The early bets
"If businesses don't move quickly, they risk becoming irrelevant”
Before Canva, professional graphic design was a specialist skillset that required formal training and dedicated tools. Cliff and his co-founders saw a world where anyone could be a visual communicator. "Canva was born because technologies emerged that made Canva possible," said Cliff. "For us, going cloud-native from day one was not even a question. We didn't want to spend time provisioning infrastructure and managing cloud computing. We wanted to hand all that hard work to someone else so we could focus on where we thought we could add value. That's what led us to AWS." Today, Canva serves 265 million monthly active users.
Xero's early bet was about reimagining how small businesses collaborate with their accountants, a process that had traditionally relied on manual paperwork, spreadsheets, and information passing back and forth, usually with long delays. Sukhinder shared that migrating data onto cloud infrastructure meant business owners and their accountants could finally see the same numbers, in real-time, for stronger collaboration. This insight was the key driver behind both the need for cloud and the advantage of being on it. Today, Xero operates in over 180 countries,used by more than 4.9 million customers, and integrates with over 1000 third-party apps.
For NAB, adopting cloud in the early days meant going against the grain of an industry built on risk mitigation and a need for uncompromising security and resilience. Most of the bank's technology had been outsourced in the 1990s, resilience problems were regular, and getting new product to market was slow. This forced NAB into thinking completely differently about their technology approach, leading them to AWS.
All three organisations chose AWS for the same reason: the business they wanted to build was only possible by being on the cloud. There was no other way to get there.
How Canva, NAB, and Xero are using AI
"The lessons we learned from the shift to cloud are now being applied to the shift to AI”
Three companies; three different industries. In each case, AI is making possible what couldn't be done before, not faster versions of old work, or even an iteration, but entirely new capabilities.
For Xero, it's about giving time back to small business owners. "Our job is to make AI work for small businesses, to give them back hours every day so they can focus on what matters most: putting more cash in their hands, understanding their business, and thriving, not just surviving," said Sukhinder.
At NAB, agentic AI is already changing core banking processes. "Banking is full of fantastic use cases for agentic AI. We're built on business processes that are ripe for AI to transform," said Steve."We're creating core platforms,so governance is consistent and manageable, while still giving people flexibility in the models and agents they use. We already have dozens of agents running today, all within a consistent governance framework."
Steve’s most exciting project right now is what NAB calls its instrumentation lake. It brings operational data from across the bank into one place, then uses AI agents to connect the dots in real time. He shared a recent example where NAB's AI agents detected a credential-stuffing attack by connecting signals across cyber activity, unusual payments, and tech operations in real time, then reversed the fraudulent transactions almost immediately. "Finding problems before they happen,"NAB’s CTO said. "That's the sort of exciting stuff I'm seeing."
Canva’s purpose is to empower the world to design. "Before Canva, graphic design was only accessible to 1% of internet users. Canva made visual communication accessible to everyone. Now, with coding and vibe-coding, everyone can be a builder," said Cliff.
AI is not hype. It's a technology shift on the scale of cloud and mobile. Cliff drew a direct line through the last two decades: first came cloud computing, then mobile, and companies that didn't adapt were left behind. AI is the same, he said, "If businesses don't move quickly, they risk becoming irrelevant."
Culture eats strategy for breakfast
"Leaders in technology don't tell people what to do, they do it themselves. You need to lead from the front”
The panelists agreed driving AI adoption is a leadership issue, not a technology problem, and the fastest way to bring your people with you is to show, not tell. And as Cliff also pointed out, this isn't even new territory: “The lessons we learned from the shift to cloud are now being applied to the shift to AI."
"Getting the culture, training, and shared understanding around what AI will achieve for the business, and why it's safe, is critical, especially for a bank and its customers," said Steve. “We need to enable teams properly, and that's a cultural challenge more than just a set of instructions."
Xero's CEO emphasised that leadership means doing, not directing. "Leaders in technology don't tell people what to do, they do it themselves. You need to lead from the front. We're not just using AI, we're becoming an AI platform and want to be at the forefront of delivering AI to customers. That makes it more important than ever to upskill everyone in the organisation," explained Sukhinder.
So, what's the actual advice?
Steve urged organisations to get AI into the hands of users and make sure they're enabled. Leading through showing, but also telling, because there are so many different people doing so many different jobs. Sukhinder’s advice was to make it digestible: pick your domain, research the intersection with AI, learn your first five prompts, and start there. Cliff’s version: just go headfirst into it, and if anyone's resisting, appeal to their common sense.
Looking ahead
When I reflect on AWS's 20-year journey from a single storage service and a three-person team to millions of customers worldwide, I can see none of this would have been possible without customers who placed their early bets on cloud. Like Canva, NAB,and Xero,the companies that use AI to reshape how their industry works will be the ones that win.
Our 'Unlocking Ambitions' research, released during Summit Sydney, found that 72% of Aussies want innovation to move at the same pace or even faster. My message to the room of leaders was clear: Get on it, push the people around you to move faster, experiment, get your hands dirty, and learn by doing.
Watch the full fireside panel:
Next up, accelerating Australia and New Zealand's AI ambitions built on 20 years of innovation.
