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Episode Summary

Blair is the Chief Engineer of Generative AI at Commonwealth Bank, overseeing nine to ten teams building the AI platform that powers Australia’s largest bank and its millions of customers. Including me, a Dollar Mite since primary school.

His origin story is not what you would expect. He was a self-described hacker who grew up clicking through every system configuration setting he could find on his mum’s school computers after hours. That curiosity took him from building on GPT-2 before ChatGPT even existed, to the heart of one of Australia’s most important institutions.

In this episode we get into:

The litmus test he uses to spot bad AI use immediately
Why context matters more than prompting
What an AI platform actually is and why your company probably needs one
Why software engineers need to take more accountability for what they build
The single security mistake most people are still making
Why it is absolutely not too late to figure AI out for yourself

Practical, candid, and full of things you can action today.

Time Stamps

00:00 Intro

03:05 What Does a Chief Engineer of AI at a Bank Actually Do

06:02 How CBA Collaborates Across Hundreds of Engineering Teams

08:56 How to Keep Up With AI Tools Without Getting Overwhelmed

12:04 Why Tool Consistency Matters in Enterprise AI

14:56 Why Blair Shares His AI Insights Publicly

17:51 What Being a Hacker Really Means in Tech

20:50 How Blair Hudson Went From Startup AI to Commonwealth Bank

23:59 Why CBA Starts Every Sprint With a Real Customer Call

27:06 Why Over-Engineering Is Killing Your AI Projects

29:47 Where AI Is Actually Moving the Needle in Banking Right Now

32:15 Why the Year of the Agent Was Overhyped

34:41 How to Build AI Fast Without Cutting Corners on Safety

39:28 What Is an AI Platform and Why Does Your Company Need One

41:49 How CBA Handles Shadow AI and Tool Adoption at Scale

45:09 Why Context Is More Important Than Prompting

50:29 The Number One Security Mistake You Are Still Making

52:30 The Easiest Way to Start Using AI to Save Time Today

54:05 Why You Should Never Ship AI Output Without Reviewing It

55:38 Why It Is Not Too Late to Learn AI

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