Kopel Kai Zhan

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The National AI Centre and Fifth Quadrant have just released their report: Australian Responsible AI Index 2024. This report serves as a timely reminder on the importance of leadership, revealing a correlation between business leadership involvement and responsible AI maturity. Importantly, it also shows that there's still a significant gap between what organisations say they do and what they actually do. A factor that I attribute to a skills gap. This underscores the growing importance education and training will play in helping to drive responsible AI adoption across Australia. I was glad to emphasise this point during my recent talk on ethical AI at a recent ACS (Australian Computer Society) event. Codex have had the privilege of working with organisations of all sizes in Australia to help them embark on their AI journey in a responsible and sustainable way. If you're looking to leverage AI in your business, but aren't sure where to start, we're here to help. #AI #EthicalAI #ResponsibleAI #ML #MLOps https://lnkd.in/gctdst_h

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