The industry reacts: Can we make AI work in Australia’s national interest?

The rush to approve data centres, which guzzle power and water, has the potential to derail Australia’s clean energy transition.

Communities want better protection for their local environment, their water resources and the climate, not fast-tracked approvals for tech giants.

If you want to build a data centre in Australia, you should be compelled to build the renewable energy and water recycling infrastructure to service it.

Professor James Bailey
Head of Department of Data Science and AI, Faculty of Information Technology, at Monash University

This is an important step. AI technology will be a foundation for Australia’s future and this initiative acknowledges the key role it will play.

I see the area of AI safety as being primary in future discussions – having the capacity to assess the quality, safety and reliability of AI is critical for future adoption.

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Amanda McKenzie
Climate Council CEO

Australia is a very attractive location for data centre proponents, but it means that we need strong guardrails to protect our standard of living; we need these things to work for us.

This means upholding Prime Minister Albanese’s pledge today that data centres match their energy demand with new renewables and storage to shield households and other businesses from increased costs. With power prices and climate pollution set to surge in the next decade without intervention, this must occur from the get-go.

Accelerating the roll-out of proven renewable energy is the only way to keep prices as low as possible, ensure grid stability, and slash climate pollution to better protect our communities, economy and environment from worsening climate disasters.

Lisa Given
Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences at RMIT

The creation of this office marks a significant shift in the government’s overall approach to governing AI, towards being more hands-on and proactive.

“In 2024, the government planned to regulate high-risk AI implementation, which was later abandoned. It also proposed – and then paused – digital duty of care legislation, to hold technology companies to account for harmful content and tool designs.

“By creating this office, and reintroducing digital duty of care legislation this year, the government has recognised the need for coordination and intervention to address the varied risks posed by AI, while also supporting its potential benefits.

Greg Sadler
Good Ancestors CEO

Stronger data centre standards are a good start, but they shouldn’t stop at energy and water use. If frontier AI is trained here, Australia can set requirements on how the most capable models are tested, secured, and reported on.

The Prime Minister is right that we need frontier AI training in Australia. He’s also right that we need to protect our creators. The challenge is creating the policy settings that do both at the same time. Today, Australian creators get nothing when their work is used to train AI overseas, and frontier AI companies won’t build here. Australia is a desirable place to build AI, but we aren’t the only option.

The first task of the AI Office should be to break the gridlock on AI training and copyright. To deliver the mission the Prime Minister has set, the AI Office must develop a framework that provides compensation and control to rightsholders when their work is used to train AI, unlocks frontier AI investment in Australia, and secures Australia a seat at the table in shaping how the technology develops.

Ian Dempsey
Regional Director Public Sector, UiPath Australia

A National Office of AI is a good move, but coordination on standards is only half the story. The harder question is how you govern AI agents once they're actually embedded in day-to-day workflows, not just how you regulate the technology in the abstract. We see this with every enterprise rolling out AI agents: it only scales when there's real oversight built in; clear guardrails, human sign-off on the decisions that matter, and visibility into what agents are doing and why.

Governed properly, that oversight is what unlocks the productivity gains everyone's chasing, not what slows them down. Reliability, not just capability, is what turns AI from a pilot into something a business can actually run on – and that's where government and industry now need to focus together.

Jane Livesey
President, Microsoft Australia and New Zealand

The Prime Minister's address today at the University of Sydney was a clarion call for Australian leadership in the AI era. It sets out a confident direction for how we must calibrate national policy to ensure the benefits of this transformational technology are shared widely and equitably – an ambition Microsoft strongly supports. We welcome the Government's sharpened focus for all who share responsibility in Australia’s AI transformation.

Realising the promise of this technology requires deep partnership across industry, technology, and government – all working together to keep AI safe, inclusive, and delivering for every Australian. The Prime Minister's plan gives us the shared foundation to do exactly that. Australia’s rapid embrace of AI has been felt across every government portfolio, industry and community, and a single national framework is the right way to ensure all Australians benefit from the many opportunities this technology promises.

Lisa Fortey
General Manager, Logicalis ANZ

The establishment of Australia's Office of AI is a welcome step towards creating the national leadership and policy framework needed to support responsible AI adoption. Clear policy, governance and standards will be critical in giving organisations the confidence to invest, innovate and protect sensitive data. However, policy alone won't improve Australia's productivity or global competitiveness. Success will ultimately be measured by how effectively government, industry and technology partners work together to accelerate AI adoption across the economy.

At Logicalis, we believe data sovereignty, security and responsible AI must underpin every deployment, while continued investment in today's workforce and the next generation of technology talent will ensure Australia is well positioned to realise the full potential of AI.

Alex Coates
CEO of Interactive

The Prime Minister has promised to consult closely with industry and trading partners to design the framework for fast decision-making, infrastructure and community engagement. This piece of the puzzle will be key for success. We know we have a digital duty of care, from keeping our data centres sustainable, to setting guardrails for AI development and maintaining sovereign security.

The Government cannot do everything on its own – we know this first-hand, having seen how the social media ban has landed. Community confidence is built through consultation, transparency and practical outcomes, and there are important challenges and eventualities we must prepare for.

The real test will be turning the framework into practical guidance that organisations can implement, while ensuring Australia remains competitive as global investment in AI capability continues to accelerate. We look forward to working collaboratively with government, partners and customers to solidify our national posture now.

Mike Powrie
Founder and CEO, NeonNow

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's address on AI in Australia's interests today put a sharper point on a debate contact centres have been living in for years: where AI should sit, and where it shouldn't. Contact centres are where AI meets real customers every day, at scale, in real time, so that debate has always mattered here first.

The lesson from 2026 so far is clear. AI works best when it takes on volume: routine queries, repetitive tasks, and the interactions a machine can handle well. People still own the moments that need judgement, empathy, or a decision only a human can make. We built NeonNow on that split deliberately, because customers can tell the difference and they reward the companies who get it right.

True appreciation of AI means being honest about its limits, as well as its capability. Enterprises earning customer trust are the ones drawing that line clearly. With Australia's national conversation on AI standards now catching up to what contact centres already knew, that discipline deserves marking on a day named for AI.