Photo: TOMASZ MACHNIK
The HUMAN
side of AI.
The technology is new. The human challenges it creates aren't.
Every technology wave stalls on the same thing: people. I've spent 25 years fixing that — from IT trainer at Sun Microsystems to Partner at Deloitte. Now I work on the part that decides whether AI actually works: the humans. Boardroom to frontline.
Experience & credentials
AI projects don't stall on the tech. They stall on the humans.
Boards are anxious. Executives aren't sure what's safe to greenlight. And teams are caught in the middle — quietly worried for their jobs, quietly using tools no one approved, or told to "just use AI" with no training or guidance. This is normal. It's also fixable.
The model was never the hard bit. Trust, fear, ethics and change — that's where it lives or dies.
This is work I've done for years — human-centred digital transformation, change leadership, capability building. I apply tried-and-tested thinking, fast, to a high-stakes new technology.
One mission. Five ways to work together.
AI Readiness Conversation
No commitment, no jargon, just clarity.
- A discovery conversation
- A readiness check across your teams
- A one-pager of first moves
Ongoing advisory
A trusted sounding board as you navigate AI adoption — from policy and ethics to culture, capability and change management.
Board & exec sessions
Candid, jargon-free briefings for senior leaders on AI governance, risk, ethics and the strategic decisions only humans can make.
Workshops & facilitation
Hands-on sessions that move teams from anxiety to action — building shared understanding, practical skills and a common language.
Keynotes
Engaging, research-backed talks that reframe AI as a people challenge — not a tech one. Conference stages to all-staff events.
Fractional AI leadership
Embedded adoption leadership — building the internal team that owns AI, then handing it over.
The real outcome isn't me in the room — it's the right internal team to own AI adoption, long after I've gone. I embed across HR, L&D, IT, Risk and Brand, break the silos that slow things down, and build one business-led team to own this work — then hand it over to run without me. And where scam and social-engineering risk is part of the picture, my company Lively provides the capability layer.
20+
digital adoption and transformation programs advised or led, including for ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Macquarie Bank, QBE and the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet
25
years getting organisations to trust and use new technology — from dial-up to GenAI, across banking, government, telco and insurance
30,000
people taken through a company-wide transformation launch at an ASX-listed enterprise — NPS 9.1
Signature keynotes
AI, demystified: what everyone actually needs to know
A jargon-free session on what AI actually is, what it can and can't do, and what it means for you and your organisation — built for smart people who are tired of hype and want straight answers. From boards to all-staff events. No slides full of acronyms, live demonstrations included.
What people say
"Rated the most engaging and practically useful session of the entire event."
— CEO, Australian Institute of Conveyancers WA
"Stacey is a firecracker — at the cutting edge of learning innovation globally."
— Head of Capability, Coles Group
"Infectious energy from start to finish. An outstanding NPS of 8.9."
— Portfolio Director, Ashton Media
Photo: TOMASZ MACHNIK
This isn't my first wave.
I'm a social scientist, GenAI ethicist and teacher by trade. I've been helping people trust and use new technology since the internet arrived down a noisy dial-up line. By 2001 I was an IT trainer at Sun Microsystems. Since then: Director of Learning at Commonwealth Bank, running learning for a 50,000-strong government workforce, Partner at Deloitte, where I created the Future of Learning practice and led a major government-wide program building data and digital capability, and Senior Partner at Korn Ferry.
Dumb terminals. Data warehouses. Portal servers. Internet banking. Mobile-first platforms. Every shift came down to the same thing: whether people trust it, actually use it, and deliver the value it promised. GenAI is simply the latest, and the highest-stakes.
So I work on the human side of adoption: culture, change and learning. My clients span financial services, government and ASX-listed boards. I'm also co-founder and CEO of Lively, the social enterprise behind Phishy or Not? and Dodgy or Not? — award-winning cyber safety games featured on ABC News, Sunrise and 7 News. Before that, I built Deloitte's first consumer-grade cyber capability product. My job is to build the internal team that owns this — then get out of the way.
How ready are your humans?
A quiz with a difference.
It opens with five true stories: a US$25 million deepfake, the chatbot whose invented promises a tribunal enforced, the HR manager who pasted employee records into a free AI tool on their home laptop.
Then 20 plain-language statements to score your organisation out of 100 across trust, capability, governance, culture and enablement, plus what your score means and your first three moves.
An AI incident is survivable. A fumbled response isn't.
Or get the PDF version
Let's talk.
Tell me what you need.