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<\/p>\nTelstra has elevated Dayle Stevens to a newly created enterprise-wide AI leadership role, after three-and-a-half years spent overseeing the Data & AI function.<\/p>\n
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\n Image credit: Dayle Stevens.
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Stevens revealed the change over the weekend in a LinkedIn post<\/a>, which iTnews has verified.<\/p>\n \u201cMy focus now shifts to shaping our long-term AI agenda,\u201d Stevens wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThat means bringing an outside-in perspective on global trends and regulation, strengthening trust and governance, and helping translate what\u2019s changing in the world into practical outcomes for our customers and people.\u201d<\/p>\n Stevens\u2019 new role sees her report into the chief general counsel and group executive of corporate affairs, risk and legal Lyndall Stoyles.<\/p>\n It\u2019s understood that part of Stevens\u2019 new role is to shape strategy and policies around broader AI adoption within Telstra in line with the telco\u2019s Connected Future 30 strategy, of which AI is considered a central enabler.<\/p>\n Stevens will also have responsibility for strengthening trust, credibility and influence with customers, partners, regulators and broader stakeholders around AI while continuing to deliver tangible outcomes.<\/p>\n Her former role of Data & AI executive – albeit with an expanded remit – will be handled by Joanna Knox.<\/p>\n The expanded remit comes in the form of central oversight of both the Data & AI joint ventures with Quantium<\/a> and Accenture.<\/a><\/p>\n Stevens had previously been the co-CEO of the Accenture joint venture. The other co-CEO is US-based Accenture executive Arnab Chakraborty.<\/p>\n The Data & AI executive – Knox – also now has central oversight of the Telstra Quantium joint venture.\u00a0<\/p>\n That change is important in the context that Telstra has a stated aim<\/a> of consolidating \u201cvendor support from 18 data and AI providers and partners down to [the] two joint ventures.\u201d<\/p>\n Having a single Telstra executive across both joint ventures appears to progress that vision.<\/p>\n Previously, oversight of the Telstra Quantium joint venture on Telstra\u2019s side fell to Sandy Cameron, but he has now moved into an \u2018Australia Infrastructure AI\u2019 executive role in the newly formed Telstra Digital Infrastructure (TDI) unit, led by Steve Worrall.<\/a><\/p>\n The two joint ventures have different aims.\u00a0<\/p>\n The venture with Quantium is about jointly developing \u201cadvanced AI solutions\u201d for specific problems, while the newer venture with Accenture aims to \u201csupercharge\u201d the telco\u2019s AI adoption, compressing the timeframe from five years down to two, Stevens wrote in a recent blog post.<\/a><\/p>\n