How AI is rewiring the speed of work

Helen Lau says one of the most exciting things about AI is not only what it can do, but how it changes the speed of work, dramatically cutting the time it takes to take something from idea to functioning reality.

CommBank’s recently announced CommBank Companion, a new AI-powered experience in the CommBank app for retail and business customers that’s currently in testing, is a powerful example of how fast new ideas can be turned into prototypes, she says.

“They did a prototype from an idea to a working mock-up that could be tested, refined and assessed by the business,” Lau says, describing how quickly that initial prototype allowed the business idea that’s become CommBank Companion to be assessed.

“We’re talking about hours now. In some cases, it used to be months.”
- Helen Lau, Technology Lead for Engineering Platforms

Rewiring the rhythms

AI is rewiring the rhythms and cycles of work, Lau says. “We’re talking about hours now,” she says. “In some cases, it used to be months.”

A Technology Lead for Engineering Platforms, Lau says that kind of enterprise speed comes from a culture that encourages hands-on experimentation with AI.

She says that at a personal level, it helps her do her own work faster and more effectively. But she is also excited about what that looks like at scale, when thousands of engineers have the tools and support to start working in the same way, experimenting, learning and getting more productive all at the same time.

Using AI in her own work, Lau says she wrote a multi-agent software tool to look at how top-performing engineers are using different tools. Done manually, she says, that would have taken “probably six to nine months”.

Instead, after spending a weekend learning how to use a new AI model as part of the coding experience, she had a minimum viable product (MVP) up and running by the Monday. “I vibe coded this on the weekend,” she told her team. “What do you think?”

Learning at speed

A former employee at Microsoft, Lau says CommBank’s learning culture around AI has made a real difference, giving engineers the chance to build new skills and then use them quickly in their day-to-day work.

She talks about learning by using, tapping AI agents to do anything from planning a holiday through to thinking about how to optimise tasks at work.

She is also very aware that access to the tools matters. “I keep telling CBA engineers, you don’t know how lucky you are,” she says, pointing to the breadth of tools the bank’s engineers have at their disposal. That access is helping people move faster, be more productive and work more efficiently, she says.

Never stop learning

Lau says there are around 10,000 engineers with experience ranging from graduates to highly advanced specialists at CommBank. She sees this as a strength, creating ongoing opportunities to learn, grow and share knowledge.

And with AI accelerating change, she says the organisation is well placed to build new capabilities, adapt and deliver more innovation for customers.

Continuous learning initiatives like the $90 million Grow Your Career program announced in February also give everyone working at the bank the chance to embrace AI’s opportunities, she says. “We need to learn. We need to adapt,” she says.

“My advice is to be constantly learning, constantly adapting, and practice, practice, practice and practice. Practice what you learn in your day-to-day job. See how you can tweak and improve.

“Before you know it, if you practice some new skills or new capability every day, by the end of the month, you’ll have probably achieved something amazing already,” she says.