On November 20th 2025, Swinburne University launched a first of its kind course in Australia, the Bachelor of AI in Business. Brad Foot, the COO here at Fenwick, proudly presented the opening keynote speech at the official launch event.
Introduction
Every so often, we gather for a moment that doesn’t just launch a program, it launches a generation. Tonight is one of those moments. Years from now, we will look back and say: “That was the night the next era of business leadership truly began.”
We’re here to unveil something bold, visionary, and deeply needed. Something that makes me, personally, wish I could rewind time and enrol alongside the brilliant minds who will join this journey.
Tonight, we celebrate the launch of Swinburne University’s Bachelor of Artificial Intelligence in Business. Australia’s first business degree where AI is not a guest star, not an elective, and definitely not a buzzword but the core. And it could not be arriving at a more important moment in history.
Why this degree matters
We stand at the frontier of a world transformed. AI is no longer a distant possibility or a niche technical field it is the new engine of decision-making, innovation, and competitive advantage. And every business leader I speak to tells me the same thing: “We need people who understand AI… but who also understand business.”
Not just coders. Not just strategists. But people who bring both worlds together. People who can see possibility where others see data. People who can ask courageous questions, not just build accurate models. People who can turn insight into impact and impact into value.
This rare hybrid has always been difficult to find. But after tonight… not anymore.
A legacy that built the foundation
This degree doesn’t appear out of thin air. It stands on the shoulders of a remarkable legacy the BIT program that began in 1988, and that changed the lives of well over 1,000 graduates. Graduates who became innovators, founders, leaders, people who built Australia’s digital backbone. People who could write code with the precision of engineers, communicate with the confidence of executives, and solve problems with the creativity of entrepreneurs. Coding in the morning, presenting to the board by lunch, and still having the energy to redesign a database schema before dinner. BIT was fast, demanding, exhilarating.
And what it produced were professionals ready not just for a job, but for a career of influence. Tonight, that legacy evolves, not replaced, but reborn into a degree designed for an age when artificial intelligence is the language of modern business.
A program for the AI era
Every industry is being reshaped by AI. Retail, logistics, finance, healthcare, each is discovering the same truth: AI has become the silent business partner no organisation can afford to ignore. But businesses don’t just need people who can code. And they don’t just need people who can lead. They need people who understand both the algorithm and the ambition. Both the machine and the mission.
This is who the Bachelor of AI in Business is built to develop. Students will gain deep capability in analytics, cloud, cybersecurity, machine learning, digital transformation, ethics, and strategy not in isolation but woven together. Because in tomorrow’s world, tools are not enough. Understanding the consequences of those tools, social, commercial, ethical is what separates good technologists from exceptional leaders. These graduates won’t just know how AI works, they’ll know how AI creates value, how it transforms organisations, and how it shapes the world we leave behind.
A first for Australia and a model for the world
This degree is the first in Australia to fuse intelligent systems, business strategy, data-driven decision-making, and ethical leadership into a single learning experience. Other business degrees give you strategy. Other technology degrees give you code. This one gives you both, in one powerful combination.
These graduates will become the architects of AI-enabled organisations. The translators between business vision and technological capability. The people who ensure innovation serves humanity, not the other way around. And industries across the country are already waiting for them.
Fenwick’s role and why we care deeply
Fenwick has been delivering business systems since 1976. Next year, we turn 50, a milestone we are incredibly proud of. But here’s what really defines our success: we’ve always believed that the future belongs to those who invest in young talent. And for more than 25 years, Swinburne has been one of our greatest sources of that talent. Talent that brings fresh thinking, curiosity, and the courage to challenge what we assume to be true. Keeping a 50-year-old company young.
Over 25 years:
- More than 50 Swinburne students have completed placements with us
- Around half joined us full-time to start their careers
- Today a third of Fenwick’s Melbourne team graduated from Swinburne
- And more than 80% of our current team joined as graduates or through student placements
This is not just a partnership, it is a dynasty.
It is a shared belief in the power of education to change lives, change businesses, and change futures. Fenwick is proud, truly proud, to continue that legacy as Swinburne launches this new degree.
Fenwick’s commitment
At Fenwick, AI is not theoretical, it’s integrated into the solutions we deliver every day, particularly in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. We’re actively learning, experimenting, applying, and refining AI capabilities in real supply chain and financial systems.
And we’re excited to share that journey.
We’re proud to continue our support as an industry partner, through placements, mentorship, curriculum input, and ongoing collaboration, because we believe in this program. We believe in its purpose. We believe in the students who will choose it. Most importantly, we believe that the future belongs to people who can unite technological intelligence with human intelligence.
Launching in 2026
So here it is, a degree for the dreamers, the builders, the transformers.
A degree for those who want to stand at the intersection of intelligence and imagination. A degree for those who will define what business leadership looks like in an AI-powered world.
In 2026, the Bachelor of AI in Business opens its doors. So, share the news with your colleagues, communities, the young people who dare to imagine more. Because the future of business is intelligent. It is ethical. It is ambitious.
And it begins right here at Swinburne.
In closing
On behalf of Fenwick, I am honoured to stand here tonight to support Australia’s first Bachelor of AI in Business. Swinburne has always produced graduates who are ready, not just for work, but for impact. With this new degree, they are preparing graduates who won’t just adapt to the future, they will lead it.
To everyone who helped bring this vision to life: congratulations. And to the students soon to embark on this journey: We can’t wait to meet you. We can’t wait to mentor you. And we cannot wait to see the future you will help build. Because the future isn’t coming.
It’s enrolling.
– Brad Foot, Chief Operations Officer at Fenwick
