Artificial intelligence is no longer a future issue for Australia’s disability sector and the AI in the NDIS Summit has been designed to help providers respond with practical action.
NDIS providers are under pressure from workforce shortages, compliance demands, tighter margins and rising expectations around participant outcomes. In this environment, AI quickly becomes an operational question rather than a theoretical one.
The event focuses on how AI can reduce administrative pressure, strengthen decision-making and support better services without losing the human relationships at the centre of care.
Attendees at the event (held on Friday 24 July at ICC Sydney) will hear from sector
leaders, see live demonstrations will be held to show how AI can be used personalised 90-day implementation roadmap offered for participants to take back to their organisation.
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Why Australia’s leading NDIS and AI experts are coming together for one practical summit
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant conversation for the disability sector. It is arriving at the same time providers are dealing with workforce strain, rising compliance pressure, financial constraints and growing expectations around participant outcomes.
For many organisations, the real challenge is no longer whether AI matters, but how to separate genuine operational value from noise and marketing hype.
Taking place on Friday 24 July 2026 at ICC Sydney (with a national livestream available), the AI in the NDIS Summit 2026 has been built specifically for NDIS provider leaders who want practical answers they can apply in the real world.
Rather than asking whether AI belongs in disability services, the summit tackles the more urgent question: how can providers use AI to deliver better supports, improve efficiency and strengthen safeguards while keeping human connection at the centre?
This is not being framed as a traditional conference. It is designed as a working day for provider executives, operational leaders and decision-makers who need to understand what AI can do now.
Where the risks sit
Across the day, attendees will move from strategic understanding to practical demonstration. The program combines keynote presentations, expert panel discussions and live AI Labs focused on the operational areas that most directly affect provider performance, including rostering, operations, workforce, finance and compliance.
The emphasis is on real NDIS applications that can reduce administrative burden, improve visibility and support more confident decisions without replacing the people delivering care.
The summit opens with recognised TED speaker Dominic Price. In a keynote he will examine how organisations can approach AI without undermining the culture, trust and leadership foundations that make change possible.
Experience gained as Atlassian expanded from 600 employees to more than 16,000 gives
perspective on how large organisations respond to transformation under pressure.
A focus on leadership and culture is particularly important in disability services, where the stakes are higher than efficiency alone. Providers are not simply choosing software. They are making decisions that affect participants, workers, and risk.
Andrew Licence, Founder and Principal of Impact HRT, brings that human dimension into sharp focus. With more than two decades of experience in workforce practice and organisational performance, his contribution reinforces a central point: successful AI adoption is not just about technology implementation. It requires governance, judgement and a clear commitment to people.
The program also addresses a common issue across the sector: many providers know AI is important, but few are clear on where to start.
Ben Smart, Strategic Operations and AI Adoption Specialist, focuses on the practical administrative tasks AI can already support today. His session is aimed at helping leaders simplify operational complexity, improve clarity and identify sustainable first steps
rather than chase abstract future possibilities.
Michael Batko, Co-Founder and CEO of Hourglass AI, takes that conversation further by looking at what it means to become genuinely AI-enabled. Drawing on leadership experience across Startmate, PwC, KPMG and American Express, he will share practical frameworks for moving beyond isolated experimentation and toward measurable business outcomes.
A major feature of the day will be an expert panel bringing together leaders from disability, governance, technology and artificial intelligence. Jessica Martin, CEO and Founder of Bella Sláinte and Head of Strategy at Google, contributes insights shaped by more than twenty years in strategy, governance, technology and innovation.
Christina Larkin, EY’s Digital Assurance Leader for Oceania, will examine ethics, assurance and governance frameworks organisations need to adopt AI responsibly.
They are joined by former NDIA Deputy CEO Anthony Vella, now Chief Transformation Officer at MMS and Senior Advisor to Lumyra, whose experience spans disability reform, operational delivery and AI governance. Darren Chua, Co-Founder of Lumyra and AI governance researcher at University of Technology Sydney, adds expertise in human-AI collaboration in high-stakes settings, including healthcare.
Together, the panel will tackle one of the biggest issues facing the sector: how to
adopt AI in ways that preserve trust, safety, accountability and quality support.
In the afternoon, the summit moves from discussion to demonstration through four live AI Labs. These sessions are designed to show technology built specifically for the NDIS environment across workforce management, rostering, operations, finance and compliance. Instead of generic software demos, attendees will see practical tools addressing the day-to-day pressures disability organisations are already dealing with.
Just as importantly, the summit is structured so participants leave with more than ideas. Each attendee will receive a personalised 90-day AI implementation roadmap, presentation slides, a curated AI implementation toolkit and thirty days’ access to the Disability Sector Australia advisory community. The aim is to send leaders back to their organisations with clear next steps, not just inspiration.
For providers trying to understand how AI can strengthen operations while protecting the human foundations of support, the AI in the NDIS Summit 2026 is positioned as a timely and practical opportunity to learn from some of Australia’s leading voices in disability.
To view the full agenda, speaker schedule and ticket options, visit the official event page:
https://events.humanitix.com/ai-in-the-ndis-summit-2026.
To learn more about Disability Sector Australia (DSA), please visit their website at http://www.dsa-australia.com.au.
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