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#13 - The Automation Advantage: Reclaiming Time and Redefining Work with Brad Woollett

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Ever wondered how artificial intelligence can transform your workplace and give you back precious time? Join us as we chat with Brad Woollett, CEO of Definiti, on Newcastle’s sunny Honeysuckle foreshore.

Brad reveals how Definiti is revolutionising work with automation, introducing digital co-workers like Vinnie—AI-powered helpers designed to boost business efficiency, especially during crunch times. Amid the hum of lawnmowers, blowers, whipper-snippers and the warmth of coastal breezes, we delve into AI’s incredible potential, from simplifying everyday tasks to driving groundbreaking innovations.

Brad’s passion for delivering value shines through, particularly in partnerships with large enterprises. He envisions a future where data becomes a powerful asset, and predictive maintenance is within reach for small businesses. His vision? A world where technology doesn’t replace us—it empowers us.

Stay curious and inspired as we explore how awareness and technology can transform challenges into opportunities and redefine how we work and live.

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Leon Goltsman:

Hello global listeners, whether you're starting your day, winding down or somewhere in between, welcome to another episode of Engaging Conversations. This is the podcast where we embrace the unexpected and turn it into everything extraordinary. I'm your host, Leon Goltsman, and, as always, this show is proudly brought to you by Lake Mac Business Focus, celebrating the innovators, creators and change makers who are shaping a brighter future for all of us. Now picture this it's a stunning day on the foreshore of Honeysuckle in Newcastle, a city that is rapidly transforming into one of Australia's most recognised innovation hubs. The sun is shining, the breeze is gentle and it's the perfect day to take our conversation outdoors. But, as life would have it, unpredictability decided to join us in the form of two right-on lawnmowers, a whippersnapper and a blower, all orchestrating their own symphony around us. I missed the symphony of unexpected interruptions.

Leon Goltsman:

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brad Woollett, the Chief Executive Officer of Definiti, a company dedicated to revolutionising the way we work by automating mundane tasks, allowing people to focus on what truly matters. Brad lives and works by the Covey and Carnegie principles, striving for win-win outcomes in all engagements. His extensive management experience spans industries such as mining, manufacturing, broadcasting and communications, both in Australia and overseas. Initially, we considered postponing the interview, but then we thought why not embrace the chaos? After all, isn't that what innovation is all about Navigating the unexpected and turning challenges into opportunities. So we pressed on testing the limits of our state-of-the-art recording equipment and our ability to stay focused amidst the commotion.

Leon Goltsman:

It turned out to be an incredibly enriching conversation. Brad shared insights into how Definiti is leveraging artificial intelligence and the process of automation to help businesses reclaim their most prestigious commodity time. We also discussed Vinny, one of their digital co-workers, who never gets distracted and consistently delivers high quality work work Beyond his professional expertise, brad is a connector and community builder, deeply committed to enhancing productivity and overall collaboration. So get ready to laugh, learn and perhaps find a bit of inspiration in embracing life's unpredictability. Without further ado, let's dive into this lively and spontaneous conversation with Brad Woollett of Definiti.

Brad Woollett:

So my name is Brad Woollett, I'm the CEO of Definiti, and Definiti is a software engineering company that focuses on creating time for our clients through artificial intelligence and intelligent automation.

Leon Goltsman:

Tell me a little bit about artificial intelligence. What exactly is it Tell?

Brad Woollett:

me a little bit about artificial intelligence. What exactly is it? Artificial intelligence ranges from what we call everyday AI all the way through to game-changing AI. So it can be a little bit confusing to clients when they first hear about AI and all the hype that's out there. But AI is anything where there is a computer that actually assists a human in doing something. So AI was a term first coined back in the 1950s when they first created a computer model.

Leon Goltsman:

And Brad, you often say that at Definiti you create time for clients through AI and intelligent automation. Can you share a recent example where you saw this approach transform a business or help it achieve exponential growth?

Brad Woollett:

Yeah, look, one of the most recent clients that we've got is based right here in the Hunter, not too far away from where we're sitting, and they're a residential building restoration company. So what happens? They get a lot of work that comes through insurance companies when there are weather events. So this organisation does work up and down the eastern coast of Australia.

Brad Woollett:

So you can imagine right now, with all the storms that we've been experiencing, they are absolutely flat out dealing with hailstones the size of tennis balls, creating all sorts of chaos for homeowners. So when they have these weather events, they get a surge in their business and this is a bubble that moves through their business that can increase the activity by 20 times. So when this happens, they normally they're in fur and feathers and they've got to hire temps to deal with the added work, with the added work. So we've actually implemented a digital co-worker, who they've affectionately called Vinnie, that can fire up when they have these weather events to handle all these activities, all this increase in activity that's going on. So Vinnie is probably one of their most valuable employees that they've got on the books.

Leon Goltsman:

So can I ask you, Brad, with all the noises going on behind us, I know some people might get distracted how might Vinnie handle something like that?

Brad Woollett:

Oh, Vinnie doesn't get distracted. Yeah, Vinnie knows his job, executes on his job and eliminates human error. So, just by virtue of Vinny being a digital co-worker, there is no human error or human distraction involved with what Vinny does.

Leon Goltsman:

Well, I've got to say I'm actually watching one of the guys mowing the lawn here in Newcastle and the funny thing is I'm trying not to laugh, but we are having a conversation. He's already mowed the lawn three times and he's just going around in circles the same spot.

Brad Woollett:

Oh, definitely, look, we probably built a robot for that, but what a fantastic job to be out here in the sunshine mowing the lawns along the waterfront Awesome job.

Leon Goltsman:

Well, I know and that's the perks of what we do we get a chance to do this also. Brad, you mentioned your core values at definity include bringing value and obsess for success. How do these values influence the way you approach client relationships, especially with larger enterprises?

Brad Woollett:

well, bringing uh, bringing value and obsessing for success is not just about responding to a request or a challenge that a client brings to us, but it's. It's looking further afield, it's putting yourself in their shoes, looking out through their lens and seeing what other value we can create for them. Yeah, it's not a response. It's a lot more than that.

Leon Goltsman:

But one of the things that we've had some great conversations about mixing time and not squandering a moment. I mean we always try and make the most of every opportunity that we have. How has this mindset influenced your leadership style and your work with Definiti?

Brad Woollett:

Yeah, very good question, Leon. So our leadership style is that there's four of us in the leadership team and we all drink our own champagne. So that's a very French way of saying we eat our own dog food. But we do have a Frenchman on our SLT and he loves saying that we drink our own champagne. So whatever we do in the business, it's looking at how we can streamline our operations and automate our processes so we can be the most efficient that we can be. We also know that time is our most precious resource. We also know that time is our most precious resource. So we communicate often, we communicate with purpose and we communicate efficiently. It's all about articulating the aim or the outcome first that you'd like to achieve when you're having those conversations, and we work on the principle of there being no surprises and playing the ball and not the player.

Leon Goltsman:

Thank you, brad, and intelligent automation is a hot topic. For those who might be unfamiliar, what do you see as the top benefits of AI and intelligent automation for companies today?

Brad Woollett:

Well, Leon, as you've said, AI has definitely captured the hearts and minds of the business community out there. There's a lot of interest in the market, but there's also a lot of confusion. So to help navigate that confusion, we use Gartner's approach, where we break AI down into areas, two areas such as everyday AI and game-changing AI. Now, everyday AI has been around for many years. It is proven, it is low risk and it comes with good returns. An example of everyday AI is intelligent automation using tools like robotic process automation. Game-changing AI is new. It's high cost, it's high risk, but there's also the potential for significant returns. An example of game-changing AI would be the large language models that big enterprises are building. They're investing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars into these large language models.

Leon Goltsman:

And I also know a lot of people are investing hundreds and thousands of millions of dollars not personally, their companies and yet sometimes the return on investment isn't there. Is there a way of measuring good return on their investment with AI?

Brad Woollett:

Yeah. So what we've seen works with our clients and we've been playing in this field for well over 30 years, delivering solutions in information systems with our customers and the biggest challenge is the resistance to change. So change management plays a massive role in delivering a successful solution. So you need to follow the principles of the methodologies that are out there for change management, such as Cotter's Eight Steps for Change eight steps for change and that's where you create a sense of urgency, you establish a guiding coalition, you get a quick win on the board very quickly and then you continue to measure value. So measure the cost of a process as it is and measure the cost of a process once it's been transformed, and these figures will promote ongoing change in the business.

Leon Goltsman:

So Brad Definiti tagline emphasises becoming the solution. How does your team tackle complex problems, and is there a particular project where this value is shown through?

Brad Woollett:

Yes, being the solution. That is one of our core competencies and that actually came from a manager of mine 30 years ago. He would always say to us he would say there are two sides to an equation there's the side of the problem and there's the side of the solution. So if you're not part of the solution, then you're a part of the problem. And that stuck, that stuck with me. So, um, now an example of uh, of how we become the solution by putting silencers on brush cutters, which might solve our problem here.

Brad Woollett:

Leon, we had a not-for-profit organisation large national not-for-profit organisation, funded largely by donations and they had over 300,000 PDF documents that may or may not have contained credit card information from people making donations.

Brad Woollett:

So they came to us and said look, the Privacy Act means that we need to make sure that that information doesn't get out. We need all that information redacted and we've priced that up where it might be. It'll cost. If we were to put people on this. It's going to take a team almost 12 months and it'll cost close to a million bucks for them to do this Find the credit card information and redact it out of these 300,000 documents, thousand documents. So we threw the challenge at our team and very quickly they were able to prove that we could identify or build a software robot that could identify credit card information not only in the text of the PDF, but if it was a credit card image embedded in the document, it would identify that and it would redact it. So we turned a million dollar project into one that took three or four weeks once we built the software robot and cost them tens of thousands of dollars as opposed to that million dollar price tag.

Leon Goltsman:

It's fair to say that's like having a license to print money.

Brad Woollett:

Oh, absolutely it is. It is. Yeah, it's very exciting what the value that this technology can bring to organizations.

Leon Goltsman:

Well, I can see why so many people are coming your way. Yeah, we've been very busy, very busy Since we met. We've expanded our network across cities and connected with so many incredible people. What role do you think networking and face-to-face interactions play in today's digital world?

Brad Woollett:

Leon, the face-to-face interaction is more important than ever. So I'm a big fan of Stephen Covey. He wrote many business and management books, including ones like the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First. His son, stephen Covey Jr, actually wrote a bestselling book called the Speed of Trust, and the whole principle of that is that when trust goes up, speed goes up and costs come down. Hence trust has a bottom line impact on results.

Brad Woollett:

Stephen Covey Jr talks to an example that he uses where Warren Buffett. He's in the Guinness Book of Records, I believe, for the fastest billion dollar deal in the history, and it took him four weeks to get this billion-dollar deal signed off. And the way that he did it is that when he met his opponent in this deal, he grabbed him by the hand, he looked him in the eye and he said can I trust you? And that just set the tone for the deal. It got them sitting over the same side of the desk, allowed them to move forward and they weren't fighting over small terms and conditions in the contract. So you can't grab someone's hand and look them in the eye over a video conference. So trust is what we need more than ever these days.

Leon Goltsman:

So Brad, for large corporates looking to stay ahead of the curve, what would you say are the top factors they should consider when implementing AI and intelligent automation?

Brad Woollett:

factors they should consider when implementing AI and intelligent automation. Yeah, large corporations, Leon. This advice applies to all organisations that are looking to implement AI, and it is about measuring. You've got to educate and measure. So to educate and measure.

Brad Woollett:

So, first of all, educate all your team about what AI can do for the business. And, just like that organisation that is the restoration company, they've called their digital co-worker Vinnie. They've now got guys out in the field thinking about what else they can give to Vinnie. So the innovation is just coming back in droves, a lot more than what the managers or the leaders of the organisation could have worked out. They've got people at the coalface that is bringing innovative ideas back into their organisation, and that's happening because they humanised Vinnie.

Brad Woollett:

Vinnie's treated like an apprentice and they're thinking what other really terrible jobs that I don't like doing can I give to Vinnie, so that's provided them with a pipeline of efficiency gains for their business. The other important thing is measuring Vinny's performance. So Vinny's just like an employee he needs to be onboarded, he needs to be trained and he needs to be performance managed. So, having dashboards around Vinny's performance, you can see real time how much money Vinnie is saving the organisation, and that's a key measure and a key metric for business owners to see so that they fund the ongoing program of works.

Leon Goltsman:

And I take it, vinnie doesn't sleep, at least not on the job.

Brad Woollett:

Oh no, vinnie is, uh, he is a freak. So, um, you know, vinnie can handle. You know, we reckon Vinnie can handle around 60 percent of the administrative tasks that, uh, the people are doing. And this, this frees employees up to focus on higher value, more stimulating work. Vinny, he operates 24-7, so he's like a 7-Eleven. He's every day of the year. He completes tasks 10 times faster. He eliminates human error, which is a factor responsible for up to 95% of the cybersecurity breaches. So Vinnie will win the highest valuable employee several months in a row. So, yeah, vinnie's pretty good. And there's your competitive edge, exactly right.

Leon Goltsman:

What's one piece of advice you would give to business owners looking to adopt intelligent automation but are just unsure where to start?

Brad Woollett:

It's all about educating yourself. So make sure you are aware of what AI is all about and intelligent automation and what intelligent automation can do for your business. So educate yourself, educate your leaders. And then the second piece of advice is measure. Look, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it, and you've got to apply those principles to your digital co-workers.

Leon Goltsman:

And Brad, if people wanted to get in touch with you or get more information. What's the best way for people to reach you?

Brad Woollett:

Very simple. Jump onto our website definitiau D-E-F-I-N-I-T-I dot A-U. There's a form on there, a contact us form that you can fill out, or you can drop me a line or give me a phone call, brad Woollett at definiticomau mobile number 0408 687 662.

Leon Goltsman:

So, brad, looking ahead, what are some trends in AI and intelligent automation that excite you most, and how do you see Definiti playing a role in these advancements?

Brad Woollett:

Well, we have lots of fun at Definiti, so we're playing on the leading edge, not so much on the bleeding edge, of technology. So at heart, we are a bunch of technologists that just love this stuff. We eat and breathe it. What we're seeing and the innovation is coming from our clients and coming from our clients' challenges. So a more recent one is a manufacturing company that has a lab in their organisation and these chemists that are working in the lab have got handwritten lab notes and this is data.

Brad Woollett:

It's unstructured data that can't be used by anyone. So we're looking to turn that unstructured data into a reusable asset for that organisation. So we're going to ingest these handwritten notes books and change it into structured data that can be interrogated, change it into structured data that can be interrogated, used and reported on. So that's one area knowledge management. It's going to be massive. The other piece, or the other side that we're seeing, is predictive and preventative maintenance for the masses. Currently, the large data lakes are the realm of very large enterprises with very deep pockets. Where we're seeing technology and AI going is that it will allow those savings and that insight and that predictability which leads on to preventative areas. It'll be enabled for the masses, so that's a very exciting area that we're stepping into.

Leon Goltsman:

And Brad, just in a couple of years that I've met you, you and your organisation have come a long way, and every time I sit down with you, whether it's in a university, at a breakfast meeting or conducting a conversation, with lots of people cycling past, which is a great thing, and I suppose the fact that grass is growing and it's being mowed I bet you it's going to stop as soon as we finish. That's probably a good thing as well. Thank you very much, brad, for all your help, all your support, and for meeting with me today and having a chat.

Brad Woollett:

Mate, it's been a pleasure. Thanks, Leon.

Leon Goltsman:

Well, that's a wrap on today's conversation with Brad Woollett from Definiti. What an absolute pleasure it was to sit down with someone so authentic, knowledgeable and genuinely passionate about using AI to create meaningful change in people's lives. Brad isn't just about driving innovation. He's about ensuring that technology serves humanity, helping people reclaim their time and focus on what truly matters. In an industry often viewed as technical and impersonal, brad brings heart and humanity to the forefront. From streamlining operations and cutting costs for businesses to empowering employees to engage in more fulfilling work, Definiti proves that innovation and compassion can indeed go hand in hand. Now here's the funny twist to leave you with Right after we wrapped up the recording. Twist to leave you with Right after we wrapped up the recording. Wouldn't you know it? The mowers, the blowers and all the noise finally stopped. Brad and I couldn't help but laugh at the timing. We decided to embrace the moment, walked over to the workers, shared a laugh and even snapped up a photo with the guy responsible for the blower's guest appearance. I'll include those images in the show notes. They're a fun reminder that life doesn't always go to plan, but a flexible mindset can indeed turn disruptions into moments of connection and joy.

Leon Goltsman:

Now shifting gears. Next week's episode takes on a more serious note. I'll be speaking with Claudia Tolhurst, executive Officer at the Hunter Melanoma Foundation. Claudia and her team are on a mission to raise awareness about melanoma, a silent threat that doesn't always get the attention it deserves until it's too late. We'll explore the incredible work her organisation is doing to educate, prevent and support those affected by the disease. This episode isn't just about health. It's about empowering people with the knowledge and resources to take action and potentially save lives. It's an episode you won't want to miss and, as always, if you have any questions for Brad or want to learn more about Definiti, check out the show notes for ways to connect. I'm Leon Goltsman and I look forward to having you join me again next week. Until then, stay curious, embrace the unexpected and let's keep making a difference together.

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Leon Goltsman

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Brad Woollett

Guest