Cutting through with KSIB - newsletter 2

Strip of a painting of Ironbark trees

August 6 2025

Welcome to the second issue of Cutting through with KSIB, a short monthly newsletter summarising key insights that I and the team at KSIB have learned in the past month. We are constantly challenging ourselves to join the dots in a world that is increasingly complex and to share the “so what” with our clients. In addition to the short newsletter format, we will issue these key messages as a podcast each month as I know many of you prefer that format.

If you missed our first issue, basically a call to action on implementing AI enterprise solutions, you can find it here.

If you enjoy our insights, please forward the newsletter to others and ask them to subscribe. Please feel free to email, DM on LinkedIn or text me with ideas or feedback – including anything you think we should explore further.

Regards

Kristin Stubbins

Collaboration trumps individual expertise when it comes to cutting through complexity:

  1. AI Agents and enterprise solutions are on the march at the big end of town – the whole market needs to follow

  2. Complex data problems need solving as a foundation for AI implementations – but this can be done

  3. Collaboration could be the key ingredient for Australia to lead in creating an effective biodiversity market

If you’d prefer to listen to understand the topics covered in this month’s newsletter, listen to our podcast. Kristin Stubbins and Sharon Broekhuizen discuss the value of collaboration when cutting through complexity.

① AI Agents and enterprise solutions are on the march at the big end of town – the whole market needs to follow

KSIB and its Associates have been working with leading AI adopters in the ASX 20 to help them take the first leap into enterprise AI first solutions. The art of the possible with respect to this new technology is amazing, but implementations do require careful and strategic thinking to optimise them. The pitfalls that many have experienced with respect to complex IT implementations over the past 20 years provide many lessons for this new era of technological disruption.

We have developed a seven-step methodology to help companies (large and small) safely cut through complexity with AI implementations. We have tested this methodology at the top end of the ASX and are now focused on working with mid-caps to ensure they don’t miss out on AI enabled opportunities. A practical, common-sense approach is needed, along with sponsorship from the key leaders in an organisation and collaboration from a multi-disciplined team to execute.

To read more about KSIB’s views on safely navigating AI implementations please refer here. (replace with AI article 2)

② Complex data problems need solving as a foundation for AI implementations – but this can be done

Step 5 in the KSIB methodology deals with data integrity and this is key to ensuring AI solutions are optimised. Many organisations continue to grapple with complexities with both structure and unstructured data, and AI enterprise solutions typically use both. As a foundational exercise prior to embarking on a major AI enabled implementation, “cleaning” data is important. This exercise seems overwhelming if the focus is on ALL the data.

Taking a strategic approach to managing data is worth the time. Data is not “administrative” or “boring” – it is one of the key ingredients to transformational change and business model disruption. Like any strategy, a data strategy starts with understanding the vision and goals. Data governance and technology architecture are also critical foundations but the task of “cleaning” the data may not be as complex as you might think. If a strategic, risk based, top-down yet collaborative (upstream and downstream) approach is taken, there are an increasing number of AI tools available to help with data cleansing.

③ Collaboration could be the key ingredient for Australia to lead in creating an effective biodiversity market

Let’s turn the discussion from AI implementations to sustainability as KSIB passionately believes that effective sustainability strategies will drive better business outcomes for all organisations - read more here. We also acknowledge that many organisations are struggling with the complexity of mandatory sustainability reporting now, and we have put serious thinking into how to help cut through this complexity. One important message we would share is for companies to focus their sustainability strategies on what really matters to them, and to focus on communicating that clearly to the market. Compliance with the new rules is important, but what will differentiate companies is how they embed the critical elements of what they report on into their business strategies. That will require strong collaboration across a range of disciplines (the recurring theme here).

One area where strong collaboration could differentiate Australia is our leadership in creating an effective biodiversity market. There are some really great things happening in this space. Accounting for Nature in collaboration with Nxt.Nature have recently announced a Carbon Plus™ pilot program. This program promises to support carbon project developers, investors and buyers to “go beyond carbon by giving them the tools to robustly quantify and report nature measurement alongside Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs)”. The program has combined scientific credibility with modern technology and financing and business acumen. Australia has every right to lead in the development of biodiversity markets given our expertise and the unique biodiversity that underpins many of our differentiated industries.

So – the future is bright on a range of fronts – let’s play to our strengths as a market to win in these uncertain times.