AI & HUMAN BEHAVIOUR - special edition - Spark Festival x Upskilling x BIT
The Upskilling team is delighted to invite you to join our friends at the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) for a session sharing their world-leading insights into AI & human behaviour:
"How can organisations increase AI adoption safely and effectively?"
Previous Upskilling sessions with BIT have been some of our highest rated by attendees, and they have agreed once again to share the investigations into the Human Behavioural aspects of AI adoption in organisations.
AI adoption is now essential to modernising services and reducing workforce burnout, yet organisations consistently struggle to move AI beyond the experimental phase. Initiatives stall in a "pilot trap" — repeated low-risk trials that never scale into core operations. Without a clear enterprise deployment path, staff fill the gap with unmanaged "shadow AI", creating real security and privacy risks.
Adoption also carries a quieter danger: "cognitive surrender" — where staff accept AI outputs uncritically, and professional judgement, quality assurance and accountability erode.
This landmark session will use a practical framework developed by BIT to help organisations understand how they can increase AI adoption safely and effectively.
Agenda:
1.30pm arrival/registration
2.00 - 3.00pm presentation
3.00 - 3.30pm networking
Learning outcomes:
By the end of this session, delegates will be able to:
Diagnose where AI adoption is at risk in their own agency, recognising the warning signs of the "pilot trap", unmanaged "shadow AI" and "cognitive surrender"
Address the behavioural inertia, risk-aversion and over-reliance that undermine effective AI use
Build a culture in which staff stay critically engaged with AI outputs rather than deferring to them
Speaker: Dr Alex Gyani
Alex is the Managing Director of the Behavioural Insights Team’s APAC region. He leads the team’s work across Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, India and the wider region. He has spent his career supporting governments and organisations across the globe develop and evaluate innovative and evidence-based practices.
Since joining the Behavioural Insights Team in 2012, Alex has worked in a diverse set of fields from antimicrobial resistance, domestic violence, innovation policy, mental health, energy usage, health system efficiency, obesity, financial regulation, employment services to education.
His PhD focused on encouraging psychological therapists to use evidence-based treatments and encouraging people with anxiety and depression to seek treatment using a mobile phone app. In October 2012, this app was the top free health app on the Apple Store.
In 2018, he was named one of Apolitical’s 100 Future Government Leaders. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of Reading, as well as a research fellowship at the University of Melbourne’s School of Psychology. He has been based in Sydney since 2014.
How these sessions work
Our sessions are curated in-person gatherings designed to give participants practical insights they would not easily get elsewhere, and the opportunity to connect with peers in the room. They run on a non-attribution basis, so that everyone can speak openly: it's ok to share what you learn, but not who said it.
Each session is hosted by an organisation with real expertise in the topic. The host shares what they actually do rather than theory, and gets to meet people who value their work.
Participants may be offered preferential access or terms by a host or sponsor, and the event organisers may receive a sponsorship or referral fee from them.