Australia backs new AI office as tech leaders urge standards

Australian technology leaders have backed the federal government's decision to establish a new Office of AI and develop national standards for artificial intelligence.

The response followed the Prime Minister's "AI In Australia's Interests" announcement, which framed AI as a whole-of-economy issue.

Executives from major technology firms and industry groups said the move signalled a shift away from treating AI as a niche technical concern and toward recognising it as a core element of economic policy, national security and social resilience.

Dean Langenbach, Chief Executive Officer at Kinetic IT, said the announcement highlighted the breadth of the challenge facing government and industry.

"Kinetic IT welcomes the recognition that AI is not simply a technology issue. It is an economic, social and national security priority. Australia's response must support innovation while earning public trust through clear standards, accountable deployment and long-term thinking.

"As organisations move from pilots to day-to-day use, success will depend on more than access to frontier models. It will depend on the operating foundations beneath them: AI-fluent people, secure and resilient systems, trusted data, clear accountability and practical governance. Nowhere is this more important than in government and critical infrastructure, where AI can directly affect citizens, essential services and national resilience," he said.

Langenbach said many organisations were still in the early stages of building those foundations, and that governance and operational readiness now required as much attention as experimentation.

"Many organisations are still building these foundations. The priority is not to wait for the AI race to settle. It is to build the capability, controls and operational readiness to move from experimentation into trusted use and convert AI's potential into measurable value," he said.

He said national leadership in AI would depend on operational discipline rather than headline adoption.

"While Australia can lead in the AI era, leadership will not be defined by who adopts AI fastest. It will be defined by who can operate it responsibly at scale. This requires coordinated national standards, investment in Australian skills and capability, resilient and sustainable digital infrastructure, and practical support to turn policy ambition into operational outcomes. If we get this right, AI can lift productivity, improve essential services and strengthen sovereign capability without trading away public confidence," Langenbach said.

Security vendors also highlighted the link between AI policy and cyber risk. Nicole Henry, Head of Government Affairs, Australia and New Zealand at Fortinet, said AI was rapidly becoming a matter of national capability.

"The Prime Minister's AI in Australia's interest announcement recognises that artificial intelligence is no longer simply a technology issue. It is becoming a national capability that will shape Australia's economic growth, security, productivity and resilience," Henry said.

She said the creation of the Office of AI could improve coordination across government, but warned that implementation would determine whether the strategy delivered practical results.

"The creation of the Office of AI is an important step towards coordinating Australia's AI ambitions across government. The next challenge is turning strategy into execution. Success will depend on operationalising AI through strong governance, trusted data, cybersecurity and cross-sector collaboration," Henry said.

Henry also linked AI deployment to the evolving threat environment, citing recent warnings from intelligence agencies.

"As organisations increasingly integrate AI into critical business processes and public services, they need visibility across data, identities, systems and AI interactions to manage risk and maintain public trust. At the same time, cybercriminals are already using AI to increase the speed and scale of attacks, as reinforced by the recent Australian Signals Directorate and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation advisories, making resilient security practices more important than ever," she said.

"Australia has an opportunity to lead by embedding security, governance and resilience into AI from the outset. Continued collaboration between government and industry will be essential to realise AI's benefits safely and strengthen Australia's long-term digital capability," Henry said.

Vendors with large federal and enterprise footprints focused on the infrastructure needed to support sovereign AI development. Mahesh Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer at Fujitsu in Oceania, said the government's plan aligned with a broader shift from AI consumption to local control over critical elements of the stack.

"The Prime Minister's announcement to establish an Office of AI and new Australian Standards is the right move at the right time. It confirms Australia's ambition to move from simply using AI to building sovereign AI capability of its own. Our work in building mission-critical systems shows that true sovereignty isn't just about the AI models, but the trusted infrastructure they run on. This includes the data, the platforms, the cyber defences, and the compute needed to operate AI safely at scale. The real test is implementation. Regulation can set the 'what', but industry has to deliver the 'how'. For Australia, that means building the technology foundations that make AI dependable in the real world, improving productivity and decision-making without increasing operational or cyber risk," Krishnan said.

Industry voices also warned that the benefits of AI policy must reach under-represented groups. Holly Hunt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Women in Digital, said gender impacts remained largely absent from the national discussion.

"The creation of Australia's Office of AI is a significant step forward, but one thing is absent from the conversation: women. AI is about to reshape almost every job in this country, and women are disproportionately represented in the roles most exposed to AI. Research shows women are less likely than men to be using AI tools. That's not just a skills gap; it's an opportunity gap. The Prime Minister has established the Office of AI. The next step is ensuring women have a seat at the table as priorities and policies are set. If Australia gets this right, AI could become the biggest catalyst for women in tech in a generation. If we get it wrong, the gender gap widens in real time," Hunt said.

She said inclusive decision-making around AI priorities could influence both workforce participation and long-term equity outcomes.

Large global cloud and software providers framed the announcement as an inflection point for national infrastructure and governance. Stephen Bovis, Regional Managing Director, Oracle ANZ, said the policy signalled recognition of AI's macroeconomic role.

"The Prime Minister's vision for Australia's AI future marks an important step in recognising AI as a driver of national productivity, economic growth and long-term competitiveness. It's encouraging to see the conversation encompass not only AI innovation, but also the infrastructure, governance and trust needed to support it," Bovis said.

He said Australian organisations across the public and private sectors would now face pressure to translate high-level ambitions into operational projects.

"Australia has a significant opportunity to be a leader in the AI era. Realising that opportunity means helping organisations of every size-from government agencies and large enterprises to small and medium-sized businesses-apply AI in practical ways that can improve productivity, accelerate innovation and deliver better outcomes for the people they serve," he said.

Bovis said embedding AI in existing systems and workflows, while maintaining strong governance, would be critical for adoption at scale.

"At Oracle, we believe the greatest value of AI can come from embedding it into the everyday tools organisations already use. By developing AI systems under a governance framework that applies from planning through implementation and into operations, and by bringing that AI directly into enterprise applications, databases and cloud services, organisations can harness the value of their own proprietary data to make better decisions, automate routine work and unlock new levels of productivity-securely," he said.

He said infrastructure choices would shape both trust and competitiveness in the next phase of AI deployment.

"At the same time, trusted AI starts with trusted infrastructure. As AI adoption accelerates, organisations need secure cloud platforms, sovereign AI capabilities and high-performance infrastructure that allow them to innovate while maintaining security, privacy and resilience. Increasingly, they also need the flexibility to run AI across multiple cloud environments," Bovis said.

"Oracle has invested significantly in Australia to support these needs, with multiple cloud regions, sovereign capability, AI data centres and multi-cloud capabilities in collaboration with Microsoft, Google Cloud and AWS, helping organisations accelerate AI innovation while maintaining choice, performance, security and control over their data," he said.

He also pointed to the environmental and social context of new AI infrastructure.

"Building that infrastructure responsibly is equally important. The next generation of AI data centres must not only provide the capacity to support increasingly sophisticated AI workloads, but also be designed with energy efficiency, responsible water stewardship and long-term sustainability in mind. Innovation and sustainability are not competing priorities-they must advance together," Bovis said.

"At Oracle, we believe every data centre is more than infrastructure-it's part of a community. Building public trust is just as important as building the infrastructure that powers AI. The most successful AI investments will create value not only for businesses, but also for the communities in which they operate," he said.

"Australia has an opportunity to show that AI leadership is about more than adopting new technology. It's about combining innovation with trust, security and responsible investment to strengthen productivity, support critical national infrastructure and create lasting economic benefits," Bovis said.

"By working together-industry, government and communities-we can support Australia's AI future to be not only innovative, but also secure, resilient, sustainable and trusted," he said.