Building AI at Scale: Inside Australia's Largest Bank with Blair Hudson

This is a #paidpartnership with Commonwealth BankEpisode SummaryBlair 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 immediatelyWhy context matters more than promptingWhat an AI platform actually is and why your company probably needs oneWhy software engineers need to take more accountability for what they buildThe single security mistake most people are still makingWhy it is absolutely not too late to figure AI out for yourselfPractical, candid, and full of things you can action today.Time Stamps00:00 Intro03:05 What Does a Chief Engineer of AI at a Bank Actually Do06:02 How CBA Collaborates Across Hundreds of Engineering Teams08:56 How to Keep Up With AI Tools Without Getting Overwhelmed12:04 Why Tool Consistency Matters in Enterprise AI14:56 Why Blair Shares His AI Insights Publicly17:51 What Being a Hacker Really Means in Tech20:50 How Blair Hudson Went From Startup AI to Commonwealth Bank23:59 Why CBA Starts Every Sprint With a Real Customer Call27:06 Why Over-Engineering Is Killing Your AI Projects29:47 Where AI Is Actually Moving the Needle in Banking Right Now32:15 Why the Year of the Agent Was Overhyped34:41 How to Build AI Fast Without Cutting Corners on Safety39:28 What Is an AI Platform and Why Does Your Company Need One41:49 How CBA Handles Shadow AI and Tool Adoption at Scale45:09 Why Context Is More Important Than Prompting50:29 The Number One Security Mistake You Are Still Making52:30 The Easiest Way to Start Using AI to Save Time Today54:05 Why You Should Never Ship AI Output Without Reviewing It55:38 Why It Is Not Too Late to Learn AIIn the Blink of AI is made possible by our wonderful partnersDeelFounders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders.It’s why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast.Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone✨ Connect with Georgie HealyWeekly Substack: https://georgiehealy.substack.com/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginahealy/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georginahealytech/The Day One NetworkIn The Blink of AI is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors.Sign up to get your weekly insights into the up-and-coming AI startups: https://dayone.fm/newsletterMentioned in this episode:Deel x PX_Post Intro