As we all know – “Knowledge diffusion is the first step in building economic complexity” Hundreds of new webinars and videos...diffusion now.

“While novel, ‘new-to-the-world’, innovation is an important source of economic performance, it relates to only one to two per cent of Australian firms. The slow accretion of existing knowledge across the economy — diffusion — is often overlooked as a source of productivity. It has the scope to lift the performance of millions of businesses.” Productivity Commission 2022.

It’s a shame this insight was not leveraged in the Productivity Roundtable last month. It might have helped to rebuild an economy that has slipped to 105th in the world for economic complexity.

And as we may also know, our 40 research-based universities publish interesting and useful videos and webinars, which share their knowledge with Australia.

These videos and webinars are published in their YouTube channels, and every two months we copy the links, and put them in the Knowledge Diffusion section of the myREGION.au platform.

Because most people are not going to visit 40 different university YouTube channels on the off chance.

So, we have done it for you - Knowledge diffusion - rebrand.ly/MyRegion-Diffusion

That’s another 30 videos and webinars to add the hundreds already there. Well worth browsing. Stimulating. Insightful. Australian.

Organised by industry sectors so you can find research and insights appropriate to your industry. We are 72nd in the world for knowledge sharing, so this section has been developed to help change that.

And the good thing about that, is that it automatically updates the Study Options section for high school students and parents that helps them make more informed decisions about where they might want to study.

FREE to students, parents and teachers - rebrand.ly/MyRegion-Study

Feedback from high school teachers, principals and education consultants who have viewed the section has been positive “this fills a big gap” “it’s a seriously needed resource” “it helps to champion the forward-thinking universities” “it’s a good idea”. “If anyone is wondering, this is significantly more helpful and practical than QILT or COMPARED.”

I asked Chat GPT "What the Productivity Roundtable Missed" It said, "Despite its focus on productivity, the roundtable:

Did not address industrial policy or sector-specific strategies for building productive, export-oriented industries.

Avoided deep discussions on innovation ecosystems, R&D commercialisation, or scaling advanced technologies.

Failed to propose measures to move up the value chain (e.g., support for complex manufacturing, biotech, clean energy tech, etc.).

Provided no roadmap for shifting from commodities toward knowledge-intensive exports. This silence is especially problematic, given:

Australia's reliance on commodities with diminishing long-term productivity returns

An increasingly competitive global environment, where countries like the US and Germany are investing heavily in AI, semiconductors, cleantech, and advanced manufacturing." Those are the major problems we have with productivity. We have very few 21st century productive industries.

And the first step to rebuilding is knowledge sharing.

 And how can AI, ML and LLM AI help with that issue?

It can help, but not solve the underlying issue directly.

That requires government to make a decision. To reverse the 25-year decline of Australia’s productive industries. To rebuild an economy with vision and purpose, not continually avoid making the hard decisions.

Why is this so hard? We win gold medals at the Olympic games because we aim to win gold medals. And we were 4th in the world last Olympics.

Not by accident. But by selection, decision, action. We can do exactly the same thing with our nascent industry sectors. This is where we have potential.

Medtech & Biomanufacturing – vaccines, cell therapies, enzymes, biotherapies, tissue repair, x-ray products, mobility aids

Functional Foods – precision nutrition, vitamins and supplements, sports nutrition

Ag-tech – farm management software, soil carbon sequestration, field robotics, biosecurity risk management, water & irrigation management

Clean Energy – batteries, hydrogen electrolysers, electric motors, critical mineral reclamation, fusion energy

Advanced Manufacturing – aerospace components, quantum hardware, monitoring, process automation, composite solutions

Defence and Space Tech – dual-use innovations in sensors, rocket, satellites, robotics, drones, surveillance technologies

Creative + Digital IP – games, virtual production, edtech, fintech platforms, animation

The Growth Centre approach has not worked, because it has no objective. Giving money to a few manufacturers is not a strategy for rebuilding economic complexity.

We need the equivalent of the Australian Institute of Sport for innovation and commercialisation focused on the industries above.

Or things will not improve.

And we need to take a holistic approach. Universities. Regions. Software Industry. Plus all the innovative businesses leading the way in each sector above.

LLM AIs can then support the existing use of AI in ERP and other business management systems, and complement with training and knowledge sharing. This might go some way to offset the knowledge vacuum generated by skilled workers retiring. Collaboration is the key.

Beyond our productive industries, AI is already helping to improve efficiency and effectiveness across most service industries.

Productivity is not the issue for them. They don’t produce anything.

But efficiency and effectiveness is.

In our analysis of 400 business categories across 19 industry sectors, we see that AI has been incorporated into business management systems, financial management systems and many other software solutions.

As an example, if we look at the most popular Australian financial management tools – Xero, MYOB and Quickbooks, they all incorporate AI tools to help users.

For data entry, workflows, insights, financial analysis, forecasting and analytics. And they are all aiming to improve their solutions as time moves on. And incorporate LLM AI for help with queries, summaries, advice and alerts.

So, AI is already delivering value to Australian businesses, with the “value adding” largely being delivered by existing software developers through extension to existing software tools.

All good. And we should recognise that Australian software developers are not behind everybody else in the world. They understand what AI, ML and LLM AIs can do.

And they are already using them to make what they already do even better. Just like systems integrators who keep the show on the road, most software developers do what they do without generating a lot of noise in the media. They just get on with it.

So, AI is already helping Australian organisations.

LLM AI can complement existing software tools, but it Is not going to deliver huge new productivity improvements to the Australian economy.

The Australian economy has a major problem that no AI can fix.

We are 105th in the world for economic complexity and we sell “dirt” and “seeds” to the world. Without adding value. And AI, ML and LLM AI can’t fix that.

That can only be fixed by political decision. Direction. And long-term apolitical commitment. Which seems to be hard in Australia.

Other countries seem to manage vision. We don’t.

But we could.