When You're Buying AI Instead of Building It: Australia's Wake-Up Call

# When You're Buying AI Instead of Building It: Australia's Wake-Up Call Commonwealth Bank just announced their partnership with OpenAI, and it's bigger news than you might think. Sure, it's great for CommBank customers. But here's what really matters: it shows exactly where Australia sits in the global AI race. We're not the ones building this stuff. We're the ones buying it. ## Here's the Thing About Being an AI Client Look around the world right now. The US and China are duking it out for AI supremacy. Israel's got more AI startups per capita than anywhere else. Even the UK is throwing serious money at homegrown AI research. And Australia? We're shopping. Don't get me wrong – CommBank made a smart move. They're getting access to some of the best AI tools on the planet. But those tools were built in San Francisco, not Sydney. When Matt Comyn talks about needing to "embrace this new era of rapid technological change," notice what he didn't say. He didn't say "lead" or "create." He said "embrace." That's client nation talk. ## Why This Makes Everything Harder When you're not the one building the tech, everything becomes more complicated. Here's what I mean: You have to spend twice. CommBank isn't just paying OpenAI licensing fees. They're also spending big on training their people and building internal know-how. It's like buying a Ferrari and then having to build your own racing team from scratch. You're always playing catch-up. The moment OpenAI releases something new, Australian businesses have to scramble to figure out how to use it. We don't get to influence what gets built next – we just have to adapt to whatever shows up. You become dependent on others. What happens if relations with the US sour? What if OpenAI decides to prioritise other markets? Suddenly your competitive advantage depends on decisions made in Silicon Valley boardrooms. ## What This Means for Every Other Australian Business The CommBank news should terrify and inspire you in equal measure. The inspiring part? OpenAI's tools really can change how you serve customers and run your business. Sam Altman wasn't just making nice when he talked about making AI "more useful and impactful for people and businesses across the country." The tech works. The terrifying part? If you don't move fast on this, you're not just competing against overseas companies anymore. You're competing against other Australian businesses that are already getting ahead while you're still figuring out what AI even means for your industry. Here's the kicker: in a client nation setup, being first matters more than ever. Since everyone has access to the same OpenAI tools at roughly the same time, the companies that win are the ones that learn how to use them fastest. ## CommBank Got One Thing Really Right The smartest thing about CommBank's approach isn't the OpenAI partnership itself. It's that they know licensing software isn't enough. Matt Comyn keeps talking about "equipping our people with the most advanced AI tools and capability." That word "capability" is doing a lot of work there. They're not just buying access to ChatGPT Enterprise. They're training their entire workforce to think differently about how work gets done. This is where most companies screw up. They think AI adoption means installing some software and watching the magic happen. But the real work is cultural. You need people who can spot AI opportunities in their daily tasks. You need managers who know when to trust AI recommendations and when to override them. You need systems that keep humans in control while letting AI do the heavy lifting. And if you're in Australia? You need to get good at this fast, because you're working with tech built somewhere else by people who don't understand your specific business problems. ## Three Things Every Australian Business Needs to Do Now **Get your people trained, not just your tech team.** The companies winning with AI are the ones where everyone understands how to work with these tools. Your sales team should know how AI can help them research prospects. Your finance team should understand how AI can spot unusual patterns in data. Your customer service team should be comfortable with AI-assisted responses. **Build governance before you need it.** When you're using someone else's AI, you have less control over how decisions get made. That makes good oversight even more important. Set rules now about when humans must review AI recommendations, how you'll handle AI mistakes, and what data you're comfortable sharing with external AI services. **Start small, but start now.** You don't need to transform your entire business overnight. Pick one process where AI could help and run some experiments. Learn what works and what doesn't in your specific context. The goal is building organisational muscle for working with AI, not just implementing technology. ## The Real Story Here Australia's position as an AI client nation isn't something to be ashamed of. It's reality. We're not going to out-innovate Silicon Valley or Beijing in foundational AI research. That ship has sailed. But we can get really good at being smart clients. We can be the country that takes AI tools built elsewhere and uses them better than anyone else. We can build businesses that are more agile, more customer-focused, and more competitive because we've learned to work with AI effectively. The CommBank-OpenAI partnership shows one way to do this right. They're not just buying technology. They're building capability. They're not just licensing software. They're changing how their people work. For every other Australian business watching this happen, the message is simple: the AI transformation isn't optional anymore. The only question is whether you'll be ready for it. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/australia-ai-client-nation-how-do-we-well-kevin-baum-llutf