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Broker Daily has unveiled two major keynote speakers for its upcoming Broker Innovation Summit 2026, securing top Australian artifical intelligence (AI) and technology leaders Pete Williams and Seth Watts to headline the highly anticipated event.
Delivered with the support of principal partner NextGen, the summit will hit Sydney on 24 June 2026 at the Telstra Sydney Centre before heading to Melbourne on 3 July 2026 at The Edge, Fed Square.
The multi-city event, emceed by Broker Essentials founder and co-host of Broker Daily’s Business Accelerator podcast, Jason Back, focuses squarely on the tools, strategies, and thinking required for brokers to remain competitive as artificial intelligence, automation, and digital-first lending reshape the industry.
Cutting through the AI hype
Williams, chief edge officer at Deloitte Australia’s Centre for the Edge and founder of Deloitte Digital, will deliver a dynamic, hands-on session titled “From AI curiosity to client wins: Practical AI for modern brokers”.
Williams, who has spent 30 years at the leading edge of Australian digital transformation, aims to meet brokers exactly where they are on the tech adoption curve. Recognising that every major technology shift triggers a pattern of excitement and uncertainty, his session is built to replace noise with confidence.
Williams will cut through the generic tech hype to explain why most people only achieve average results from tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini. He will demonstrate that when used merely as conversational search, AI underdelivers. However, by shifting to a true dialogue – bringing rich context, unique perspective, and advanced techniques like reverse prompting – the quality of the output improves dramatically.
Moving beyond theory, Williams will connect these concepts directly to real, high-value broking use cases. Attendees will see firsthand how to:
- Drastically reduce admin and eliminate hours of manual paperwork.
- Handle complex lending scenarios with greater speed and accuracy.
- Enable seamless multilingual communication to better service diverse client bases.
- Build hyper-efficient workflows and prepare for the next wave of role-specific AI agents.
- Adopt AI safely across teams to maximise collaborative output while completely eliminating the operational and compliance risks of “shadow AI”.
Built for audience participation, this practical, business-focused session ensures attendees will walk away with actionable ideas ready to implement the minute the summit ends.
Building strategic, sustainable advantage
Joining Williams in the keynote line-up is Watts, recognised as the 2024 Enterprise AI Leader of the Year. The respected entrepreneur and technologist co-founded fintech start-up CampaignAgent, which facilitated nearly 50 per cent of Australia’s $2 billion annual property marketing spend before its acquisition by REA Group in 2023. He is also the founder of AI proptech platform, Prepared.
Watts will present a session tailored for principals, directors, and growth-focused brokers that moves past mere experimentation.
Instead, Watts’ core premise is that AI is not just another shiny tool – it is a core strategic capability that will ultimately define which broking businesses scale and which stall. Moving far past basic experimentation, Watts will focus on making smart, commercially grounded decisions about exactly where AI fits into a business ecosystem and where it doesn’t.
Rather than chasing every new software release, Watts will outline a strict framework to help leaders identify the highest-value use cases across their specific operations. Attendees will learn how to:
- Define a clear AI strategy directly aligned to business growth and revenue targets, rather than just chasing minor efficiencies.
- Identify high-ROI opportunities across sales, day-to-day operations, and ongoing client engagement.
- Avoid the common adoption traps that frequently lead to wasted time, runaway costs, and unnecessary organisational complexity.
- Prioritise and sequence AI initiatives to ensure maximum impact and seamless team buy-in.
This session is designed to empower principals to actively lead AI adoption within their firms rather than just participating in it, giving them the ultimate clarity to invest heavily in what matters and confidently ignore what doesn’t.
The two keynote speakers join an already robust line-up of industry leaders and pioneers confirmed for the 2026 summit, including:
- Tony Carn, chief customer officer of NextGen.
- Eric Dill, co-founder of Quickli.
- Grant Roden, executive manager, business support, home-buying distribution at Bankwest.
- Michael Richardson, CEO and co-founder of Cynario.
- Ruth Hatherley, founder of Stryd.
- Brett Spencer, CEO of DocuScan.
*Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Broker Innovation Summit aims to move beyond tech theory to provide actionable insights. Attendees will explore the digital behaviours of modern borrowers, learn how to construct a scalable tech stack, and discover how to adopt AI safely across teams without the risks of “shadow AI”.
The event has garnered widespread industry backing. Alongside principal partner NextGen and platinum partner Renown Lending, the summit is supported by Accurateli, Bankwest, Bendigo Bank, Bizcap, Brighten, Cynario, DocuScan, FBAA, Middle Finance, LoanOptions.ai, Lumi, Quickli, Stryd, and Broker Pulse.
A spokesperson for NextGen said the pace of change across the sector is only accelerating.
“Change is the one constant in the mortgage and finance broking industry. Customer expectations are rising, technology is reshaping how deals get done, and the brokers who thrive will be those who embrace change rather than resist it,” the spokesperson said.
“Supporting innovation isn’t just about efficiency, it’s about empowering brokers to deliver better outcomes for everyday Australians navigating one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives.
“That’s why we’re thrilled to be partnering again as Principal Partner of the Broker Innovation Summit and Awards 2026. When we invest in smarter tools and forward-thinking solutions, we’re strengthening the trust that sits at the heart of every broker-client relationship.”
In both Sydney and Melbourne, the summit will be followed up with the prestigious Broker Innovation Awards, also in partnership with NextGen. Find out more about the awards here.
Tickets are available now.
[Related: Finalists revealed for 2026 Broker Innovation Awards]
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