Business and government leaders need to learn and adopt artificial intelligence or they’ll get left behind, one of Australia’s most successful tech entrepreneurs says.
Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, who stepped down as the collaboration platform’s co-CEO a little over a year ago, says AI is already creating a “massive global shift”.
“It’s changing how we live every single day as consumers”, with many people looking for products and services using tools such as ChatGPT, Mr Farquhar told payments giant Stripe’s annual conference in Sydney on Thursday.
For companies, “I don’t have a specific for every industry, but it feels like one of those technologies that if you’re not adopting it quickly, you’ll be disrupted by someone who is, unfortunately.”
Mr Farquhar said everyone at the most senior levels of business and government should be using AI on a daily basis, even if it seemed less productive than other methods at first.
“It’s a new skill that you need to use in the same way that touch typing probably felt less productive than writing a card the first time you used a typewriter or a keyboard,” he said.
“It’s a new skill you need to learn.”
And for those who are recent graduates or in the tech industry, “AI has this opportunity to change everything we do, and it’s a really exciting time to be involved in creating this.”
Mr Farquar said he had three goals for his first year outside of Atlassian: spending more time with his family, “aggressively holiday” and getting fit, and he had succeeded at each one.
He trained for an Ironman triathlon in Germany, went to places like Bhutan and Patagonia, and spent one-on-one time with each of his three boys.
He has also joined Tech Council of Australia as its chairman, and has been investing in tech startups through his venture capital fund, Skip Capital.
In addition, he’s become chairman of Pledge 1%, an organisation he co-founded 10 years ago that encourages companies to set aside one per cent of their equity, profit, product and/or employee time to drive social good.
More than 20,000 companies globally had taken the pledge, giving away over $US3 billion ($A4.5 billion) in equity, said Mr Farquhar, who has an estimated net worth of more than $US10 billion ($A15 billion).
“My encouragement to everyone here is, if you’re in a startup, or you know a founder yourself, or have an influence over a startup, just encourage them to take that pledge,” he said.
“You’ll be joining an incredible cohort of companies in Australia.”