09/11/2026
Last week’s US midterm elections were a striking reminder of how quickly sentiment can shift when people feel the system is not working for them. Many Americans galvanised around President Trump because they wanted something different: an economy and institutions they believed would finally deliver for them. When that promise failed, their support evaporated.
In Australia, I believe the lesson and opportunity for leaders across business, government and the community, is to lean into the issues and agenda needed to build a strong economy and confidence among individuals and households that their concerns around cost of living, housing affordability, access to care, and a future with decent jobs and incomes are being heard and demonstrably responded to.
Of course AI sits at the centre of this. Done well and intentionally, AI can lift productivity and wages, create new job opportunities and enable the quality of the services Australians rely on.
At CEDA’s fourth annual AI Leadership Summit in late October, there was a clear message across the sessions that the real benefits of AI will not come from doing the same roles and activities, just faster. They will come from thinking more expansively about how AI can transform what we do, and that takes curiosity and creativity. On the latter, there was a strong and understandable push to protect the intellectual property of creatives.
For leaders, the question remains how to keep up in a meaningful way, and how to challenge their organisations not to be superficial or anti-human in how they adopt and use AI. Many of these challenges are familiar. Ensuring recruitment is free of bias matters just as much whether the decision sits with a HR team or an algorithm.
We framed the Summit around advice from Professor Michelle Simmons at a CEDA non-executive directors breakfast last year. When I asked her how a board could avoid being too risk averse, her answer was simple: “do the work”.
Speakers at this year’s summit offered plenty of insight on what doing the work looks like: build a shared language on AI; know how many agents your organisation is running, why, and whether their KPIs reflect genuine business outcomes; make sure accountability sits with people, not the AI; anchor your AI strategy to your purpose; build systems that make it easy for teams to collaborate; and be intentionally human, always.
Insights from Minister Jimin Kim of South Korea, Canada’s Deputy High Commissioner Carly Volkes and former White House adviser Jim Kohlenberger also made clear that Australia is lagging, both on investment and especially on digital skills and literacy across the community.
This week the latest IMD World Digital and AI Rankings survey results will be released. It will be interesting to see how Australia’s performance lines up when it comes to skills and adoption, and how the recent ramp up in data centre investment will be reflected in the results. As the IMD’s partner in Australia we are looking forward to releasing these results on Wednesday.
Last week I hosted our NSW Health Delivery conference. Not surprisingly, a key theme was how we get the care sector working more cohesively, across jurisdictions, across sectors (aged, disability and health) and in terms of making the investments that matter most, like prevention. Greater clarity and agreement on outcomes and how these are measured was identified as an important enabler. On the productivity front, we are continuing our work focused on how we can build more houses and infrastructure faster and cheaper. Our new research released tomorrow, in partnership with WSP, Building what Australia needs: lifting productivity in major infrastructure projects, builds on our previous research on construction productivity.
The report highlights that poor risk management practices, risk aversion, information asymmetries and opaque and contradictory procurement processes leave little room for developers and contractors to invest in productivity-enhancing tools and capabilities.
CEDA is proudly independent and we wish to remain that way. We need your help to do so. Please look out for an upcoming note on how you can help keep our research and events independent and focused on Australia’s future.
In Sydney on 4 March 2027, we’ll welcome ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb for her annual ACCC annual compliance and enforcement priorities update. Join us for insights into the Commission’s focus for the year ahead, including fair trading, consumer safety and the digital economy.
Join us in Melbourne on 17 March 2027 for our fifth annual Climate and Energy Summit. We’ll explore how Australia’s energy transition can strengthen productivity and competitiveness while delivering reliable, affordable energy. Early bird pricing is available until 31 December.
Welcome to our new member Bradfield Development Authority. Thank you for joining us.