the flagship AI keynote.
Crossing the Watershed
Book MeTo Pesce, the "watershed" is the point when agents become a viable substitute for human labor. We've already entered that era and now the AI agents are growing increasingly reliable and capable, though many organizations have not yet worked out exactly how to integrate them into the workforce. Pesce peers ahead at the implications of the cost of cognition and cognitive outputs dropping asymptotically towards zero. His insights are remarkable.
Rob Tercek, founder of The Futurists Network
What happens to business as the cost of thinking collapses? Which functions dissolve? Which assets survive? How do leaders 'find the core' of business practice in a time of all change?
Grounded in Mark's public record of early calls, refreshed daily by NOOPS signals. Mark is across this like no one else in Australia.
There's a lot to share about businesses already making AI work for them - Mark knows who's been succeeding and how to share those success stories.
Who it's for
Boards, CFO and finance audiences, insurance, superannuation, professional services, enterprise tech.
Tailored per room: finance rooms get the future of the finance function; insurance rooms get "the insurer becomes the regulator of the AI economy"; tech/cyber get verification as the real flywheel.
What happens in the room
Mark charts a path through the AI acceleration in three parts: what changed, what it means, and what leaders can do about it. He explains how models become agents when a harness gives them memory, tools and the ability to pursue a goal, then shows why their growing task horizon marks a Watershed for cognitive work.
From there, the room follows the new business arithmetic: tokens plus process generate value. As the cost of machine cognition falls, Mark examines which tasks and coordination structures are likely to change, using current examples tailored to the audience. He then turns to the infrastructure that remains durable: trust, relationships, networks, physical assets, security and regulation.
What they walk out with
- A clear mental model of agents, harnesses and the capability threshold that makes them economically useful.
- A practical way to identify where lower-cost machine cognition will reshape tasks, processes and organisational structure.
- A sharper view of the durable assets that need protection as the business changes: trust, relationships, networks, physical assets, security and regulation.
- A leadership framework for combining the velocity AI provides with human direction, discipline and vision.
Format
45-60 minute keynote + Q&A