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Aware Super CEO Deanne Stewart: Investment opportunities in digitisation

Deanne Stewart sees a strong pipeline of investment opportunities is digitisation and the digital economy.

Aware Super CEO Deanne Stewart
Aware Super CEO Deanne Stewart

Economy

How would you rate the momentum of the Australian economy as we head into 2025? Official forecasts have Australia trimming interest rates from the first half of calendar 2025, is that consistent with your view? What are you seeing around inflation in your own business?

The Australian economy has been in a period of rebalancing. Growth has been weak, while the labour market has remained strong throughout 2024. Inflation has come down significantly from its peak, but progress toward the RBA’s target has been bumpy and the final leg should not be taken for granted. As a result, Governor Bullock continues to keep all options open for the RBA’s next move and is committed to looking through temporary factors such as electricity rebates. 

Looking ahead, we do expect growth to pick up on the back of increasing real incomes, which should boost household consumption. The public sector will continue to provide significant support to aggregate demand and there is a large pipeline of infrastructure and non-residential building work yet to be done. 

Our view on interest rates is broadly in line with financial market pricing, with first cuts expected around mid-2025. Key risks to our outlook include President-elect Trump’s policy agenda, domestic fiscal policy

in the shadow of an upcoming federal election, and whether productivity growth improves.

Outlook

What excites you heading into 2025? Are you likely to increase, hold steady, or trim your

investment spend?

We’re continuing to see strong growth in our funds under management, and this means we’ll have the opportunity to continue to invest to deliver the long-term returns that our members need to achieve their retirement goals. With additional capital to deploy across all asset classes, the Fund will be in a strong position to support the growth platforms we’ve developed and invest in new and emerging opportunities around the world.

I’m particularly excited about the opportunities we’re seeing in the energy transition. This will likely be the single largest investment opportunity we see in our lifetime, as the global economy is reshaped for a low carbon future. It’s also an opportunity that spans our entire portfolio. We see direct investment opportunities in the infrastructure space, as well as other parts of our portfolio-like property, which will ensure the fund is more resilient, more efficient and better positioned to deliver strong returns. One recent example is our investment in Octopus Energy in the UK.

Another investment theme where we see a strong pipeline of opportunities is digitisation and the digital economy. We’ve seen enormous changes in the use of data in our daily lives and this has driven increasing demand for the infrastructure and technology to support this. We can see access points across the asset class spectrum and we’re excited about the returns these can bring to the overall portfolio.

These are just two of the big themes we see in markets. We have a team of 150 investment professionals scouring the globe for the best investment ideas. As a long-term investor we’re able to look through the cycle to provide capital to sectors temporarily out of favour and support good businesses as a reliable lender and engaged shareholder.     

Reform

As we move into an election year, in your mind, what’s the single biggest lever that can/should be used to lift Australia’s competitiveness or productivity? This could be across any area from labour market, tax reform, training or other areas to encourage investment.

In 2023 the Productivity Commission released a report with detailed recommendations, following its five- year productivity inquiry. Taking meaningful action on any of these reforms would be a great place to start. While not necessarily the most important lever, one of those identified in the report was the need to build an adaptable workforce. It’s much more common now for people to change jobs and new industries and technologies like AI are creating demand for new and different skills. Ensuring we can meet these challenges will require targeted investment in education and training, as well as promoting continuous

professional development and lifelong learning. 

Geopolitics

Will a Donald Trump presidency have a potential impact on your business or sector

(tariffs or streamlined regulation)? Does geopolitics drive a bigger part of your decision-making?

Our investment strategy aims to deliver long term risk-adjusted returns for our members. While we keep a close eye on geopolitical events and trends, like the US election and the potential implications from the incoming administration’s policy agenda which could have a short-term impact on markets, we don’t alter the portfolio on the basis of short-term events and news.

People

Has your organisation’s approach to flexible working – including working from home – evolved during the year. Is this likely to change further into 2025?

We continue to strive to strike the right balance between providing flexibility for our people to work from home and providing a physical workplace that encourages in-person connection, creativity and links to our core purpose.

I would say that 2024 has shown that we’re still on that journey. The year has provided us with greater insights around how we can use the workplace to facilitate better conversations and collaboration, especially on tricky problems, and how we need to be clear on how the workplace should best be used. If we come to the office and simply end up in meetings that we could otherwise be doing virtually, then no- one experiences the benefits of being together. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, as we have many teams who work in the office for the majority of the time.

In 2025 I would like to see more people come together in-person – while still providing them with great flexibility – and we will evolve our approach to demonstrate the value of this. This could include joining up teams which don’t normally work together, creating moments in the workplace that remind our people of our core purpose or creating space in people’s calendars so they can create meaningful connections with

each other, including at a whole-of-organisation level.

Technology

Where is your organisation along the AI journey – is it in the developmental stage, or are you now using the technology at scale across your business? If so, are benefits matching the promise?

In 2023, we undertook one of the most ambitious digital transformations in the Australian

superannuation industry, establishing ourselves as a ‘digital first’ superannuation fund of significant scale.

This transformation benefited our over 1.1 million members through the introduction of automated, paperless, end-to-end straight-through processing solutions, alongside modern digital tools and services.

By putting the fund’s administration on such a technologically advanced platform we’ve been able to harness advanced data analytics and intelligence to simplify the complexities of superannuation, making it more accessible and intuitive for our members.

With this foundation in place, we have begun to explore how we can leverage the capabilities of AI to enhance member experiences, drive operational efficiency and deliver innovative solutions tailored to the evolving needs of our members.

We began by embedding a responsible AI risk framework to ensure we were using this new technology ethically and safely. We then assessed the feasibility of deriving value from AI across a diverse range of use cases and have trialled several proof-of-concept initiatives. This upfront investment enabled us to build confidence and establish robust guardrails for using this emerging technology responsibly.

The initiatives have included providing secure access to generative AI tools for all staff and deploying tailored solutions for our Investments, Service Centre, and Advice business teams.

The evidence so far shows these innovations have delivered substantial efficiency gains, creating meaningful capacity uplifts for our staff. For example, within our Advice business the use of AI to assist in creating file notes of conversations has given financial planners more time to focus on engaging with members, improving the quality and value of the advice experience.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/aware-super-ceo-deanne-stewart-investment-opportunities-in-digitisation/news-story/6a510d4a2dd570c93a6457e8fcc9fd69