INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY: STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP

Vini Cardoso, Chief Technology Officer, Cloudera Australia & New Zealand, says the conversation is no longer about what AI can do but how we direct it.

We are now in the era of agentic AI. These are not just systems that react to commands – they are designed to proactively pursue goals, make autonomous, contextaware decisions and turn insight into outcomes.

( 69 %), data privacy( 54 %) and skills gaps( 38 %) top the list.

These risks often stem from a common problem – unverified or poorly governed data. Adding to the complexity, Gartner warns that:“ By 2027, 60 % of data and analytics leaders will face critical failures in managing synthetic data, risking AI governance, model accuracy and compliance.”

According to Gartner, by 2027, half of all business decisions will be augmented or automated by AI agents. But to operate at this level, agentic AI needs more than compute power or cutting-edge models. It requires trust – in data, governance and leadership.

Over the past few years, ANZ organisations have laid the groundwork – modernising infrastructure, breaking down data silos and using AI to enhance everything from customer support to fraud detection and personalised marketing. Now the ambition is growing. Businesses are deploying AI that enables real-time action, not just analysis.

We’ re already seeing this across key industries here. Telcos like Telstra are reducing churn and solving customer issues faster with AI insights. Financial institutions including Commonwealth Bank( CBA) and ANZ Bank are using AI to boost productivity and detect fraud more proactively. In healthcare, AI is enhancing diagnostics, discharge forecasting and triage workflows, empowering clinicians with timely, trusted data.

Agentic AI builds on this momentum – imagine teams of digital specialists managing infrastructure, spotting anomalies, optimising logistics or maintaining compliance – all in alignment with business goals. But moving from experimentation to scale isn’ t easy. Cloudera’ s latest global survey of IT leaders shows that while 97 % of ANZ enterprises plan to scale agentic AI in the next year, many are confronting real barriers: bias

Synthetic data is now essential for training AI and protecting privacy, but without clear governance, it can introduce serious risk. That is why knowing where data comes from, how it’ s used and who’ s accountable is critical. In regulated industries like finance, healthcare and government, data lineage and transparency are no longer nice-to-haves – they’ re non-negotiables.

AI must be built on secure, well-governed data foundations. Without it, we can’ t trust the models let alone scale them safely.

In Australia, the stakes are rising. Whether it’ s meeting evolving data sovereignty mandates or improving real-time disaster response – as recommended by the Royal Commission into bushfire management – the same truth applies: AI is only as effective as the data and infrastructure it runs on.

By bringing AI to the data – wherever it resides, across on-prem, cloud and edge – organisations can innovate without compromising on governance or security. The final ingredient? People. As agentic AI grows in power and complexity, leadership is the differentiator.

ANZ’ s most successful data leaders aren’ t just deploying technology – they’ re strategically aligning AI with business goals, championing transparency and embedding governance into every layer of their data strategy. They understand that trusted data powers trusted AI – and that trusted AI delivers real-world impact. p

Vini Cardoso, Chief Technology Officer, Cloudera ANZ

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