The Future of P&C in Australia: Scaling, Performance & AI Uncovered

We brought together People & HR leaders from some of Australia’s most innovative tech companies for a panel that was more of a candid fireside chat. Think open, unfiltered, and full of the kind of insights you don’t usually get unless you’re behind closed doors.

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On stage: Ellie Miller, CPO at Leonardo AI, and Nicole Reid, recent ex-CPO at Xero. Between them, they’ve scaled scrappy startups, navigated ASX-listed complexity, and now, they’re shaping how People and AI collide in the future of work.

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The conversation spanned it all; from finding (and keeping) world-class tech and AI talent in Australia, to what really changes after an acquisition, to the underrated People metrics every leader should be paying attention to right now. Oh, and of course, the never-ending debate about productivity, and remote work. 

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If you couldn’t join us, don’t worry. We’ve recapped the conversation for you! Here’s what you missed 👇

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Q: What’s been different about building a native AI business in Australia from the ground up, compared to Depop, the marketplace business you’ve built before?

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Ellie: “It’s been fascinating because when I joined two years ago, the company wasn’t even a year old, and we were already building an AI product at a time where nobody knew much about it at all. Some of the early days magic was the founders themselves, they were talent magnets who could find people who were genuinely curious and brilliant.”

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“Coming from HR at Depop, I had to pivot from focusing on what I’d done before and adapt. There was no playbook for building a native AI platform. So it’s been about being genuinely open to experimentation, and that mindset was set by the founders from day one.”

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Q: Nicole, you were CPO at Xero during a huge period of growth. What was that like?

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Nicole: “Intense and fast. I joined in 2019, and helped take Xero from 2,000 people to over 5,000. I walked in thinking Xero had everything in place. I quickly learned it had a lot but more was needed as we were hiring and on-boarding employees globally so fast, but it worked and was hugely successful.”

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“As we matured, we saw the opportunity to get globally aligned as there were some inconsistencies in the way we operated and the experiences of our people across the globe simply due to how rapidly we’d scaled. 

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Being ASX listed added a new dimension. My role was threefold: partnering with the CEO and exec team, running a global people function, and managing the board component. That last one was the steepest learning curve for me, but such an incredible one.”

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“The issues in a bigger tech company like Xero are the same as in smaller companies; attracting and retaining talent, management/leadership capability, employee  engagement etc.  As a bigger company you need to focus even more on cutting through any complexity and solving problems quickly”.  

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Q: In today’s environment, does scale slow you down when it comes to disruptive forces like AI?

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Nicole: “In a tech company, maybe not. At Xero, the appetite for experimentation was strong. Our CEO was advocating and pushing AI adoption directly which was great, she even created internal competitions around AI tools and adoption. It demonstrated the tone from the top: we’re going to embrace and test and learn together .”

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“The challenge isn’t speed, it’s connecting the different AI experimentation that’s happening. AI might be trialled in marketing, revenue, and product but unless you connect the dots, you risk silos. The key is embedding it across the organisation without slowing it down.”

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‍Q: Ellie, speed seems critical in your world. How do you balance it?

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Ellie: “One of our values is ‘go fast’ because speed is everything in AI. But speed should never come at the cost of wellbeing so ‘be a good human’ is also a value for us.”

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“In practice, it means shipping quickly, empowering people to make decisions, and taking big bets where being first really matters. The trade-off is tech debt, which someone eventually has to resolve. As we’ve grown, we’ve become more thoughtful: what are the bets worth the trade-offs?”

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“We also added another value: maximize impact. Because in AI, you’ll never have perfect information. You have to move, decide, and later measure whether the trade-offs were right. Sometimes we’ll get it wrong, but we’ll always reflect.”

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“Consumers are also more sophisticated now. Two years ago, people came to AI tools for the novelty. Now they expect useful, reliable functionality. So speed for us isn’t just about shipping fast, it’s about making sure what we ship solves real problems.”

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Q: From a people point of view, what changes after an acquisition?

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Ellie: “Pretty much everything. I’ve been acquired three times so I joke that I’m an acquisition magnet. But I’ve been lucky: in my experience, promises to keep companies separate have held true.”

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“With Leonardo and Canva, we’re running as an individual business, but we have access to Canva’s expertise. For example, our two-person people team can now tap into Canva’s specialists when needed so we can move faster on complex decisions.”

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Q: Nicole, what about acquisitions from Xero’s side–buying and integrating companies?

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Nicole: “During my time at Xero, we acquired everything from 10-person companies through to a 400+ person company. Each decision anchored to our strategy and if we could build it ourselves or buy it.”

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“The level of integration depended on the company acquired. Sometimes we kept them separate, sometimes we integrated quickly. The decision was always about balance and what was right for our strategy and culture.”

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Q: What are the underrated people metrics that companies should be using right now?

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Nicole: As people experience practitioners truly partnering, that is, anticipating opportunities for business leaders before they come to you, providing that proactive lens and being able to say, “Here’s what’s happening elsewhere, have you thought about this?” It isn’t easily tracked with a metric, but is hugely valuable. AI is helping free up time from the operations so we can lift our heads up and out to focus and deliver in this space.”

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Q: Ellie, while your company is focused a lot on building for the future, how do you ensure you get results in the here and now?

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Ellie: “We’ve never had a year-long roadmap. We dream a year ahead, but the AI market changes so fast that anything beyond 3–6 months is usually obsolete. We focus on North Stars and big bets, but we’re explicit that the route will change. That honesty helps us be both proactive and adaptable without over-promising, more disciplined on headcount and budgets to stay sustainable, but the day-to-day roadmap? Ask me in three months, it’ll be different.

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Q: You’re building a model that is competing with other companies around the world. Is the talent here good enough? 

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Ellie: “We launched a foundational model with fewer than 150 people. There’s emerging AI talent in Australia, but honestly, we hire globally because the best people in this space are everywhere. We can’t match global corporates on comp. Our story is about impact, equity, and working on something game-changing at scale. The people we want care about that more than just the biggest paycheque.”

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Q: There's a discussion in market around productivity and work from home. How have you thought about this over the past couple of years?

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Nicole: “COVID was a game changer, good and bad, and we’re still working through it. What’s concerning to me are government mandates re: working-from-home. Context is everything... Not everyone can work remotely ie: many front line workers (eg: nurses) means this needs to be discussed within organisations as to what works for each business. At Xero, we had requests to do a four-day work week, but as a global growth business with limited timezone crossover, it just didn’t work. Sometimes these decisions are unpopular with employees. Productivity is a good national conversation to be having, but it has to be balanced with wellbeing - mental health, broader social issues such as financial stress and inclusion and belonging in the workplace. 

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A lot of business leaders ask for performance and right now, there's revenue pressure and the rule of 40. What advice would you give for the people leaders to deal with all these different pressures? 

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Nicole: For all leaders “Keep it simple. Cut through the noise and focus on what’s truly important for your team. Leaders being visible, transparent, and vulnerable when things need to change makes a huge difference. At Xero we had yearly plans, but they were reviewed quarterly and that rhythm helps balance performance with flexibility with consistency.”

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Ellie: “My advice is to get really close to your business. You’re the one hearing from every level of the organisation and that’s your superpower. Use it to connect dots others can’t see, and to tell stories that align teams. At Leo, part of my role is building internal narratives and giving other leaders platforms to lean into. Externally, everyone knows the news and LinkedIn chatter; what you uniquely bring is stitching it together with what’s happening inside your company. That’s when People goes beyond the basics and really makes an impact.

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Q: How did you strike the balance between coming in with confidence and knowledge that your experience gave you whilst also having that ‘learn from everybody’ energy? 

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Ellie: “From the start, our founders admitted they didn’t know how to do HR. That gave me room to learn from them, about AI, while also introducing the People infrastructure they didn’t realise they needed, like a basic HR system. My job was to seed ideas early, show them what’s coming, and bring them on the journey. I had the confidence that I knew the People side, but I communicated in a way that made them feel safe and part of the solution. Often it was my idea, but by the time it landed, they felt it was theirs too and that was good enough.”

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For the latest salary data in Australian tech companies, you can download the 25/26 Australian Tech Salary Guide for free here.

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