What if the next big unlock in payments wasn’t just faster checkouts, but bots buying on our behalf? In this episode of In the Blink of AI, Georgie Healy sits down with Karl Durrance, Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand at Stripe, to explore how AI is reshaping money movement at a global scale.

Karl reveals how Stripe is tackling fraud versus scams (and why scams are now the bigger threat), why AI startups are hitting revenue milestones at unprecedented speed, and what agentic commerce could mean for the way we shop. From buy now pay later’s misunderstood role in credit to why stablecoins may be the real future of internet-native money, Karl shares candid insights on where payments are heading next.

You’ll also hear why global expansion no longer requires a move to San Francisco, how single-use virtual cards could make agentic commerce safe, and why bots might soon handle life’s least joyful purchases, freeing us up for the ones that matter.

02:18 – Karl’s role at Stripe and the $1.4T payments scale

05:51 – Startups hitting $5M ARR in under a year

06:57 – AI Hacks: family holiday planning & cutting through bureaucracy

12:34 – Do Australian founders really need to move to SF?

17:39 – Explaining agentic commerce (AI buying for you)

20:34 – Shopping bots, travel assistants, and Amazon’s “Buy for Me”

22:25 – How Stripe protects against rogue AI agents

25:14 – Ticket scalpers, bots, and the arms race of fraud prevention

27:01 – Fraud vs. scams: what’s really costing the economy

31:51 – Why slowing payments down can actually prevent scams

37:21 – Spicy takes: BNPL, crypto & stablecoins

40:43 – BNPL vs. credit card debt — Karl’s contrarian view

41:24 – Stablecoins: solving volatility and internet money movement

45:51 – When stablecoins meet agentic commerce (next 5 years?)

47:41 – Stripe’s Sydney Tour: launches, thought leaders & what’s next

🦘 Stripe Tour Sydney: https://tour.stripeevent.com/sydney?rshow=sydney

🙋🏻‍♂️ Karl Durrance: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karldurrance/

💳 Stripe: https://stripe.com/au

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In The Blink of AI is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Vanta Ad_BAI Jul25

Vanta Ad_BAI Jul25

Vanta Ad_BAI Jul25

What if we could simulate extreme weather before it strikes, and use AI to prevent billions of dollars in damage?

In this episode of In the Blink of AI, Georgie Healy sits down with Jack Curtis, Chief Commercial & Operations Officer at Neara, the startup building digital twins of critical infrastructure like electricity grids. Together, they unpack how AI is reshaping energy, data centers, and even Australia’s role in the global technology race.

From the true drivers of rising energy bills to why “climate tech is far from dead,” Jack shares a candid inside look at the intersection of AI, infrastructure, and policy. You’ll hear why digital twins are more than just a buzzword, what governments are getting right (and wrong) on AI, and how Australia can seize its moment to lead.

02:11 – Meet Jack Curtis and his role at Neara

03:00 – Digital twins: what they are and why they matter

04:45 – Using AI to model cyclone bombs and prevent grid damage

06:00 – AI Hack of the Week: Gong & NotebookLM for extracting insights

11:20 – Replacing manual, error-prone inspections with scalable modeling

14:50 – Why digital twins are critical in high-stakes infrastructure

17:45 – Adoption friction: humans vs. AI in enterprise contexts

18:40 – Breaking down the real drivers of spiralling electricity bills

22:20 – Can smart data centers help lower consumer energy costs?

25:10 – Data center siting: desert or grid-adjacent?

28:35 – Cooling and water trade-offs in data center economics

30:21 – Is Australian government AI adoption too slow?

35:30 – Can Australia win the global AI–data center “space race”?

37:20 – Why “waiting five years to see how AI plays out” is too risky

39:00 – Climate risk in the next decade: why infrastructure is already under stress

41:50 – Is climate tech still relevant or “not sexy”?

43:30 – Jack’s take on Scott Farquhar’s 5-point AI plan for Australia

49:55 – Rapid fire: digital apprenticeships, APIs, and easing AI into government workflows

50:30 – Jack’s sign-off: Neara is hiring ML engineers!

⛅️ Neara – https://neara.com/

🙋🏻‍♂️ Jack Curtis (LinkedIn) – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-curtis-399b182a/

💻 Gong – https://www.gong.io/

🎥 Andrej Karpathy: Neural Networks – Zero to Hero – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAqhIrjkxbuWI23v9cThsA9GvCAUhRvKZ

Vanta is the all-in-one solution for startups to become compliant quickly and build a security foundation with ease.

Startup customers get $1000 off Vanta at http://dayone.fm/blink

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginahealy/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgina_healy/

Twitter: https://x.com/georgina__healy?lang=en

In The Blink of AI is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors.

Sign up to get your weekly insights into the up-and-coming AI startups: https://dayone.fm/newsletter

Mentioned in this episode:

Mumbition Promo

Mumbition Promo

At a Relevance AI community event, Georgie Healy speaks with Beth Lovell (FoBoH), Sam Garven (Hello Canopy) and Sally (King River Capital) about building AI agents that deliver real results. They share practical hacks, first-use cases, and lessons learned on data hygiene, onboarding and keeping humans in the loop. The panel also explores why women are adopting AI at lower rates and how non-engineers can use their unique strengths to create better tools.

01:05 – Beth’s journey from Woolies X to FoBoH: COVID supply chains, failed portals & why AI is different

04:07 – Sam’s origin story: unsafe workplaces, no safe way to speak up, and building Hello Canopy

06:15 – Sally’s investor lens: hundreds of agents tested, why she backs Relevance AI

07:32 – Favourite hacks you can steal: Replit, sticky notes → tables, system preferences for style

12:26 – First useful agents: outreach automation, policy-scraping, VC inbound triage

17:28 – What we wish we knew before building: expect errors, keep it simple, chain tasks, onboard like a teammate

20:07 – Designing for reality: data hygiene, human-in-the-loop, guardrails

22:27 – Dream agents: life OS, product-copy deployer, Excel-beating modeller

25:10 – Why women adopt AI less — and why that must change

30:32 – Strengths non-engineers should lean into: empathy, domain expertise, communication

33:27 – Career & workflow tips to start tomorrow: post weekly, try tools, ask for opportunities, get to “no” fast

👾 Relevance AI - https://relevanceai.com/

✨ FoBoH - https://www.foboh.com/

🙋‍♀️ Hello Canopy - https://www.hellocanopy.com/

🤴🏻 King River Capital - http://www.kingriver.co/

Vanta is the all-in-one solution for startups to become compliant quickly and build a security foundation with ease.

Startup customers get $1000 off Vanta at http://dayone.fm/blink

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginahealy/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgina_healy/

Twitter: https://x.com/georgina__healy?lang=en

In The Blink of AI is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors.

Sign up to get your weekly insights into the up-and-coming AI startups: https://dayone.fm/newsletter