AI Productivity in the Agentic era
This workshop examines how productivity is shifting from automation to agentic AI, and why human skills are now the binding constraint rather than technology. As agentic AI systems take on more complex tasks, work is changing from task execution to supervision of outcomes. For people working across the public sector, community, industry and academia, this shift raises practical questions about responsibility, judgement and trust in everyday roles and services.
Participants will explore how to define intent clearly, design AI-native workflows, and assure quality and trust in their contexts. The session will help participants reframe AI adoption as a capability and accountability challenge, not just a technology deployment, creating a shared understanding of how agentic AI reshapes work, outcomes, and responsibility in the public sector. Through open, cross-sector discussion of real workflows, sharing lessons learned and exploring responsible experimentation, the session will support ethical and trustworthy use of AI, enabling participants to surface risks early and design safeguards that protect service quality and strengthen community trust in how outcomes are delivered.
Asanga Lokusooriya has over 30 years of industry experience, and has led the development of cross-functional teams, market propositions, and advanced technology solutions in Australia and the region. His current work spans the adoption of generative AI, data monetisation strategies, and the organisational transformation required to unlock value from emerging technologies. At present, Asanga is a Partner at IBM.
Helen Burns has extensive experience in bringing together human capabilities and new technologies to improve organisational performance. As a partner at IBM, she specialises in leading organisations through complex change management processes to design, build and operate fit-for-purpose implementations of new technologies to unlock workforce potential.
AI CoLab events are intentionally open and collaborative. For this session we may capture photos to share publicly. This is done in line with the Charter’s values; transparent, ethical innovation and knowledge sharing to accelerate collective learning (see join.aicolab.org). By participating in this event, you agree to being photographed and for those images to be shared in accordance with this policy.