Getting AI FIT – PROCESS first!

Last Thursday, 20 August, we brought together a brilliant mix of business and community leaders at the Maitland Regional Athletics Centre for our Get AI FIT Function. And yes, we started with a numbers game, because nothing says “process improvement” quite like a room full of people suddenly realising there may, in fact, be a better way to do things.

Facilitated by Chamber Committee Member Helen Oswald, the afternoon featured local experts Andy Olrich from North St Partners, Paul Strang from Adept IT Solutions and Salena Avard from peoplefusion. Together, they unpacked AI in a way that felt practical, honest and refreshingly human, less “robots are taking over” and more “how do we make this actually useful for our businesses?”

Andy kicked things off with a hands-on process exercise that had everyone up, thinking, laughing and connecting. The activity was a great reminder that before we rush into the latest shiny tech tool, we need to understand how work actually flows through our organisations. The message was simple, and it landed: AI should support a great process, not be expected to magically fix a messy one.

From there, the panel explored where businesses can start with AI, what can be automated, what absolutely still needs a human eye, and how to make decisions that are sensible, secure and right for your team. There were plenty of practical takeaways around data, governance, platform choice, marketing authenticity and keeping people at the centre of the process.

A big theme from the afternoon was that AI is only as useful as the thinking behind it. It can save time, spark ideas and take some of the repetitive load off, but trust, empathy, creativity and good old-fashioned relationships are still very much a people thing. And that was really the heart of the event — bringing people together to learn, ask questions and have the conversation without the jargon.

The energy in the room showed just how relevant this topic is for businesses of every size and stage. Whether attendees were already experimenting with AI or still wondering where on earth to begin, the conversation was open, practical and full of those “ah-ha” moments we love to see.

A huge thank you to Andy Olrich, Paul Strang, Salena Avard and Helen Oswald for sharing their expertise so generously, and to everyone who came along, joined in, counted numbers, challenged assumptions and helped make the afternoon such a valuable one.

We look forward to keeping the conversation going at our upcoming Enterprise Social on 24 September, minus the pressure of a numbers game… probably.