HELLOPEOPLEAI
// the tech newsletter from HELLO PEOPLE AI
Hello World
lead_story
October brings new privacy rules for AI and a chance to stop worrying about what AI will take away and start planning what your business will build with it. We cover the real news, the myths, what can be automated, and the security risks that actually matter.
01 / a note from the founder
I am researching retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) as a PhD candidate at Curtin University. RAG is how businesses connect AI to their own data without training a new model. Nearly twenty years of running HELLO PEOPLE means I spend my time between code and conversations with business owners. The two do not match when it comes to what people think AI will do.
You are told AI will either save your business or fire everyone. Neither is quite true. The first ignores how much work is still bundles of tasks, and the second ignores that businesses have always needed people to do new work faster. This month we focus on what actually happens: jobs change, most people stay, and the window to learn is now.
The truth that no one wants to say is simpler: if you do not adopt AI, someone selling the same service will, and you will lose on price. That is the real deadline. The security risks are real and small enough to manage. Everything else is noise.
Kasun WijayamannaFounder, HELLO PEOPLE
02 / ai_news_this_month
2 December 2025
The Australian Government released its first National AI Plan, with three goals: capture the opportunities, spread the benefits, and keep Australians safe. It funds an AI Safety Institute and programs to lift AI skills and adoption across industry.
what_it_meansThe plan signals government commitment to AI adoption and risk management at scale. For a business owner, it means skills funding, potential accelerator programs, and clearer guardrails as rules become standardised rather than guessed at.
10 December 2026
From 10 December 2026, businesses covered by the Privacy Act must explain in their privacy policy when they use personal information in automated decisions, including AI, that significantly affect a person.
what_it_meansIf you use AI to make decisions about customers or staff (approvals, offers, eligibility), you now have a legal obligation to say so in plain language. This is not a ban on AI decisions, just transparency about how they are made.
source: Corrs Chambers Westgarth: preparing for the automated decision-making transparency obligation
August 2026
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) removed more than 19,400 online scams in the 2025 to 2026 financial year, up 182 per cent on the year before. Scammers use AI to create deepfake videos, fake websites and phishing emails that mimic trusted public figures. Deepfakes have cost Australians substantial sums.
what_it_meansAI makes fraud look real: misspellings are gone, timing is perfect, and voices sound right. Your staff and customers need training. Teaching people to verify by phone, not email, is the one defence that works.
27 October 2026
CEDA (the Committee for Economic Development of Australia) runs its fourth AI Leadership Summit with the National AI Centre on 27 and 28 October at ICC Sydney, bringing together business, government and researchers to share what is working.
what_it_meansThe national conversation has moved from whether to use AI to how to use it well. If your business is still deciding whether AI applies, now is a good time to start with one small, measurable task.
03 / the_feature_read
Jobs are not single roles. They are bundles of tasks. AI changes which tasks stay and which go. The opportunity is redeploying people to new work, faster. We look at the research and what it means for your business.
170 million
The World Economic Forum expects technology to create far more roles than it removes by 2030. But the bigger story for a small business is that most jobs will not disappear. They will change. A Perth electrical contractor's office manager still processes job sheets, manages calendars and handles customer queries. The 90 minutes spent re-keying job notes into three systems becomes five minutes of checking.
The Jobs and Skills Australia report on generative AI, launched in August 2025, says it plainly: AI is more likely to augment jobs than replace them. Office-based work, data entry, accounting, and communications are the most likely to see automation. These roles change first. The people stay.
The risk is not that a person will be replaced. It is that a person without the new skills will be replaced by a person who has them. The window to upskill is now.
Clerical and secretarial roles face the steepest declines in the World Economic Forum forecast. That is the bundle: admin assistants, ticket clerks, cashiers. But the demand for care, management, and relationships is growing: nursing, social work, personal service. The transition is not painless. It is also not new. Banks did not disappear when ATMs arrived. They changed.
The business owner who upskills their office staff to manage three systems and two AI assistants keeps them. The owner who ignores it risks losing them to someone else. Skill development is not a cost. It is insurance.
For your own business, the question is simpler: which tasks in your team could disappear? Which will grow because you can handle more? Which skills matter most in two years?
First: talk to your people. Do not hide it. They have seen the news. Ask them what repetitive tasks fill their week. Listen. Then start automating the boring things, not the skilled things.
Second: look at the roles you struggle to fill. AI will not solve that. Upskilling will. If you cannot find accountants, train people in bookkeeping. If you cannot find labourers, invest in your team to do more complex work.
Third: set a deadline. Most businesses without an AI plan now will not have a meaningful one in two years. The cost of hiring someone new to implement it will be higher than building it into your team now.
People often overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in ten.
04 / myth_vs_reality
MYTHAI will replace my staff.
REALITYAI replaces tasks, not roles. A Perth business with a bookkeeper might automate invoice entry, but still needs someone to manage client relationships and handle exceptions.
source: Jobs and Skills Australia: Our Gen AI Transition report
MYTHAI is only for big companies.
REALITYMore than four in ten Australian small and medium businesses already use AI in some form, according to the National AI Centre's AI Adoption Tracker (43 to 44 per cent over summer 2025 to 2026). Services and retail lead.
source: AI Adoption Tracker: Australian SME adoption rates 2026
MYTHChatGPT already knows my business.
REALITYChatGPT has learned from public text up to a point in time. It does not know your customer list, your pricing, your workflows, or your contracts.
source: HELLO PEOPLE: MCP security and business AI blog post
MYTHAI is too risky to touch.
REALITYThe risks are real: people pasting customer data into free tools, deepfakes costing millions, phishing emails with no typos. These are manageable.
MYTHYou need a data scientist to use AI.
REALITYBusiness owners and managers can use ChatGPT, Copilot or Claude to draft emails, analyse data, and test ideas today. You need a person who understands your business and is willing to learn.
05 / automate_what_you_can
AI does not automate jobs. It automates tasks. Below are the tasks in your business that change first: sorted by whether to automate now, use AI to assist, or keep entirely human.
06 / copy_paste_save_time
Here is how I spend my week: [DESCRIBE YOUR ROLE AND TASKS]. Please list the tasks that are repetitive (happen at least twice), rule-based (same steps every time), or drafting-heavy (you create text that others edit). Then sort them into three groups: automate (a tool can do this completely), AI assists (AI drafts, I decide), and keep human (needs judgment or relationships). Keep it under 200 words and use simple language.
// tip Check the output for accuracy. Ask: would a tool reliably do this the same way every time? Does it need my judgment? Do not paste customer or financial data. Use your own descriptions and test this with your team.
07 / ai_puzzle
Unscramble four words every business owner will hear this year. One of them is next month's big topic.
No prizes, just bragging rights. Reply to this email with your answers if you want to show off.
Every news item, statistic and claim in this issue was checked against these sources.
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