This episode is brought to you by Brennan and the 2025 iTnews state of security report. 

Our first guest this fortnight is Rob Walter, the Director of the Agriculture Statistics Program at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The ABS is increasingly aggregating government and third party data sources to build out its understanding of agriculture.

This is important not just for Australia’s national accounts but increasingly as intelligence for farmers to tap into to optimise what they are doing based on what is working in other parts of the country.

Then, hear from Peter Soulsby, the head of cyber security at Brennan, on how to protect information and system assets by strengthening endpoint security.

Our guest this fortnight is SA Power Networks’ Head of Cyber Security and IT Resilience Nathan Morelli. Our conversation is broad ranging but is anchored in a five-year cyber security strategy prepared and published by the organisation a couple of months ago, with a roadmap that is set to be updated annually.

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iTnews is launching the 2025 State of Data and AI report this Thursday 10th of July at a breakfast event for senior IT leaders at the NEXTDC S3 data centre in Artarmon, Sydney. We have a strong speaker line up with panel discussions on scaling AI, model and service selection, and data & ai security and privacy. If you are interested in joining the event, register now via our events tab on iTnews. Thanks to NEXTDC, Brennan and Airia for sponsoring our 2025 State of Data & AI report and event.

Sponsored by Brennan.

A recent five-state listening tour of Australian boardrooms revealed a strong interest in artificial intelligence, but few tangible outcomes. Brennan’s Head of Digital Solutions, Steve Anderton, observed that while executives are eager to harness AI’s potential, adoption remains limited due to vague goals, misaligned stakeholders, and weak business cases. Only five percent of AI pilots are making it to production—often because of poor infrastructure, governance gaps, or unrealistic expectations. Sixty percent of CFOs surveyed lacked confidence in their organisation’s ability to write effective AI use cases worth funding.

Anderton encourages organisations to adopt a “micro-innovation” approach—small, low-risk pilots driven by cross-functional teams that quickly demonstrate value. He also stresses the importance of modern cloud infrastructure, strong data governance, and addressing cultural challenges, such as fear of job loss. Shadow AI use, where employees adopt tools like ChatGPT without oversight, adds further risk. To hear more insights from Anderton and explore how Australian enterprises can close the gap between AI aspiration and execution, listen to the full podcast. It’s a valuable resource for leaders looking to build a practical, scalable AI strategy grounded in business outcomes.

The Australian Red Cross is in the final stages of developing a data mesh approach using Microsoft Fabric following an earlier attempt at a more traditional centralised data lake. Now former chief information officer Brett Wilson discusses the project.

The iTnews Podcast is having a break this fortnight and will return with a new episode shortly. We relive one of our top episodes from 2024 with NBN Co talking security.

We speak with episode, Jamie Rossato, Chief Information Security Officer at CSIRO. Jamie discusses his initial steps at the agency, core cybersecurity pillars, handling technological transformations, AI's role, and strategic resourcing. He also offers career advice for aspiring cybersecurity professionals, emphasizing governance, operational experience, and the critical nature of cybersecurity leadership.

This episode is brought to you by Fusion5. Stay tuned to the end to hear from Fusion5's Technical Director for Modern Work and Security, Mark Montgomery, about how organisations can ensure continuous cybersecurity compliance without slowing down innovation or business agility.

For more information on how you can level-up your Cybersecurity protection, download Fusion5's cyber threats guide today.

Melbourne Airport is building up its cyber detection and response capabilities in order to secure 30 million annual passenger journeys, which are enabled by multiple technology systems.

Speaking on the iTnews Podcast, head of cyber security Cheuk Wong said he is heavily focused on having visibility across the airport’s technology ecosystem, from its internal IT to baggage handling systems and even its wi-fi networks.

This episode is brought to you by Fusion5. Stay tuned at the end to hear from Jayden Liddelow, security consultant at Fusion 5, how organisations can mature their security posture from reactive vulnerability management towards proactive assurance. 

 For more information on how you can level-up your Cybersecurity protection, download Fusion5's cyber threats guide today.

Hello and welcome to the iTnews Podcast. 

This episode is brought to you by Salesforce. Stay tuned to the end to hear from Kevin Doyle, regional vice president of agentforce and data cloud at Salesforce, about the immense interest in agentic AI and use case opportunities for Australian organisations

Our first guest this fortnight is Prospa’s head of data and analytics Jin Foo. An online lender for small business, Prospa has used hackathons and graph database technology to map out complex relationships between directors and entities applying for loans. 

It is also already experimenting with Agentic AI as a way to automatically assess and flag issues in large amounts of documentation that often accompany a loan application.

Hello and welcome to the iTnews Podcast.

Our guest this week is Matt Bright, the senior manager of emerging technology and efficiency at UniSuper.

UniSuper is moving into the next stage of its AI journey, exploring its first agentic AI use cases as a tool to assist financial advisors in the first instance.

It comes about six months after the superannuation fund gave all 1200 of its staff access to Microsoft 365 Copilot, with both initiatives part of a broader push to harness AI technology to improve member experience.