David Smulders GAICD – CEO & Managing Partner

Townsville is flooding ….

Tasmania is burning ….

Brazilian cyclone causing mass destruction ….

American heatwave dubbed “Hottest Summer Ever” …

And the list goes on and on!

With the abilities we have today, are we harnessing the power of AI to tackle natural disasters?

In a world where natural disasters are becoming more frequent and severe, it’s time for innovation to lead the way in disaster preparedness and response.

With AI and real-time data, we now have the tools to predict and mitigate the impact of floods, fires, and other mass disasters. From satellite imagery to advanced weather modelling, the potential to save lives and reduce damage has to be within our reach.

I am not talking about asking AI to perfectly predict storms. No! It’s about making sure that we are prepared enough to be able to respond faster and smarter. I am imagining a world where local authorities receive real-time flood predictions, fire patterns, earth tremors and so on, enabling them to allocate resources more effectively and guide evacuations with pinpoint precision.

Surely this isn’t a distant dream. I know it is already happening. But there has to be so much more we can do, from creating faster alert systems to integrating crowd-sourced data that gives us ground-level insights.

We have the technology. We have the data. Now is the perfect time to leverage it for the greater good.

Let’s build a safer, smarter future together.