In this episode of Applied AI Australia, Ramon Rodriguez sits down with Dawid Naude, CEO & Founder of Pathfindr, to expose a dangerous illusion gripping corporate Australia: the belief that you can delegate AI to your CTO, a consultant, or a tech vendor.
You can’t scale what leadership doesn’t use, and you can’t govern what leadership doesn’t understand. Real transformation doesn’t start in tech. It starts at the top.
You’ll learn:
The CTO Trap: Why the IT department shouldn’t own your P&L or business transformation.
Reasoning vs. Doing: Moving beyond inbox sorting to leverage the true reasoning power of frontier models.
The $1M PDF : A practical look at how simple tools solve complex executive problems.
Consultant Red Flags: The “PowerPoint Test” that exposes if your advisor is a practitioner or a theorist.
The 48-Hour Challenge: Three tactical moves to audit your calendar and your career tonight.
This episode is for: Australian CEOs, CFOs, and Board Members who are tired of AI hype and want measurable business outcomes (ROI, margin impact, and risk reduction).
Timestamps:
00:00 - The $28M Reality Check: Why Australian AI pilots fail
03:10 - Pilot to Production: Why things don’t go live
07:20 - Escaping the “CTO Trap”: Leadership vs. Tech delegation
09:45 - Case Study: The $1M PDF win in logistics
13:15 - Reasoning Power: Using AI for better decision making
18:40 - The PowerPoint Red Flag: How to audit your AI consultants
29:30 - The 48-Hour Executive Challenge: Take action now
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Applied AI Australia helps senior leaders cut through the noise and deliver practical outcomes: growth, margins, and time. We translate AI into executive action every Monday and Friday.
