CTO (Ex-Google) Helps $10B Companies Use AI | Akhilesh Singh (CTO, Aviato Consulting)

About this episode

80% of the engineering on an AI project is not AI. It is cloud, data, networking, and security. Until that part is right the model has nothing to stand on. That is the view of a man who spent 9 years at Google as Head of APAC in their Customer Data Platform, and who now builds those foundations for companies turning over more than $10 billion.

Akhilesh Singh is Chief Technology Officer at Aviato Consulting, the Sydney firm Google named its 2026 Cloud Partner of the Year for Australia and New Zealand. Founded in 2023 by former Googlers, Aviato builds the cloud, data and AI foundations underneath some of Australia's biggest companies, including Chemist Warehouse, Officeworks, Endeavour Group and Lendlease.

Before Aviato, Akhilesh spent 9 years at Google as a cloud engineer and then Head of Customer Data Platform for APAC, leading the professional services team across Australia and New Zealand. Across a career of more than 20 years he has built petabyte scale data and machine learning systems at Walmart, Flipkart, Google and YouTube. If you have shopped on Walmart's website, something he built was working behind the scenes.

CHAPTERS

0:00 The systems behind everything you buy online
1:20 Why he left nine years at Google
3:39 What Australia's biggest companies are asking for now
5:50 Why he says Google Cloud wins on AI
7:13 Open source models are still a factor of 10 out
9:00 The screening spot no human analyst would have picked
10:35 A genomics run that fell from thousands to tens of dollars
11:58 Why 80 percent of an AI project isn't AI
13:41 Winging a talk for thousands at Google Cloud Next
16:22 The conversation has moved from demos to production
17:06 What the companies actually getting a return do first
21:08 The companies quietly winning with AI since 2015
26:00 His 2030 bet on how many engineers there will be
28:31 Stop pointing AI at your cost base
31:01 Will coding still matter
33:55 "Go read C" and why he still means it
36:55 Specialise, or become replaceable
38:59 The apps he can break in ten minutes
39:45 The katana you cannot hand to a monkey
43:00 Where the LLM architecture actually stops
45:39 Why agents beat a smarter model
48:12 Robotics is next, and he is calling it

CONTACT AKHILESH

Akhilesh's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhilesh-singh-ml/
Aviato Consulting: https://www.aviato.consulting/
Aviato is hiring: https://careers.aviato.consulting
vivaLAB, the genomics work he mentions: https://www.vivalab.health

CONTACT MACKENZIE (YOUR HOST)

My name's Mackenzie. Ex-KPMG consultant, built coaching and recruitment businesses to just under $2m in revenue, now all in on (and obsessed with) AI. I help Australian CEOs and founders hire AI, ML, data and software engineers, from first hire through to CTO, backed by a 40k+ LinkedIn network. I build with AI daily!

If you're hiring, or working out where AI fits in your business, message me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macthompson

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