The Ultimate Guide to AI Agents
A curated Australian edition of TechDay news, analysis, interviews, reviews, job moves, and related resources for AI Agents (Agentic AI).
What to know about AI Agents
AI agents represent a transformative area within artificial intelligence, focusing on autonomous or semi-autonomous systems capable of performing complex tasks and making decisions to enhance business operations and personal productivity.
Our recent stories highlight how AI agents are rapidly evolving across sectors—from cybersecurity and data management to customer experience and enterprise automation. Companies are integrating AI agents to improve efficiency, drive innovation, and manage security risks in increasingly sophisticated ways.
By exploring these developments, readers can gain insights into the potential benefits, emerging applications, and challenges associated with AI agent deployment. Whether you're interested in how AI agents enhance software development, automate workflows, or secure enterprise environments, this tag offers a comprehensive look at this dynamic and impactful technology.
Australian AI Agents News
Regional stories with direct local relevance
Australian firms rush AI adoption amid rising risks
Boards face mounting pressure to set AI rules now, as faster adoption is exposing Australian firms to data, workforce and security risks.
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Work & GPT-5.6 in Australia
Australian users can now automate office tasks across apps and files as OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT Work and GPT-5.6 nationwide.
Zetifi backs identity-led safety shift in Australian fleets
Australian fleets could improve audit trails and incident response by tying safety events to verified worker identities across vehicles and field sites.
The Essential Eight is being retired, here's what that means for your cyber programme
Organisations will need to widen cyber planning beyond a checklist as Australia moves to replace the Essential Eight with risk-based Essentials guidance.
Australia replaces Essential Eight with new Essentials
Australian businesses face a new cyber baseline as regulators move to align guidance with cloud, SaaS and AI-driven threats.
AI is already running inside the enterprise. Is Australia ready?
Australian firms are using AI at scale, but many lack the visibility to stop shadow tools, agentic access and rising incidents.
Analyst Insights
Research and market analysis connected to AI Agents
Microsoft launches AI sales & service tools in Copilot
ERX: the next generation of enterprise software
Constructor tops three Gartner search & discovery use cases
Citrix adds MCP Gateway to NetScaler for AI traffic
Netcore Unbxd named Gartner Leader for search discovery
Featured News
John Margerison on the new class of employee: AI managers
Businesses should treat AI like a new hire, as weak oversight could expose sensitive data and leave staff needing fresh skills to stay relevant.
Agentic AI creates enterprise challenge beyond LLM boom
Enterprises face rising costs and governance gaps as thousands of AI agents begin operating alongside staff across multiple systems.
Visa strengthens AI defences amid new era of cyber threats
Visa is pouring billions into AI defences as regulators demand safer, auditable systems to counter faster cyber threats and fraud.
AI reshaping cybersecurity - on defence and attack
Criminals are using AI to scale phishing and hunt flaws faster, forcing firms to harden defences as alert volumes and risks rise.
Marketers turn to AI as personalisation revolution arrives
Australian marketers are turning to agentic AI to keep pace with fragmented customer journeys and rising demand for personalised content.
The new workforce: AI agents to work in concert with humans
AI agents are set to reshape hiring and team structures, pushing firms towards global talent pools and outcome-based work.
Exclusive: Virtuozzo sees GPU clouds reshape AI infrastructure
AI demand is pushing cloud providers towards GPU-as-a-service models, with efficiency and utilisation emerging as key differentiators.
UiPath assisting One NZ on journey to become AI leaders
Strict controls are now central to One NZ's AI push as it guards customer data and avoids costly errors in billing and finance.
Data storage gets profitable as Exaba targets US expansion
Exaba's local cloud storage pitch could give US managed services providers higher margins as it challenges AWS and Azure in a crowded market.
Storage to strategy: Everpure pivots to data intelligence
Enterprises wrestling with AI readiness and data sovereignty may gain clearer governance as Everpure adds a new intelligence layer.
Banks face AI balancing act as regulation tempers uptake
Australia's banks are steadily increasing their use of artificial intelligence, but regulation and data security fears are tempering adoption.
How the 'human hour' mentality influences the future of tech
AI pilots are faltering where firms still judge success by hours saved, leaving customer value and workforce design unresolved.
Hype growing - but SMEs still face barriers to AI adoption
Small firms risk falling behind unless they adopt AI for practical gains, as SMEC AI says many are still confused by the technology.
'Smart people changing': How humans and agentic AI co-exist
Governance fears and skills gaps are pushing businesses to deploy agentic AI in secure systems while protecting staff from disruption.
Exabeam: Ruthless efficiency can make agentic AI malicious
Behavioural analytics is becoming essential as AI agents can pursue tasks so efficiently that they may cause damage without any malicious intent.
Visibility can shield you against $15k/min downtime
Blind spots in monitoring are pushing outage bills higher, with Splunk estimating average downtime now costs USD $15,000 a minute.
Marvell targets AI connectivity bottleneck with NVIDIA boost
AI data centres are hitting copper limits, pushing Marvell and Nvidia towards optics as clusters grow larger and more distributed.
Snowflake unveils platform upgrades for CoCo, CoWork
Enterprises will get tighter AI controls as Snowflake adds blocking policies, multi-party authorisation and new agentic tools at Summit.
Exclusive: Reco COO on securing the AI inside your SaaS stack
Reco COO Zoe Hillenmeyer says enterprises typically underestimate their AI agent exposure by a factor of ten and that gap is widening.
Everpure preparing for new era of cyber resiliency
AI attacks are pushing firms to prioritise cyber resiliency, as Everpure warns downtime can exceed ransom demands by up to 75 times.
The AI challenge - balancing governance and innovation
Many projects remain stuck at proof of concept as businesses wrestle with data governance, security and agent oversight before scaling AI.
Dell Technologies makes all the hardware cool again
Renewed AI spending is boosting demand for Dell's secure, certified infrastructure as companies chase faster deployment and lower cloud costs.
Exclusive: Arctic Wolf builds out agentic security
Arctic Wolf expands its Agentic SOC as AI speeds attacks and shadow AI risks, with President, Technology and Services Dan Schiappa backing human oversight.
AI agents multiply risk, says DigiCert chief product officer
Many firms cannot see where their AI agents are, leaving identity, policy and supply-chain risks to grow as deployments scale.
'Self-learning' AI big boon for Qualtrics' CX
Companies using AI for customer experience are cutting churn and lifting revenue, with Qualtrics saying richer feedback can triple insights.
Exclusive: Denodo's Dominic Sartorio on perfect data vs the right data
Trust in enterprise AI is being undermined as Denodo research finds most firms still lack live, context-aware data for production use.
Google Cloud CEO sets out enterprise AI agent plan
Enterprises will get one place to build, govern and run AI agents, as Google Cloud expands Gemini Enterprise across models, data and security.
Google flags urgency as AI reshapes cyber threats
Patching delays now carry greater risk as Google says AI is helping attackers scale intrusions, speed up breaches and automate operations.
Exclusive: Google Cloud reshaping finance with agentic AI
Banks must move beyond isolated pilots if they want agentic AI to deliver enterprise-wide gains, Google Cloud says.
Exclusive: Google Cloud accelerates shift to agentic data
Enterprises may soon design data systems for AI agents rather than staff, as Google Cloud adds real-time context, automation and cross-cloud access.
Exclusive: Google sees success with niche AI playbooks
Enterprises are under pressure to prove AI returns as Google pushes reusable, sector-specific playbooks into production across 19 industries.
Google sees retail success with agentic commerce push
Retailers are using Google’s new AI suite to speed up shopping and support, with Bunnings already live and UCP adoption starting to grow.
Netskope's Tony Burnside - visibility is key to AI security
AI tools are creating hidden east-west traffic that security teams struggle to monitor, raising the risk of data leakage and compromise.
Reviews
Expert Columns
'Human-in-the-Loop' is the industry's most comfortable lie
How AI is changing the rules when it comes to observability
Adding AI to a platform is easy, adding it without breaking your security isn't
The Essential Eight is being retired, here's what that means for your cyber programme
A strategic blueprint for governing AI-enabled software development
Agentic AI will soon run your service desk. The real question is who controls it
Your bottle cooler knows more than your data team: Here's how it unlocks agentic AI
When Agents act on bad data, the damage is automatic
How to meet APRA's demands for improved AI security
Rewiring the heart of the CFOs office
Interviews
Interviews and video coverage from the networkRecent AI Agents News
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Marketers lag as agentic AI surges across industry
Many marketers are still unclear how to use agentic AI, even as pilots remain limited and governance questions grow across the industry.
The end of just-in-time thinking: Why resilience has become the new supply chain imperative
More than half of Asia-Pacific organisations are seeing rising disruptions and costs, pushing supply chains towards resilience over efficiency.
Australian IT leaders say data gaps stall AI scale
A lack of live data infrastructure is leaving most Australian IT leaders unable to scale AI, according to new research from Confluent.
Australian firms boost AI spend despite weak returns
One in three firms overshot AI budgets last year, yet only 8% track revenue or productivity gains, exposing weak returns.
Servicely expands agentic AI for enterprise service teams
Mid-sized service teams could cut manual work as the new tools automate requests end to end, amid rising competition in workplace AI.
Agentic AI will soon run your service desk. The real question is who controls it
The shift to AI that can act, not just summarise, raises new questions over auditability, data residency and who controls operations.
Manhattan launches marketplace for supply chain AI tools
Customers will soon be able to add supply chain AI agents and extensions without complex integration work through Manhattan Marketplace.
Adobe signs five-year RACQ AI partnership with Deloitte
RACQ's member services will be reshaped by Adobe's AI tools under a five-year deal that also gives Deloitte Digital implementation control.
Australian firms save 18 hours per AI-powered contract
Many Australian businesses still miss contract insights after signing, even as AI cuts agreement cycle times by 34% and saves 18 hours each.
Adobe expands AI partnerships with agencies & Microsoft
The deal puts Adobe's customer experience tools inside Microsoft 365 Copilot and Claude Enterprise, reaching marketers in their daily workflows.
Australians use AI widely, but trust & standards lag
But 56 per cent of users rely on unapproved tools, leaving Australian employers to tackle security, compliance and trust gaps.
Australia leads in trusted AI service investment, Salesforce
Despite regulatory pressure, Australian service leaders are prioritising customer-facing AI spending as trust in AI agents outpaces global averages.
Guzman y Gomez launches Apple CarPlay ordering in Australia
It could speed repeat purchases for drivers by letting them order, pay and earn loyalty points without touching a phone.
How to meet APRA's demands for improved AI security
Financial firms face tighter oversight as the regulator warns current controls are not enough for fast-changing AI systems and machine identities.
Cloudflare names The Missing Link as design partner
The move signals Cloudflare's push to channel more secure access service edge work through specialists as firms simplify legacy security for AI adoption.
InfoTrack & Legora link AI workflows with legal data
Law firms could cut friction in transactions as verified property, company and identity data feed directly into Legora's AI workflows.
EthicAI launches Selma as Australian firms seek AI control
Concerns over overseas access have pushed Australian agencies towards locally controlled AI, as a US order left some users abruptly cut off.
Rewiring the heart of the CFOs office
Fragmented data is slowing finance decisions and limiting the value of AI, as Australian CFOs push to make GRC the office's connective layer.
Infosys to modernise Valmet IT with AI-first model
The deal is set to cut costs and speed issue resolution as Valmet shifts core IT operations onto an AI-led, cloud-based model.
Australian firms roll back AI agents over governance
Governance failures have forced most Australian enterprises to pull back customer-facing AI agents, even as spending plans and deployments keep rising.
Job Moves
Kablamo appoints Troy Bebee to lead Google Cloud push
CommBank appoints first Chief AI Scientist in Australia
Cloudwerx appoints Harsh Mishra to lead SA market expansion
Prophet strengthens AI team with key engineering hires
Prophet names Rachel Scott as Head of Marketing Science
VentureCrowd appoints Jesse Arundell to lead agentic AI drive
JAGGAER names first Chief Digital & AI Officer to boost platform
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