Cremorne Connect is our monthly event where we bring the ecosystem together for conversations on what's current the world of tech and startups. It's a chance for founders, investors and operators to hear directly from people building and shaping what's next, and to ask them the hard questions in person.
Last week's session was a slightly different AI conversation, run in partnership with La Trobe University's AI Institute.
Leading the conversation was Dr. Jonathan Reichental, Silicon Valley CIO, Forbes contributor, and bestselling author who's spent decades tracking how technology reshapes the way we work and live.
The Cognitive Industrial Revolution
Jonathan opened with a story about his washing machine texting him to switch the load over, a light way into a bigger point: we're at the start of a new industrial revolution, and unlike the previous three, this one won't take fifty to a hundred years to play out. It'll happen fast.
Where the first three revolutions mechanised the physical world, this one is different. It's the automation of the mind. And the part Jonathan is most focused on is physical AI: the point where AI, robotics and sensors meet. Software has had its moment, but combining it with hardware is where the next wave of economic opportunity sits, from robots doing dangerous industrial work at scale, to drone delivery quietly rolling out city by city.
Work, industries and what's changing
A few threads stood out:
- Leadership is changing. Managing teams of humans and robots, deciding where human judgement still belongs, and being honest with people about the scale of change ahead are now core leadership tasks, not side issues.
- No industry is untouched. Unlike past technology shifts that hit specific sectors, this one touches every job and every industry at once.
- Healthcare and education are ripe for reinvention. Jonathan pointed to healthcare as entering a golden age of innovation, and flagged education (rightly, given the room) as still catching up to how people actually want and need to learn today.
- Four questions worth asking, if you're building something in this space: What could you make dramatically cheaper? What pain could you remove entirely? What would you build from scratch if you started today with no legacy constraints? And are you going to watch this happen, or build it?
He also returned to a simple three-part formula for startup success: a good idea, a great team, and a bit of luck, and the reminder that you can't control luck, but you can improve your odds of it by getting out and talking to people.
Thanks for coming along!
A big thanks to everyone who joined us on an evening, to Chatham, Scott, and of course, Dr. Jonathan Reichental from La Trobe's AI Institute for an amazing collaboration.
