1d ago

From Alta Vista to Agentic AI - with Rita Arrigo

In 1995, Rita Arrigo opened one of Australia's first internet cafes. There was no Google, and Netscape didn't even exist yet - just a coffee to drink while the page slowly built up on the screen. 30 years on, those same PCs sit in a glass case at the National Communications Museum, and Rita's on TED stages talking about responsible AI. This conversation is about the arc between those two points, and what 30 years of tech adoption taught her about doing AI well. We cover: What a 1995 internet cafe can teach us about how organisations should be rolling out AI todayHow "responsible AI" came out of a Microsoft tool being downloaded and misused by law enforcementWhy AI belongs in the business, not in the IT departmentThe National AI Centre's responsible AI guardrails - the 10 that became six key guidelines, and why every Australian organisation should know themWhy the dystopia narrative about AI taking everyone's job misses what's actually happeningHow creative industries and software development are already being reshaped, and what that means for the next wave of jobsWhy transparency matters as much as the AI itself - telling people when and how you're using it About Rita Arrigo Rita Arrigo is a digital and AI leader who has spent her career at the front edge of tech adoption in Australia. From building one of the country's first internet cafes, to working as Chief Digital Advisor at Microsoft, to helping establish the National AI Centre's responsible AI framework, she has been part of every wave that has shaped how Australian organisations use technology. She is now at boutique AI consultancy Alchemy Impact, helping executive teams get AI out of the IT department and into the business. Connect with Rita:👉 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rarrigo/ Connect with Amit:👉 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/au-amitsingh/👉 Website: amits.com.au Work with Amit:If you're a senior leader navigating AI decisions and want a thinking partner on strategy, governance, or where to focus first - that's what we do at evince Consulting. 👉 evince Consulting: evince.ai Join the AI Leadership Academy:Want to go deeper on AI strategy, leadership, and decision-making? Join the AI Leadership Academy on Skool - a free community for business leaders who want to stay sharp in an AI-driven world. Includes the AI Strategy Playbook, mini-course, webinar recordings, and weekly discussions. 👉 Join free: skool.com/aileaders Be a guest on Never Outdated:Got a story worth sharing? We're always looking for leaders with real experience and sharp perspectives. Register your interest to be a guest. 👉 Apply here: amits.com.au/contact Subscribe to Never Outdated:Never Outdated is where business and technology leaders go to stay ahead. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and sign up to the newsletter for a monthly dose of practical insights on AI, leadership, and transformation. 👉 Newsletter: evince.ai/resources/newsletter👉 Apple Podcasts👉 Spotify

36 min

May 4

Was that the human, or the agent? - with Simon Reiter

What happens when an AI agent acts under your employee's credentials and something goes wrong? Was it the human, the agent, or the agent acting as the human? If you can't answer that cleanly, you don't have governance. You've got hope dressed up as a policy. But here's the thing. Identity projects don't sell more widgets. They don't unlock new revenue. They don't shorten time to value. So they sit at the bottom of every funding list - while agents are quietly doing the work, sometimes with their own credentials, mostly with ours. In this episode, Simon Reiter and I go deep on why identity is AI's silent hero, and why almost nobody is funding the foundation that everything agentic gets built on. We cover: Why a CTO vibe-coded his kids' routine app in 90 minutes - and why the bottleneck has moved from building to clearly defining the problemThe 100%-safe paradox - why governance has to trade against velocity, and why risk-tiered guardrails beat one-size-fits-allThe policy / framework / standards split - and why the standards layer is the one most companies skipToken Ops - a discipline Simon basically named live on the show, and a real cautionary tale of $300K of AI licences turning into a $1M token billWhy identity is AI's silent hero - and why "was that the human or the agent?" is the question most strategies haven't sat with yetQuantum readiness by 2030 - what the federal guidance actually means, and why your identity stack determines how exposed you areSimon is CTO at CareSuper. His career spans 25+ years - starting in networking and infrastructure before moving into enterprise technology leadership, with senior tech and CTO roles across Aware Super, Cbus and now CareSuper. He's a deep technologist who never forgets the people, and his perspective on what to build, what to govern, and what to leave alone is one of the sharpest you'll hear. If you're a senior leader making AI decisions - or sitting at the table where they get made - Simon's perspective is one to sit with. Connect with Simon Reiter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reitersimon/Speaking at 6D AI Melbourne, Aug 2026: https://6degreesmedia.com.au/speakers-6dai-melbourne-26/Speaking at The Customer Show, Aug 2026: https://www.iqpc.com/events-customershow/speakers Connect with Amit Singh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/au-amitsingh/Website: https://amits.com.auevince Consulting: https://evince.ai Work with Amit Most AI initiatives fail before they start. At evince Consulting, I help senior leaders set the focus, build the foundations, and lead the work that turns it into transformation. The real risk isn't moving too slowly - it's moving forward without clarity. Learn more: https://evince.ai Join the AI Leadership Academy Want to go deeper on AI strategy, leadership, and decision-making? Join the AI Leadership Academy on Skool - a free community for business leaders who want to stay sharp in an AI-driven world. Includes the AI Strategy Playbook, mini-course, webinar recordings, and weekly discussions. Join free: https://www.skool.com/aileaders Be a Guest on Never Outdated Got a story worth sharing? We're always looking for leaders with real experience and sharp perspectives. Register your interest to be a guest. Apply here: https://amits.com.au/contact Subscribe to Never Outdated Never Outdated is where business and technology leaders go to stay ahead. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and sign up to the newsletter for a monthly dose of practical insights on AI, leadership, and transformation. Newsletter: evince.ai/resources/newsletterApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/never-outdated/id1799636085Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ybHtbXBqoWikIR93s4iWM

42 min

Apr 6

No Engineering Background. No Team. No Excuse. - with Aden Vaughan-Williams

One person. No team. No engineering background. And he's built more AI tools in six months than most departments have in two years. Aden Vaughan-Williams ran people and culture at Informed Decisions, a 70-person B2B SaaS company. No CPO to bounce ideas off. No engineering resource. So he stopped thinking of himself as an HR person and started thinking like a product manager, with AI as his engineer. That reframe changed everything. In this episode, Aden and I talk about what it actually looks like when someone in a non-technical function picks up AI and starts building. Not theory. Not hype. Real tools, real results, built by someone who just got tired of wishing the software did more. We cover: Why "product manager with AI as my engineer" is a more useful mental model than "HR person experimenting with AI"How Aden built an AI board of directors to pressure test ideas before the exec tableWhat it means to train AI personas to be critical, not just encouragingThe bias question: why unconscious bias training matters more now than everWhether AI will replace senior leadership roles (and why Aden thinks judgment is the moat)The talent pipeline problem: Big 4 cutting grads by 40-50%, but what happens to the next generation of partners?The "build to enable" mentality and why the bottleneck used to be that you couldn't build it, but now you canAden has over a decade of experience in people and culture and tech recruitment at companies like Carsales and Informed Decisions. He's the kind of person who sat next to engineers and product managers every day, picked up how they think, and then applied it to his own domain. He's proof that you don't need a technical background to build with AI. You just need curiosity and a problem worth solving. Connect with Aden Vaughan-Williams LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aden-vaughan-williams/Email: adenvwcareers@gmail.com Connect with Amit Singh LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/au-amitsingh/Website: amits.com.au Work with Amit If you're a senior leader navigating AI decisions and want a thinking partner on strategy, governance, or where to focus first - that's what we do at evince Consulting. Our AI Opportunity Audit helps leadership teams get clear on priorities before committing time and budget. Learn more: evince.ai 🔥 Join the AI Leadership Academy Want to go deeper on AI strategy, leadership, and decision-making? Join the AI Leadership Academy on Skool - a free community for business leaders who want to stay sharp in an AI-driven world. Includes the AI Strategy Playbook, mini-course, webinar recordings, and weekly discussions. Join free: skool.com/aileaders 🎙️ Be a Guest on Never Outdated Got a story worth sharing? We're always looking for leaders with real experience and sharp perspectives. Register your interest to be a guest. Apply here: amits.com.au/contact 🙋 Subscribe to Never Outdated Never Outdated is where business and technology leaders go to stay ahead. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and sign up to the newsletter for a monthly dose of practical insights on AI, leadership, and transformation. Subscribe here: amits.com.au/neveroutdated

37 min

Mar 9

The AI CEO That Fired Itself (and What It Taught Us About Humans) - with Warwick Brown

What happens when you build five AI executives, give them a Slack channel, and let them run a company? Warwick Brown did exactly that. He built an AI-powered C-Suite, gave them an authority matrix, and became the human board. On day one, the AI CEO couldn't get responses from its team... so it recommended its own termination. But here's the thing. This experiment wasn't really about AI. It was about us. In this episode, Warwick and I go deep on what his AI C-Suite experiment revealed about human leadership, organisational psychology, and the decisions that actually matter when AI enters the boardroom. We cover: Why the AI CEO fired itself (and what that says about accountability)The missing ingredient AI will never have: consequenceWhy observability matters more for AI than it ever did for humansThe parallel between AI governance and corporate governanceHow fear and bias shape human decisions in ways AI simply can't replicateThe shift from engineering KPIs to business outcomes as a leaderWhy "the technology's easy, but the people are hard" is the most important lesson in transformation Warwick is a people-centred technology leader with 25 years of experience spanning infrastructure engineering, global teams, and executive roles at organisations like Karoon Energy. He's a deep thinker, a builder, and someone who asks the questions most leaders haven't thought of yet. This is a conversation that will change how you think about AI, leadership, and what it means to be human in an increasingly automated world. 🤝 Connect with Warwick Brown LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warwick-brown/Website: https://warwick-brown.com.au/ 🤝 Connect with Amit Singh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/au-amitsingh/Website: https://amits.com.au 🚀 Work with Amit If you're a senior leader navigating AI decisions and want a thinking partner on strategy, governance, or where to focus first - that's what we do at evince Consulting. Our AI Opportunity Audit helps leadership teams get clear on priorities before committing time and budget.Learn more: https://evince.ai 🔥 Join the AI Leadership Academy Want to go deeper on AI strategy, leadership, and decision-making? Join the AI Leadership Academy on Skool - a free community for business leaders who want to stay sharp in an AI-driven world. Includes the AI Strategy Playbook, mini-course, webinar recordings, and weekly discussions.Join free: https://www.skool.com/aileaders 🎙️ Be a Guest on Never Outdated Got a story worth sharing? We're always looking for leaders with real experience and sharp perspectives. Register your interest to be a guest.Apply here: amits.com.au/contact 👀 Subscribe to Never Outdated Never Outdated is where business and technology leaders go to stay ahead. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and sign up to the newsletter for a monthly dose of practical insights on AI, leadership, and transformation.Newsletter: evince.ai/resources/newsletterApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/never-outdated/id1799636085Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ybHtbXBqoWikIR93s4iWM

43 min

Jan 11

Why AI Feels Urgent but Decisions Still Feel Unsettled

AI is now present in almost every executive conversation, yet many leaders feel a growing sense of unease rather than confidence. There is urgency everywhere, but direction feels harder to pin down. In this episode, Amit Singh explores what is really driving that pressure beneath the surface. Not the speed of technology, not a lack of understanding, but something more structural and more confronting for senior leaders. The episode reframes why activity often increases when clarity is low, and what quietly breaks inside organisations when decisions are made from the wrong frame. You’ll hear: ✅ Why urgency without clarity creates motion but not momentum ✅ How AI exposes decision weaknesses that already existed ✅ What changes when leaders regain confidence in their decisions ———————— 🔥 Join other leaders inside the AI Leadership Academy on Skool 🔥 A free community for business and technology leaders who know AI will shape everything and want to stand out by leading on strategy, culture, and people – not just tech. Technology skills are becoming commoditised. The real edge now comes from how you think, lead, and communicate. Inside the Academy, you’ll find: 📓 The AI Strategy Playbook 📚 A growing library of resources – templates, short course, and webinar replays 👤 A private community of peers sharing real-world lessons, not vendor noise 👉 Join for free → ⁠https://www.skool.com/aileaders⁠ ———————— 🔔 Subscribe to Never Outdated: Practical Tips for Leaders to Stay Relevant A short, sharp email landing once a month for tech and business leaders trying to keep up with relentless change. From AI to cyber risks, the pressure is constant – this newsletter cuts through the noise with trusted insights and practical ideas that help you stay in control. ☑️ Quick 5 min read ☑️ Actionable insights you can use ☑️ Trusted source to stay across what’s changing 👉 Subscribe now to stay ahead and stay relevant → ⁠https://evince.com.au/resources/never-outdated-newsletter/⁠ ———————— 📌 You can connect with me at: Website: ⁠https://evince.aiLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/au-amitsingh⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/amitsingh/⁠YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@amitpsingh⁠

14 min

12/01/2025

2025’s Hard Lessons and 2026’s Reality Check

Everyone is trying to make sense of AI, but 2025 exposed something uncomfortable… most organisations were running faster than their leaders could actually understand. Behind closed doors, executives admitted they were overwhelmed, under-resourced, and being pushed to deliver “AI outcomes” without the literacy, clarity, or support to do it safely or meaningfully. At the same time, AI capability and cyber risk sprinted ahead, widening the gap between those who were prepared and those who were pretending to be. In this episode, I break down the three truths 2025 made brutally clear, two big shifts I believe are coming in 2026, and one action leaders need to take in January if they want to get ahead instead of playing catch-up all year. You’ll hear: ✅ What leaders were really struggling with in 2025 ✅ The global shifts that mattered more than the headlines ✅ The one lesson that changed how I advise executives ✅ One good and one bad prediction for 2026 ✅ And the single action that will shape your organisation’s capability next year If you want clarity, confidence, and a smarter way to lead through the AI era, this one’s for you. ———————— 🔥 Join other leaders inside the AI Leadership Academy on Skool 🔥 A free community for business and technology leaders who know AI will shape everything and want to stand out by leading on strategy, culture, and people – not just tech. Technology skills are becoming commoditised. The real edge now comes from how you think, lead, and communicate. Inside the Academy, you’ll find: 📓 The AI Strategy Playbook 📚 A growing library of resources – templates, short course, and webinar replays 👤 A private community of peers sharing real-world lessons, not vendor noise 👉 Join for free → ⁠https://www.skool.com/aileaders⁠ ———————— 🔔 Subscribe to Never Outdated: Practical Tips for Leaders to Stay Relevant A short, sharp email landing once a month for tech and business leaders trying to keep up with relentless change. From AI to cyber risks, the pressure is constant – this newsletter cuts through the noise with trusted insights and practical ideas that help you stay in control. ☑️ Quick 5 min read ☑️ Actionable insights you can use ☑️ Trusted source to stay across what’s changing 👉 Subscribe now to stay ahead and stay relevant → ⁠https://evince.com.au/resources/never-outdated-newsletter/⁠ ———————— 📌 You can connect with me at: Website: ⁠https://evince.com.au⁠ and YourChiefAIOfficer.aiLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/au-amitsingh⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/amitsingh/⁠YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@amitpsingh⁠

16 min

11/03/2025

You've been training for AI all along

Many leaders worry they’re behind on AI. The truth? You’ve been training for it your whole career. When pressure mounts and new tools drop every week, it’s easy to feel like you’re missing the wave. But what’s really happening underneath is a confidence gap – not a capability gap. You already think the way AI thinks. In this episode, I unpack why your business instincts; logic, pattern recognition, structuredproblem-solving, are the very skills AI thrives on. You’ll hear: ✅ The hidden habits that have already prepared you for AI ✅ Why experience still beats algorithms ✅ A simple way to turn curiosity into capability If you’ve ever thought, “There’s got to be a better way,” this one’s for you. ———————— 🚨 FREE WEBINAR – DON'T MISS THIS! 🚨 I’m running a free webinar on Thursday 13th November at 12pm AEDST that I think every business leader needs right now – it’s not about tech or tools, but about how we got here with AI, why it’s suddenly everywhere, and how to use it to create real ROI through practical examples and some Q&A. If that sounds useful, you can register here: https://go.evince.com.au/free-webinar-registration-v2 ———————— 🔥 Join other leaders inside the AI Leadership Academy on Skool 🔥 A free community for business and technology leaders who know AI will shape everything and want to stand out by leading on strategy, culture, and people – not just tech. Technology skills are becoming commoditised. The real edge now comes from how you think, lead, and communicate. Inside the Academy, you’ll find: 📓 The AI Strategy Playbook 📚 A growing library of resources – templates, short course, andwebinar replays 👤 A private community of peers sharing real-world lessons, notvendor noise 👉 Join for free → ⁠https://www.skool.com/aileaders⁠ ———————— 🔔 Subscribe to Never Outdated: Practical Tips for Leaders to Stay Relevant A short, sharp email landing once a month for tech and businessleaders trying to keep up with relentless change. From AI to cyber risks, the pressure is constant – this newsletter cuts through the noise with trusted insights and practical ideas that help you stay in control. ☑️ Quick 5 min read ☑️ Actionable insights you can use ☑️ Trusted source to stay across what’s changing 👉 Subscribe now to stay ahead and stay relevant → ⁠https://evince.com.au/resources/never-outdated-newsletter/⁠ ———————— 📌 You can connect with me at: Website: ⁠https://evince.com.au⁠LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/au-amitsingh⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/amitsingh/⁠YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@amitpsingh⁠

14 min

10/09/2025

Nugget 01: What’s better? FEWER steps or EASIER steps?

This nugget explores a simple question that says a lot about how we work. What is more valuable, reducing the number of steps in a process or making each step easier? At first, it sounds like a question about efficiency, but when you bring AI into it, it becomes much deeper. Most organisations are still focused on improving what already exists instead of reimagining how work should happen from the ground up. I share why that mindset needs to change, what it really means to design for the future, and why strategy matters more than ever in the age of AI. ———————— 🔥 Join other leaders inside the AI Leadership Academy on Skool 🔥 A free community for business and technology leaders who know AI will shape everything and want to stand out by leading on strategy, culture, and people – not just tech. Technology skills are becoming commoditised. The real edge now comes from how you think, lead, and communicate. Inside the Academy, you’ll find: 📓 The AI Strategy Playbook 📚 A growing library of resources – templates, short course, and webinar replays 👤 A private community of peers sharing real-world lessons, not vendor noise 👉 Join for free → ⁠https://www.skool.com/aileaders⁠ ———————— 🔔 Subscribe to Never Outdated: Practical Tips for Leaders to Stay Relevant A short, sharp email landing once a month for tech and business leaders trying to keep up with relentless change. From AI to cyber risks, the pressure is constant – this newsletter cuts through the noise with trusted insights and practical ideas that help you stay in control. ☑️ Quick 5 min read ☑️ Actionable insights you can use ☑️ Trusted source to stay across what’s changing 👉 Subscribe now to stay ahead and stay relevant → ⁠https://evince.com.au/resources/never-outdated-newsletter/⁠ ———————— 📌 You can connect with me at: Website: ⁠https://evince.com.au⁠LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/au-amitsingh⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/amitsingh/⁠YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@amitpsingh⁠

5 min

Never Outdated

Episodes

From Alta Vista to Agentic AI - with Rita Arrigo

Was that the human, or the agent? - with Simon Reiter

No Engineering Background. No Team. No Excuse. - with Aden Vaughan-Williams

The AI CEO That Fired Itself (and What It Taught Us About Humans) - with Warwick Brown

Why AI Feels Urgent but Decisions Still Feel Unsettled

2025’s Hard Lessons and 2026’s Reality Check

You've been training for AI all along

Nugget 01: What’s better? FEWER steps or EASIER steps?

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