The big bank poaching spree is heating up. As Andrew Cornell revealed last night, Westpac CEO Anthony Miller has nabbed Commonwealth Bank’s chief data analytics officer Andrew McMullan, who steps into the newly minted role of chief data, digital and AI officer.
One angle here, covered by Andrew in today’s Capital Gains newsletter — and pointedly bemoaned by CBA CEO Matt Comyn — is the cutthroat people dynamics within Australian banking. But the bigger story is the scramble for elite AI and data talent as global corporates brace for the impact of the generative AI moment.
It’s most obvious in Silicon Valley, where leading AI specialists can command the salaries of a starting NFL quarterback. But the evidence is everywhere, including in Australia. Capital Brief has reported that two Australian telcos, Telstra and Optus, are leaning into AI with the executive shuffles to match. In March, Nine Entertainment restructured its data, product and technology functions under an AI-led digital transformation. The list goes on.
There’s a comparison here that many executives would probably rather memory-hole: the Big Data craze of the early 2010s. Back then, data became a full-blown corporate gold rush, a buzzword blitz and the raison d’être for a million white papers.
