ADAverse

In this episode of the ADAverse podcast, Shaun Leisegang is joined by Paul Akkari, IT Manager at the Paul Ramsay Foundation (PRF), to explore what happens when a purpose-driven foundation builds its own private AI assistant - from the ground up.Meet PRF PAL, a GPT-powered AI agent designed to unlock knowledge trapped in documents, systems, and minds. Custom-trained on PRF’s own data and grounded in trust and transparency, PAL is more than a search tool - it’s a colleague that helps staff find answers, analyse grant data, summarise reports, and even perform research.We unpack the full journey - from the original challenge and “aha” moments during development, to the core tools PAL uses:🔍 Document Search with RAG (retrieval-augmented generation)📊 Natural Language Grant Queries🌐 Trusted Web Search with source transparencyLearn how PAL is saving staff hours of admin time, reducing reliance on external consultants, and empowering frontline teams to work smarter. Paul also shares how PRF is using AI in a human-first way - building trust, encouraging adoption, and creating a blueprint for an AI agent ecosystem that aligns with PRF’s mission and values.💥 Bonus: Stick around for the ADAverse Hot Seat to hear Paul’s take on competitive basketball, robots, and how he wants to be remembered.🎯 Perfect for nonprofit leaders, CIOs, IT managers, and anyone exploring custom AI agents for knowledge management and impact.

In this episode of the ADAverse podcast, Shaun Leisegang sits down with Gladwin Mendez, Fractional Chief Data & AI Officer at GEC Prudentia, to unpack one of the most overlooked challenges in modern business: data health.Using a powerful health and wellness metaphor, Gladwin introduces a three-stage model to help organisations shift from chaotic data firefighting to structured, outcome-driven transformation:🧪 Maturity Assessment – Your Data Blood TestDiscover how a 140-question deep-dive across strategy, people, process, and data uncovers blind spots, diagnoses risk, and helps leaders face facts - because you can’t fix what you haven’t measured.🥗 Strategy – Your Organisational Diet PlanLearn how to cut the "data fat" and create a lean roadmap that focuses on value, agility, and governance - without getting distracted by shiny tools.🏋️ Execution – Your Data Personal TrainerExplore how to operationalise your strategy with the right partners, embedding automation, analytics, and real delivery muscle to achieve measurable outcomes.Whether you're an executive unsure where to begin or a data leader needing to turn strategy into reality, this episode delivers the clarity and tools to get started.💥 Bonus: Stick around for the ADAverse Hot Seat as Gladwin reveals his childhood dreams, bucket list moments, and the book that shaped his thinking.🎯 Perfect for CIOs, Heads of Data, Operations Leaders, and anyone serious about making data work for the business - not the other way around.👉 Join the ADAverse community today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠ADAverse.com.au⁠⁠⁠⁠🎧 Subscribe & listen on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts

In this episode of the ADAverse podcast, Shaun Leisegang sits down with Wai-Lum Tang (Head of Information Technology) and Tricia Kopka (Head of Operations and Process Improvement) from IQumulate, one of Australia and New Zealand's leading premium funders.Together, they unpack how IQumulate is accelerating growth and operational excellence by embracing automation, cloud-first architecture, and a culture of continuous improvement. From overcoming manual processes and legacy systems to building a scalable digital backbone - this is a masterclass in modernisation.Discover how IQumulate empowered teams, reduced processing times, improved compliance, and laid the groundwork for AI and analytics. This story is packed with practical insights for IT and operations leaders looking to future-proof their business.Plus, stick around for the ADAverse Hot Seat to hear what's on Wai-Lum and Tricia's bucket lists, and the book recommendation that might just change your mindset.Perfect for leaders in financial services, insurance, operations, or IT looking to drive measurable transformation.👉 Join the ADAverse community today: ⁠⁠⁠ADAverse.com.au⁠⁠⁠🎧 Subscribe & listen on ⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts

In this episode of the ADAverse podcast, Shaun Leisegang is joined by Alex Tulintsev, PII Redaction Specialist at ABBYY, to tackle one of the most high-stakes challenges facing modern organisations: protecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Payment Card Information (PCI) in an AI-driven world.With global fines now hitting $50 million or 30% of turnover for privacy breaches, safeguarding sensitive data isn’t just IT’s problem—it’s a board-level concern. Shaun and Alex break down what PII/PCI really mean, how the regulatory landscape is evolving, and why manual redaction is no longer fit for purpose.Discover how AI and automation can turn compliance from a cost centre into a competitive advantage, with real-world insights and learn more about Tecala’s Redactr tool, built with ABBYY, that’s already delivering measurable risk reduction.The episode closes with Alex in the Hot Seat—a rapid-fire round of questions that brings a light-hearted end to a heavy-hitting discussion.Perfect for professionals in banking, insurance, government, or anyone serious about data privacy in the AI era.👉 Join the ADAverse community today: ⁠⁠ADAverse.com.au⁠⁠🎧 Subscribe & listen on ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts

In this ADAverse podcast episode, Shaun Leisegang and Tony Nudd from UiPath explore the cutting-edge world of AI agents, highlighting the evolution beyond standard RPA tools. The conversation covers technical essentials like trust management, orchestration frameworks, and real-world implementation scenarios. Gain valuable insights from industry case studies, learn to spot tasks ideally suited to AI agent automation, and uncover practical next steps to seamlessly introduce intelligent automation technologies into your workflow.👉 Join the ADAverse community today: ⁠ADAverse.com.au⁠🎧 Subscribe & listen on ⁠Spotify⁠ or ⁠Apple Podcasts

In this inaugural episode, host Shaun Leisegang sits down with Pieter DeGunst, Managing Director of Tecala, to explore the journey from rapidMATION and the Automation Alliance to the birth of ADAverse.Join us as we discuss:🔹 The evolution of automation and AI in business🔹 Why data is the fuel that powers AI🔹 The critical role of automation, data, and AI in modern organisations🔹 How ADAverse is building a community for thought leaders and innovatorsPlus, Pieter steps into the Hot Seat for rapid-fire questions, sharing insights on his bucket list, favourite books, and what excites him most about the future of AI.If you're navigating the ever-changing landscape of AI-powered business transformation, this is the podcast for you!👉 Join the ADAverse community today: ADAverse.com.au🎧 Subscribe & listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

You cannot go anywhere at the moment without hearing about ChatGPT and it is certainly taking over the internet at the moment.  Join us on this episode where we talk all things ChatGPT and Intelligent Automation.  Kudos to Mick Taylor and Stuart Chambers from UiPath and Deon Smit from Nintex for their excellent work and evangelism in showing what is possible. #ChatGPT #IntelligentAutomation

Shaun chats with Stephen Graham (Design Director at STCK), on the intersection of Strategic Design and Intelligent Automation.

Shaun chats with Jacqui Miller (Application Architect at Dimension Data), one of the newest UiPath MVP's and the first female MVP in Africa, on all things UiPath and Microsoft Power Automate.

Shaun chats with Chris Ellis (Director of Presales at Nintex) on Nintex's latest acquisition of RPA leader Kryon.

Shaun has a fireside chat with Anders Jensen, an Automation Teacher & YouTuber, who is doing some amazing things in the automation community. You can connect with Anders on the following social media channels: [YouTube] https://youtube.com/c/andersjensenorg [LinkedIn] https://www.linkedin.com/company/andersjensenorg [Twitter] https://twitter.com/andersjensenorg

We chat with Dennis Parker (Customer Lead at Jigx) about getting stuff done with a new generation of apps for work. That employees love.

We chat with David Kroll (Lead Solutions Engineer, Ashling Partners) on how he used Robotic Process Automation to build out and automate his Fantasy Sports Newsletter.

In this episode we host Greg Miller, Executive Director at Faethm, and we talk about Responsible Automation which is the ability to retain, retrain and redeploy your workforce. With the people that companies need for the future already in their business, automation does not have to result in job loss. We chat about Faethm's reskilling and upskilling Job Corridors which allows companies to get the maximum value out of automation through an equitable transition of their current employees to tomorrow's jobs.

We welcome Stuart Chambers, UiPath Emerging Product Sales Specialist for the Australia New Zealand region, to this episode of the Automation Alliance Podcast where we talk all things Process Mining, Task Mining and Automated Testing. Stuart is a regional thought leader and subject matter expert and advises organisations on how to leverage UiPath's emerging product suite to drive process optimisation, increase automation and unlock value.

Absolutely thrilled to have Katrin Stoecker, Chief Operations Officer at Steadfast Underwriting Agencies join us for this insightful episode discussing their Intelligent Automation journey. We discuss everything from process renewal bots to how they are driving the Citizen Developer agenda. It has been incredibly rewarding to watch the momentous impact that automation is having across Steadfast Underwriting Agencies and the wider Steadfast Group and now you too can listen to their story.

What a pleasure it was to have Thomas Kohlenbach, senior product specialist at Nintex, join us for this episode focussed on achieving process excellence. We discuss how an effective process culture can promote innovation and business agility and how really understanding your processes is the true beginning of automation success. A fantastic episode packed with many relevant use cases and great insight into the process excellence domain.

What an incredible success story we get to discuss on this episode! We hear how Pieter Le Roux, National Shared Services Manager, is driving an automation first mindset at Coates Hire starting with the successful implementation of their Intelligent Accounts Payable solution. Shaun and Pieter discuss how automating the routine across the finance function at Coates Hire has helped to liberate minds and make work matter for their employees.

What a pleasure it was having Graham Penman, Co-founder of jaam Automation in the UK, as a special guest for this episode. We ran through the recent Accenture Tech Vision 2021 themes and discussed how we see these playing out in our respective markets. We looked at the wider automation partner ecosystem and discussed how important players such as Druid Chatbot platform, Re:infer and others are quickly allowing organisations to truly scale their Intelligent Automation initiatives.

Absolutely thrilled to have Guy Kirkwood, Chief Evangelist at UiPath, share his thoughts and predictions for RPA, AI, and automation in 2021. He has an incredibly accurate track record from previous years and it is well worth a listen to ensure you are up to speed with the latest industry predictions. A fantastic episode that all our listeners will benefit from. Enjoy.