Context Engineering Emerges as ‘Next Battleground’ for Enterprise AI
Elastic’s chief product officer Ken Exner warned that enterprise AI is moving from prompt‑centric experiments to “context engineering,” where the quality and relevance of data feeding large language models determines success. He outlined the evolution from early hype, rapid pilot deployments, and subsequent disappointment to a new phase focused on real‑time retrieval of structured and unstructured enterprise data. Exner positioned Elastic’s search‑and‑observability platform as the infrastructure layer that can deliver this unified data context, enabling agentic AI that automates tasks across operations, security and observability. The shift signals that AI scalability will hinge on data relevance rather than model size alone.
Coles Group CTO Is Leaving After a Year
Coles Group announced that Chief Technology Officer Mike Sackman is leaving after just one year, returning to the UK. His interim replacement will be Chief Operating Officer Matt Swindells, who will assume CTO duties while the retailer searches for a...
Craveable Brands Has One Eye on AI, and the Other on the Project Failure Rate
Craveable Brands, the franchisor behind Red Rooster, Oporto, Chicken Treat and Chargrill Charlie’s, is exploring AI for customer loyalty and franchisee support while demanding proven ROI from vendors due to a 95% AI project failure rate. The company has unified...
EnergyAustralia's CIO of Almost Seven Years to Leave
EnergyAustralia announced that its chief information officer Julie Bale will retire after nearly seven years in the role. The utility has appointed Eglantine Etiemble, formerly group CTO of PEXA and former DuluxGroup IT executive, as the new CIO. Etiemble highlighted...
Australian Unity's 'Shift Left' On Code Quality and Security Is Just in Time for AI
Australian Unity has made SonarQube Cloud its enterprise‑wide static application security testing platform, extending it to every codebase and infrastructure‑as‑code project. By enforcing automated quality gates at the earliest stage of development, the firm shifts left on security and quality...
Foreign Hacker in 2023 Compromised Epstein Files Held by FBI
In February 2023 a foreign hacker infiltrated the FBI’s New York Field Office server that housed files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The breach was discovered when a special agent found a warning file, and the hacker later engaged in a...
Premier's Department NSW CDIO of Four-and-a-Half Years Leaves
Wendy Bryant has stepped down after four‑and‑a‑half years as chief information and digital officer (CDIO) of the Premier's Department NSW. The department announced a search for a successor who will develop an enterprise‑wide digital, data and technology strategy and lead...
ACCC Backs Tighter Rules on Mobile Coverage Claims
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has endorsed new rules that require mobile operators to display coverage on standardized maps using a ‑115 dBm signal threshold. The proposal, driven by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), would label areas...
Re(AI)magining Melbourne: Persistent Accelerates Australia’s Enterprise AI Momentum
Persistent has opened a Melbourne Innovation Centre to accelerate enterprise AI adoption in Australia. The centre combines AI‑led engineering, cloud‑native modernization, and domain‑specific solutions to move pilots into revenue‑generating products. Australian firms currently fail to scale 80% of AI pilots,...
IAG Prepares Integration Engineering for AI
Insurance Australia Group (IAG) is embedding generative AI into its integration engineering, moving roughly 600 APIs onto MuleSoft’s Anypoint API Experience Hub. The insurer is encouraging engineers to adopt AI prompts and "skills" to automate API migration and creation, aiming...
Macquarie Uni's AI Chief Heads to La Trobe
La Trobe University has appointed Phil Laufenberg, formerly Macquarie University’s head of AI, as its inaugural Pro Vice‑Chancellor (Artificial Intelligence) and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer. The dual role, the first of its kind in Australia’s higher‑education sector, is central to La Trobe’s...
Telstra Pushes Forward with Agentic AI Plans
Telstra is set to launch a production pilot of its agentic AI solution within six weeks, led by its customer sales and commerce engineering group. The pilot builds on a nine‑month exploration of Salesforce’s Agentforce and a joint venture with...
AFCA Brings in Ex-Beyond Bank CIO
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has appointed former Beyond Bank CIO Stevie‑Ann Dovico as its inaugural chief technology officer. AFCA is confronting record‑high complaint volumes and seeks to modernise its digital workflows, improve accessibility, and handle the sustained surge...
Officeworks Builds on Its Salesforce Core
Officeworks is modernising its 12‑year‑old Salesforce platform by adding Revenue Cloud CPQ, Data 360, and the low‑code Agentforce AI assistant. The upgrades aim to streamline quote‑to‑cash processes, provide actionable B2B data, and empower call‑centre staff with an FAQ bot. The retailer...
Lion's Group Technology Director to Leave
Lion’s group technology and digital transformation director Ram Kalyanasundaram will leave after nearly 15 years, passing the role to current digital and data chief Robb Simpson, who will now also oversee technology. The company said the change creates a single digital‑technology leader...
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Security for Smart Devices – Time to Step Forward because There's Nowhere to Hide
From 4 March 2026 the Australian government will enforce minimum security standards for all smart devices sold in the market, shifting compliance from voluntary guidance to mandatory requirement. The IoT Alliance Australia (IoTAA) is spearheading a voluntary Security Labelling Scheme, slated to...
How CBA Unlocked 90 Percent of Its Customer and Transaction Data
Commonwealth Bank completed a migration from an on‑premises SAP R/3 mainframe to an SAP S/4 HANA core hosted on AWS in October 2023. The new in‑memory architecture cut infrastructure costs by 30% and boosted processing performance by the same margin,...
Vocus Taps Amazon Q Developer in AI Pilot
Vocus has launched a pilot using Amazon Q Developer, the rebranded CodeWhisperer, to assist its software engineers. The telco reports productivity improvements of over 50% and faster idea validation, cutting proof‑of‑concept cycles from days to under a day. Engineer satisfaction...
QLD Building Commission Moves IT Under Operations
The Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) has reorganised its digital and information division under a newly appointed chief operating officer, Amanda Pafumi, replacing the former CDIO role with a general manager, digital and information. This shift integrates technology functions into...
From Acceleration to Exposure: Why AI Demands Mature AppSec
AI‑driven development is dramatically speeding code creation, reviews and releases, but application security (AppSec) has not kept pace. Autonomous AI actions now make decisions on dependencies, configurations and remediation, turning isolated flaws into system‑wide risks. When AppSec foundations are immature,...