Latest news with #VickiBrady
The Age
2 days ago
- Business
- The Age
AI could cure cancer, and kill your job
So it was interesting to hear Vicki Brady, the boss of Australia's $54 billion telco giant Telstra, announce how it was going to wield the AI magic wand as part of its five-year plan to transform the business and earnings profile. A recent trip to the US, which included entry to the exclusive Microsoft CEO Summit, proved to be an eye-opener on AI's current state-of-play. 'The pace and scale of change is just phenomenal … this is real now,' Brady says. 'Now the conversation is around agents. We see lots of potential across those areas … customer engagement, how we operate and manage our network, how we develop software and manage our IT environment, how it supports back of office for us where you tend to have manual processes.' What is Agentic AI? By 'agents' she means the hot new buzzword: Agentic AI. This refers to discrete AI tools that can handle a range of functions with minimal oversight. Loading Think of cybersecurity agents that automatically detect and respond to threats, or health assistants that can help with diagnostic, treatment and care management recommendations. Or, in Telstra's case, create massive efficiencies in customer engagement while improving the quality of its service - hopefully. In case you don't understand the potential threat, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang recently referred to them as 'digital employees'. And keep in mind that Telstra has made a virtue of its massive blood-letting over the past two decades with job cuts at a pace only surpassed by your columnist's own industry: media. Telstra's most recent T22 transformation strategy included 8000 fresh bodies out the door. So it was interesting to see how ambivalent Telstra was on AI-related job costs when asked by analysts, who are used to hard numbers from the telco. 'No one can predict exactly what our workforces will look like in 2030, but in our case, we believe our workforce will likely be smaller in 2030 than it is today,' was Brady's tepid reply. Telstra currently employs 32,000 staff doing everything from ditch digging to customer support and sales. It isn't that Brady won't be using every opportunity to replace staff with AI bots where possible, it is just too early to say how much it will need to leverage staff with AI rather than rely on AI alone. It makes Telstra an interesting proxy for the AI revolution compared to the tech groups and services giants which are starting to take brutal measures as AI turns on its makers. Recent job losses at Microsoft included teams of coders whose jobs can now be done by AI. Technical writers at Aussie tech giants like Canva are also having to find new careers. Shopify's boss may have merely been publicly stating what has become industry standard practice when he said recently that the group will only approve new hires if it can be shown the job cannot be done by AI. It has led to extreme measures, like the highly paid staff from Aussie tech giants Canva and Atlassian taking union membership - just like Telstra's ditch diggers. But the overriding message across industries is that it is about growing the business with fewer new hires as the business expands. 'I like to think we can double in size with the workforce we have today,' Janet Truncale, global chief executive of EY, said at the recent Milken Institute annual conference on the impact of AI. So how does this all work for Telstra with the disadvantage of incumbency and the need for massive investments to keep up with the insatiable demand for data from new applications like AI, augmented reality and live-streaming? Plus the fierce competition which limits the telco's ability to charge higher prices. Loading Telstra plans on AI having a critical role in its aim to both grow revenue but also keep a lid on costs. 'This is not straightforward, driving positive operating leverage in a business like ours, which is a mature business,' Brady says. 'We've got to drive the top line, and we've got to drive real efficiency in our business. And that's absolutely at the heart of the strategy.' Even for the ditch diggers and maintenance staff, AI is already helping its infrastructure business cut the costly 'truck rolls' for emergency maintenance problems and help 'crush' the manual complexity of designing its high-speed networks. To get an idea of the potential savings, managing and operating its various networks costs $1.5 billion annually. Software engineering and IT is another $1 billion annual cost. And then there is the 'big opportunity' - the $2 billion consumed every year on customer engagement in all its forms. The job losses will be from the workers that companies like Telstra won't need to hire, and - if it works - the costs will be handed on to customers if they are willing to pay for services tailored to their needs. That big opportunity is more than just about containing costs. It starts with the digitisation of telecommunications networks which now allow companies like Telstra to leverage it as a product with its own value rather than a pipe, no different to your gas and water. Customer offerings no longer need to be defined by maximum download speeds and buckets of data. With digitisation, services can be managed more discretely by software. And customer's access to the network can become more bespoke and - hopefully - lucrative. A food truck at a concert needs uninterrupted network access to ensure payments get through and are not swamped by selfies getting uploaded by its customers. How much would they pay for that? Customer engagement needs to get much smarter to create differentiated offerings - like the right service for someone to stream movies, make business video calls, or scale bandwidth for peak sales periods at your business. The job losses will be from the workers that companies like Telstra won't need to hire, and - if it works - the costs will be handed on to customers if they are willing to pay for services tailored to their needs.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
AI could cure cancer, and kill your job
So it was interesting to hear Vicki Brady, the boss of Australia's $54 billion telco giant Telstra, announce how it was going to wield the AI magic wand as part of its five-year plan to transform the business and earnings profile. A recent trip to the US, which included entry to the exclusive Microsoft CEO Summit, proved to be an eye-opener on AI's current state-of-play. 'The pace and scale of change is just phenomenal … this is real now,' Brady says. 'Now the conversation is around agents. We see lots of potential across those areas … customer engagement, how we operate and manage our network, how we develop software and manage our IT environment, how it supports back of office for us where you tend to have manual processes.' What is Agentic AI? By 'agents' she means the hot new buzzword: Agentic AI. This refers to discrete AI tools that can handle a range of functions with minimal oversight. Loading Think of cybersecurity agents that automatically detect and respond to threats, or health assistants that can help with diagnostic, treatment and care management recommendations. Or, in Telstra's case, create massive efficiencies in customer engagement while improving the quality of its service - hopefully. In case you don't understand the potential threat, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang recently referred to them as 'digital employees'. And keep in mind that Telstra has made a virtue of its massive blood-letting over the past two decades with job cuts at a pace only surpassed by your columnist's own industry: media. Telstra's most recent T22 transformation strategy included 8000 fresh bodies out the door. So it was interesting to see how ambivalent Telstra was on AI-related job costs when asked by analysts, who are used to hard numbers from the telco. 'No one can predict exactly what our workforces will look like in 2030, but in our case, we believe our workforce will likely be smaller in 2030 than it is today,' was Brady's tepid reply. Telstra currently employs 32,000 staff doing everything from ditch digging to customer support and sales. It isn't that Brady won't be using every opportunity to replace staff with AI bots where possible, it is just too early to say how much it will need to leverage staff with AI rather than rely on AI alone. It makes Telstra an interesting proxy for the AI revolution compared to the tech groups and services giants which are starting to take brutal measures as AI turns on its makers. Recent job losses at Microsoft included teams of coders whose jobs can now be done by AI. Technical writers at Aussie tech giants like Canva are also having to find new careers. Shopify's boss may have merely been publicly stating what has become industry standard practice when he said recently that the group will only approve new hires if it can be shown the job cannot be done by AI. It has led to extreme measures, like the highly paid staff from Aussie tech giants Canva and Atlassian taking union membership - just like Telstra's ditch diggers. But the overriding message across industries is that it is about growing the business with fewer new hires as the business expands. 'I like to think we can double in size with the workforce we have today,' Janet Truncale, global chief executive of EY, said at the recent Milken Institute annual conference on the impact of AI. So how does this all work for Telstra with the disadvantage of incumbency and the need for massive investments to keep up with the insatiable demand for data from new applications like AI, augmented reality and live-streaming? Plus the fierce competition which limits the telco's ability to charge higher prices. Loading Telstra plans on AI having a critical role in its aim to both grow revenue but also keep a lid on costs. 'This is not straightforward, driving positive operating leverage in a business like ours, which is a mature business,' Brady says. 'We've got to drive the top line, and we've got to drive real efficiency in our business. And that's absolutely at the heart of the strategy.' Even for the ditch diggers and maintenance staff, AI is already helping its infrastructure business cut the costly 'truck rolls' for emergency maintenance problems and help 'crush' the manual complexity of designing its high-speed networks. To get an idea of the potential savings, managing and operating its various networks costs $1.5 billion annually. Software engineering and IT is another $1 billion annual cost. And then there is the 'big opportunity' - the $2 billion consumed every year on customer engagement in all its forms. The job losses will be from the workers that companies like Telstra won't need to hire, and - if it works - the costs will be handed on to customers if they are willing to pay for services tailored to their needs. That big opportunity is more than just about containing costs. It starts with the digitisation of telecommunications networks which now allow companies like Telstra to leverage it as a product with its own value rather than a pipe, no different to your gas and water. Customer offerings no longer need to be defined by maximum download speeds and buckets of data. With digitisation, services can be managed more discretely by software. And customer's access to the network can become more bespoke and - hopefully - lucrative. A food truck at a concert needs uninterrupted network access to ensure payments get through and are not swamped by selfies getting uploaded by its customers. How much would they pay for that? Customer engagement needs to get much smarter to create differentiated offerings - like the right service for someone to stream movies, make business video calls, or scale bandwidth for peak sales periods at your business. The job losses will be from the workers that companies like Telstra won't need to hire, and - if it works - the costs will be handed on to customers if they are willing to pay for services tailored to their needs.
AU Financial Review
2 days ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
AI could kill WFH and send unemployment to 20pc. Are you really ready?
Vicki Brady thought she understood artificial intelligence. Three weeks ago, she realised she was wrong. The Telstra chief executive was one of several top Australian business leaders who travelled to the US in mid-May to attend Microsoft's annual CEO summit in the tech giant's hometown of Seattle.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Unhappy Telstra customers told to 'move' provider, says Telstra CEO
Telstra's chief executive Vicki Brady has responded to concerns about its mobile coverage, saying customers who aren't satisfied with Telstra are free to 'move' to a different providers.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Telstra boss stands by mobile coverage claims, despite website changes after Vodafone allegations
Despite living less than three kilometres from Sydney's CBD, Tony Kourahanis's Telstra mobile phone reception is barely usable. "I have to use WhatsApp to make phone calls and the phone cuts [out] … after a few minutes, it just cuts here with no warning, so I have to keep on calling people back." For service, he often walks onto his front lawn. While Tony's frustrations might be shared by many city dwelling customers of the big three telcos, it's in remote and regional Australia where two of the biggest providers have recently butt heads. Telstra — Australia's largest telecommunication service — has been accused by rival Vodafone of engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct for 15 years. Until May, the telco had failed to mention the advertised reach of its mobile coverage was based on customers using an external antenna. Despite changing its website this month to state its coverage area figure was based on needing an external antenna, Telstra's chief executive Vicki Brady has now said the telco stands by its claim that its mobile network covers 99.7 per cent of the population. "Just to be really clear, we have 3 million square kilometres of coverage that does not require you to have an external antenna," Ms Brady told a Telstra investor day in Sydney. "When we got challenged on it recently, we did take the time to go back over that … "You don't brush aside a serious allegation like that, you take the time to understand it, to re-check. "We ran additional testing just to be 100 per cent sure in our labs and so, yes, we stand by [this]." Just last week, a spokesperson for Telstra told the ABC it had updated its website after Vodafone had communicated "how it's chosen to calculate its coverage footprint" and said "we're highlighting that our 3 million square kilometres of coverage is based on using an external antenna." Experts believe it's an attempt to "batten down the hatches". "Because this potentially could open Telstra up to very large fines," said associate professor Mark Gregory from the School of Engineering at RMIT University. Dr Gregory is concerned that while some areas across the country may be listed as having mobile coverage, what matters is how that connection works. "Whilst the coverage maps might indicate that you should expect to be able to get some signal, the ability to actually carry out a conversation or some type of a connection like a FaceTime or Google talk with someone else, it's not often possible." When questioning Telstra, Mr Kourahanis said he was told it was "technical difficulties and they're sorting them out". "This is two years ago now," he told the ABC. Consumer advocacy group Ajust has received 500 complaints about Telstra in two years. "One in three of them related to issues with network and coverage. On top of that, just this year we've seen 10 times as many consumers visiting our website for help with Telstra issues," said Ajust founder Tom Kaldor. The start-up alleges Telstra's track record is so bad, it will be able to monetise advocating on behalf of its customers "Consumers are making purchasing decisions based on promises of internet speeds and mobile coverage. And so, if those things are incorrect, they're definitely paying too much because they're not getting the service that they deserve," said Mr Kaldor. For Mr Kourahanis, he pays $140 a month. "It's not good enough," he said. For others, Mr Kaldor said the consequences of poor connections go beyond the financial. Vodafone has called for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate Telstra for "misleading customers" over the extent of its mobile network coverage, which it says has resulted in an unfair market advantage. The TPG Telecom-owned telco wrote to the ACCC and urged the watchdog to launch an investigation into Telstra's conduct. Dr Gregory agrees. 'There have been concerns about the mobile coverage claims for many years and as this is the cornerstone of Telstra's marketing plan, we need to get to point where the coverage maps reflect what the average customer is likely to find when they go into regional or remote Australia." He said he has been calling on the government for a decade to assist with the "research and development of a system that would permit us to identify the performance of broadband and mobile networks right across the nation".
