NAB CEO Andrew Irvine has shared his reflections on the opportunities in AI, housing and increasing productivity for the year ahead to help Australia retain its lucky country status.

“Despite headwinds, the economy is in reasonable shape with the labour market showing resilience, inflation pressure continuing to gradually ease and growth expected to pick-up in 2025,” Mr Irvine said.

“There is much needed light at the end of the tunnel, and beyond that I remain optimistic for the long-term” he said.

“It’s called the lucky country for a reason. We have incredible natural beauty, and we have proximity to some of the fastest growing markets in the world.”

In the below, Mr Irvine shares his reflections on a range of topics, including the productivity challenge, housing crisis, and the future of work.

Productivity

“As a nation we’re not thinking enough about how we increase productivity. Getting this right is our greatest opportunity,” Mr Irvine said.

“Australia is indeed the lucky country. We have had unique and extraordinary access to natural resources, but these are not infinite. What replaces Australia’s growth in these areas needs to be carefully considered.”

“Nowhere is weak productivity being felt more than the housing sector. Australia cannot build enough houses, while building companies and property developers tell us they are struggling to make projects financially viable.”

“There’s no easy fix to this national crisis.  We need more skilled migrants and to be more innovative in the types of housing and methods of construction. An enhanced focus on skills and training is vital to lifting productivity by ensuring Australia has the skilled workforce needed for the future,” Mr Irvine said.

Housing

“I think planning is challenging. There are some parts of the country where planning is a little bit easier,” Mr Irvine said.

“I would focus on costs of labour, length of time it takes to get building construction done. We can look at methods of construction and more modularity.

“Countries like Canada, North America generally have adopted more modern methods of construction that I think would really be helpful here.”

“We also need to look at the types of homes we’re building. We don’t have enough of what I would call medium density housing stock – low rise apartment buildings, townhouses, there’s still too much building of traditional single family dwellings, which of course people do aspire to. But we need housing stock that allows younger Australians to get on the housing ladder as a way to their end home.”

“Lastly, we need all levels of government, including local councils, to take urgent action, and in some jurisdictions, taxation also needs to be looked at. If we don’t get the settings right now, this issue will continue to have a disproportionate impact on young and vulnerable Australians.”

AI

“Every big innovation or technological leap has created more jobs than it has taken away,” Mr Irvine said.

“Printing presses, steam to electrification to name but a few.  Banks 50-60 years ago had thousands of people on their typist floors. We don’t have typists anymore and yet we employ more people than we did then.”

“The nature of work will change and what’s important is we help the workforce to rescale and move to where the economy is going, versus where it’s been.”

“At NAB, it’s about freeing up our bankers’ time so that they can spend it with customers. We’re already using generative AI for knowledge management for bankers, marketing content creation, co-pilots for summarising reports and drafting notes and accelerating the review of trust deeds.  We have more than 1,000 engineers working with Amazon Q technology to help with coding. It’s about making things easier for our customers and easing the administrative burden.”

NAB performance and the year ahead

“We are the leading business bank in the country, we have a terrific franchise with small and medium sized business and we will work really hard to continue to grow and protect. It’s the flagship of our company and something we’re incredibly proud of,” Mr Irvine said.

“Customers are at the heart of everything we do and key to NAB’s success.”

“We want to be simpler. We want to be faster. We want to be a better bank for our customers today and every day and I’m talking a lot about really being obsessive about outcomes for our customers. And if we do that well, I think we’ll win,” Mr Irvine said.