"I have been deep underground at the coal face, where if procedures are not followed, people can die."
Monash Business School, Boss versus botThe coal face is where I spent my career, and that career is why I talk about AI the way I do. I speak to senior leaders, and to the people who advise senior leaders, about what makes an experienced decision-maker trust a machine, and what makes the same decision-maker refuse.
IS Research Bootcamp 2026, day one, hosted by Deakin University at Burwood. Three days run jointly by Monash University, Deakin University, the University of Melbourne and RMIT University. My first paper, presented to a research audience drawn from four universities. The talk covered what a scoping review of 80 studies found, the nine themes the review produced, and how the nine themes interact with each other.
Monash Business School, Research Services monthly meeting, Caulfield. A practical, how-to session on getting started with AI in professional administration work, for the faculty's research office and Graduate Research Team, in the room and on Zoom. Booked for fifteen minutes and ran longer.
Monash Business School, Department of Management, Caulfield. A hands-on workshop for the department, with Josh Howard, Bin Wang and Wei Wang. My slot demonstrated a personal knowledge base built and searched with an AI agent. In the second hour the four of us circulated and helped people build something they actually wanted.
Monash Information Systems PhD Writing Retreat, Monash Club, Clayton. A presentation to the PhD candidates of the Information Systems Group on what the scoping review behind my first paper found. Three questions about the findings went to the room to test.
Monash eSolutions keynote. Forty-five minutes by Zoom for the people who meet AI resistance daily, across students, academics, researchers and professional staff. Not persuading a room that is already convinced, but giving the people in the room something to say to the four groups eSolutions serves. Resistance is information.
Monash Business School industry panel, Sky Room, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne. Will AI take the jobs or change the work, and what does responsible use look like? On the panel with Ralph Kober and Mary Bahrami, hosted by Richard Foster.
Monash University Transformation Office. The opening session of a new webinar series for leaders, with 327 Monash staff registered. The argument comes in two halves. Fix the process first, because AI pointed at a mess only makes a faster mess. Then unlock the value, which happens through the people who have to use AI rather than through the tool.
Monash eSolutions, Shared and Campus Services. Two and a half hours at the quarterly all-hands.
Monash Information Systems research community, at the Monash Club. A short thesis talk to academics and doctoral candidates, with a visiting international scholar in the room, followed by discussion from the floor.
Monash eSolutions extended leadership team, with a live demonstration of agentic AI. Booked for ninety minutes and ran for three.
Monash eSolutions. Ninety minutes with the six AI fitness trainers chosen to work with the university's senior executive group. The session covered what occupies a senior leader's thinking, and how the first fifteen minutes earn you the next fifteen.
Three things, usually. Why experienced leaders hold AI at arm's length, and what closes the distance. Why AI applied to a process that does not work only magnifies what is wrong with the process. Bill Gates's rule about automation says the same, and the rule binds just as hard now. And why the much older sequence out of Lean manufacturing, stabilise then standardise then mechanise, is the answer. And what agentic AI looks like running live in front of a room, which tends to be the part people talk about afterwards.
I take a small number of engagements each year. I am most useful to a room of senior people who have to make real decisions, not to an audience looking for a demonstration of the tools.