Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
Australian DTC brand Who Gives A Crap pulled its AI-powered customer email system after it told a subscriber their toilet paper would jump from $1.38 to $2.90 per roll. The error highlights implementation risks as more sales and CX teams deploy automated communication tools without proper guardrails.
Richard White quit as WiseTech Global chair after 18 months, citing media attention as a distraction. Shares rallied 9% on the news despite a 75% decline over 12 months. White stays on as director and CIO. Worth noting: WiseTech runs $1.2B revenue with 97% recurring, employs 200-500 globally.
Jason Lemkin's SaaStr runs real revenue on custom AI agents. They didn't replace Salesforce, they went headless on top of it. That distinction explains why rolling your own CRM works for a three-person team but breaks at 40 reps, and why most sales orgs will keep paying for the platform even as agents handle the workflow layer.
Three years from first dollar to bigger than Salesforce. Anthropic's $47B annualized run rate in May 2026 already exceeds every pure-play software company globally except Microsoft. By year-end, tracking toward $70-90B, larger than the top 10 next-gen software companies combined.
Wagner Sustainable Fuels closed $2m from Qantas and Airbus plus $3.15m in ARENA grants to scale household waste conversion to aviation fuel. The Brisbane venture is targeting 104 million litres of SAF annually from its Toowoomba refinery, part of a $2.5bn infrastructure project with long-term airline offtake deals.
Melbourne unicorn Culture Amp is shedding 70 roles (9% of headcount), targeting middle management. Second cut since November. Revenue growth slowed to 10.8% in FY25, losses hit $91.5m over two years. New CEO Caroline Rawlinson calls it necessary restructuring.
Employment Hero surveyed 2,600 workers and employers: 33% use AI at work without telling their boss, 75% report higher productivity, and 40% feel like they are cheating. Meanwhile, 44% of employers report staff using personal AI accounts with company data. The disconnect: workers are self-training on AI while businesses struggle to set policy.
Total B2B software spend is accelerating to $1.4T, growing 15% year over year, the fastest in a decade. At the same time, public SaaS companies are trading at a discount to the S&P 500 for the first time ever, with Monday, HubSpot, and Atlassian down 60% to 70%. The market has bifurcated: AI-native companies are tapping new budget and re-accelerating, while legacy SaaS runs the old playbook and waits for a recovery that is not coming.
Sarah Kennedy Ellis, Google Cloud's VP of Global Demand & Growth, shared how her team rebuilt their entire marketing workflow around AI agents. The result: 70% faster asset production and higher conversion rates, not lower. The catch: most teams fail because of workflow friction, not agent quality.
Blended churn metrics hide what is actually happening in your customer base. Break it by segment and you will see small customers churn at 3% monthly while enterprise retention hits 120%. Same number, completely different problems to solve.
Monaco, the AI-native revenue platform built by former Brex sales leader Sam Blond, closed a $50M Series B led by Benchmark. The company claims AI-driven outbound will push revenue per rep from 2x to 5x pre-AI levels within two years. Total funding now sits at $85M.
Over half of women leave tech before age 35, retention 45% lower than men. With women at 30% of the workforce versus 44% across professional roles, Australia cannot hit its 2030 target of 1.2 million tech workers without fixing systemic retention issues: pay gaps, harassment, and blocked advancement.