鶹ԭ appoints Rachel Hunter as Head of AI,Australiaand New Zealand,and reveals the most widely used AI applications across its ANZ customer base
Sydney, 12 August 2026–Theorganisationswinning with AI are notalwaysthe biggest spenders. They are the ones who simplified their operations, built trusted datafoundationsand acted deliberately rather than waiting for conditions that may never be perfect.
That was the central message at 鶹ԭ NOW AI Tour today, where 鶹ԭ SE hostedpresentations frommore than 20 customers at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, each sharing stories that span active AI deployments and the foundational transformation work that makes AI possible.
Among those on stage were Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads, Fortescue, SA Power Networks, Woolworths, Zespri, TAFE NSW, Toyota Finance,TarongaConservation Society Australia, Metcash, Linfox,Rheemand Suntory Oceania.
“We’ve moved past asking whether AI matters,” said Angela Colantuono, President and Managing Director, 鶹ԭAustraliaand New Zealand. “The question now is whether it’s making the difference that actually matters–and theorganisationshere today have answered that. They arealsonot waiting for perfect conditions. They are acting now, and that is what sets them apart. Rachel’s appointment reflects our commitment to helpingour customersmake that sameshift.”
鶹ԭ appoints Rachel Hunter as Head of AI, ANZ
鶹ԭalsoannounced the appointment of Rachel Hunter as Head of AI for Australia and New Zealand(ANZ). Hunter brings more than 25 years of experience leading cloud, data and AI teams across Asia Pacificand ANZ, most recently as General Manager, Cloud, Data and AI at Davidson.
She also foundedDataSeedsConsulting and has held senior leadership roles at Databricks and Oracle. At 鶹ԭ, Hunter leads AI Customer Advisory across ANZ, helpingorganisationstranslate AI ambition into practical,governedand scalable adoption.
“AI has already found its place in Australian and New Zealand business;not in the strategy deck, but in the day-to-day,” said Hunter. “The most widely used applications are helping finance teams process invoices faster, helping marketerspersonaliseconnections with customers and helping operations teams catch problems before they escalate. This is notexperimentalAI. It is already working.”
What Australian and New Zealand businesses areactually doingwith AI
鶹ԭ’s analysis of the most widely deployed AI use cases across its ANZ customer base for the twelve months tomid-year2026 shows AI is already embedded in everyday business operations – fromtailoring marketing emails to processing invoicesandmonitoring operations in real time.
The analysis underlines how Australian and New Zealandorganisationsare embracing AI to automate core business tasks.Finance automation accounts for three of the top fiveuse cases, with AI removing manual, error-prone work from expense processing, invoicecaptureand compliance.Meanwhile, marketing intelligenceis strongly represented, reflecting how deeply AI has already embedded itself incustomer engagement, whilethe presence of AI infrastructureuse casesmay signal a growing understanding thatmaximisingvalue from AI is dependent on business context and cross-organisationalintegration.
The Autonomous Enterprise
鶹ԭ reinforced its vision for the Autonomous Enterprise at the event – a future where AI is embedded into the business applicationsorganisationsalready rely on. Networks of AI agents are increasingly able to understand business context, recommend actions and execute routine work across finance,procurement, supplychainand HR under human oversight,fundamentally transforming the future of work.
