Shobnom Zarin Chetona.
Shobnom Zarin Chetona's vision for a human-led media-management company in Australia
After communications roles spanning Nagad, GoFintech Pte. Ltd. and APP AI Pty Ltd, the Sydney-based professional is planning an Australian venture intended to make media management faster, more inclusive and more accountable - while keeping people responsible for every important decision.
Shobnom Zarin Chetona has built her career where public relations, financial technology and public trust meet. Her published professional record describes more than six years of progressive work across Bangladesh, Singapore and Australia: first in national-scale mobile financial-services communications, then in cross-border fintech publicity, and now in corporate communications for an Australian AI consultancy. [1]
She is now setting out a new ambition: to establish an AI-based media-management company in Australia. The venture is still a plan, not an operating business. Its proposed model is deliberately human-led. AI would handle high-volume monitoring, pattern detection, initial drafting and reporting; experienced professionals would remain accountable for source verification, cultural judgment, risk decisions and final publication.
That emphasis is consistent with an article Chetona wrote about AI in Australian media management, published by Entrepreneur India on 1 September 2026.
"Australia does not need more automated noise."
Chetona's public-relations foundation was formed at Nagad, a Bangladesh mobile financial service associated with the Bangladesh Post Office. According to her professional record, she worked there from February 2019 to January 2023 and progressed through four roles covering media relations, stakeholder engagement, corporate communications and public-relations management. [1]
Her stated responsibilities included supporting communications around Nagad's March 2019 public launch, its rapid account-opening service, product and partnership announcements, financial-inclusion initiatives, corporate social-responsibility programs, executive positioning and customer-trust campaigns. She also worked on stakeholder and crisis-period communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, when clear information about digital access and service continuity carried unusual public importance. ]
One of the best-documented milestones during this period came in April 2021, when Nagad passed 40 million users and reported more than Tk 400 crore in daily transactions. Dhaka Tribune independently reported the milestone and the service's rapid customer growth. Chetona's record says she helped coordinate the milestone communications. That distinction matters: communications did not create the underlying product or commercial result, but it helped explain the result to journalists, partners, decision-makers and customers.
That experience appears to have shaped a lasting professional theme: in regulated and fast-growing sectors, publicity is only one part of public relations. Reputation depends on whether technical claims are accurate, executives are prepared, stakeholder concerns are heard, and difficult developments are communicated with discipline.
In 2025, Chetona moved into a Public Relations Manager role with Singapore-incorporated GoFintech Pte. Ltd. Her published record describes cross-border campaigns across Singapore, India, Australia and the Middle East, including media relations, executive communications, investor materials, corporate statements and issues involving regulation, AI ethics and data security.
The role broadened the challenge from national communication to cross-market interpretation. A message that works for one country's media, regulator or business audience may not work in another. Effective international public relations require more than translation: it requires a consistent core narrative, adapted to local commercial expectations, cultural context and standards of evidence.
Chetona later joined APP AI Pty Ltd, an active Australian private company registered since January 2023, and is publicly identified as its Corporate Communications Manager. Employer-supplied material describes her work as covering corporate positioning, stakeholder and international communications, executive materials, media engagement, reputation management, and the translation of technical AI services for non-technical business audiences. Because that description originates in company-supplied material, it should be read as the employer's account rather than independent verification.
At APP AI, the communications function sits closer to operations. Her role includes AI-enabled media monitoring, sentiment and competitor analysis, executive reporting, customer-facing communications and liaison with product, technical and support teams. The practical purpose is to help decision-makers understand what is being said, why it matters and how to respond - not simply to generate more content. [1]
Chetona's planned Australian company would bring together three capabilities that organisations often buy separately: media intelligence, strategic communications and responsible-AI governance. Its target clients could include small and medium businesses, technology and fintech companies, professional-services firms, community organisations and other public-facing institutions that need sophisticated communications support but may not have a large internal media team.
The first layer would be real-time intelligence. With appropriate permissions, AI systems could review licensed news feeds, broadcast transcripts, regulatory updates and relevant public online discussion; identify unusual changes in coverage; group themes; compare share of voice; and alert human teams to emerging issues. The aim would be earlier awareness, not automated judgment.
The second layer would assist production. Tools could prepare first drafts of media summaries, briefing notes, question-and-answer documents, stakeholder updates and multilingual content. Each output would retain source links and an audit trail. High-stakes material - including financial, legal, health, crisis or public-interest communication - would require designated human approval before release.
The third layer would measure outcomes. Instead of treating the number of published items as success, clients could assess message accuracy, corrections, response time, audience understanding, sentiment movement, stakeholder engagement and the amount of human revision required. This would make AI adoption testable rather than fashionable.
The proposed safeguards are central to the concept: privacy-by-design, data minimisation, documented content approvals, copyright and consent checks, bias testing, multilingual review by culturally informed people, clear disclosure where AI materially contributes, and escalation rules for sensitive matters. The company would not offer deepfakes, impersonation, fabricated grassroots support, anonymous influence operations or unsupervised publication of high-risk content.
Australia's media sector is already accelerating its use of AI. In April 2026, the Australian Communications and Media Authority said AI was being used for personalised advertising and streamlined content production, while also highlighting risks involving misinformation, copyright, transparency and public trust. That combination - faster capability and higher responsibility - is precisely the gap Chetona's proposed model is intended to address.
For smaller Australian organisations, a well-governed service could reduce the cost and time required to monitor fast-moving media environments, prepare consistent materials and identify reputational risk. It could help regional or specialist businesses access capabilities that were once practical only for large corporate communications teams.
The employment effect could also be broader than software development. A responsible media-AI business would need communications strategists, media analysts, bilingual editors, data-governance specialists, AI trainers, client advisers and risk reviewers. In a July 2026 speech on AI, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed the national objective plainly: 'Because we want AI to support and create good jobs, not replace them.' His remark was about Australian AI policy generally, not Chetona or her proposed company.
Multilingual communication is another potential advantage. A system that can quickly produce draft versions in multiple languages - followed by qualified linguistic and cultural review - could make essential business, financial and community information more accessible. Professor Genevieve Bell captured the design challenge in an Australian National University interview: 'We have to make sure that the technology we build is not technology built with just one view of the world.' That statement, too, is wider public context rather than a personal endorsement.
A credible Australian platform could also become an exportable service for the Asia-Pacific. Chetona's experience across Bangladesh, Singapore, India, Australia and Middle Eastern markets offers a practical view of how corporate narratives travel - and where they fail. If the venture can demonstrate sound governance and measurable results at home, that cross-market knowledge may help Australian communications services compete internationally.
The wider economic opportunity is substantial but should not be confused with a forecast for any single venture. The Productivity Commission has estimated that AI will likely add more than A$116 billion to Australian economic activity over the next decade. Capturing part of that value will depend on adoption that is useful, safe and trusted - not merely rapid.
Chetona's cross-market experience has previously attracted direct public comment. In a 2025 Gulf News GN Focus article, Abdullah Khan, identified as Partner and Head of Advisory at IBM Consulting for Australia and New Zealand, described professionals like Chetona as 'vital in helping firms communicate credibly and scale responsibly.' The remark addressed the value of cross-market communications capability; it was not an endorsement of the future company described in this article.
Prominent Australian voices have also emphasised the public-interest standards surrounding the opportunity. ABC Chair Kim Williams has said, 'Trusted information is democratic power.' For an AI-based media-management business, that principle implies a higher duty than producing content efficiently: it requires traceable sources, corrections, disclosure and a clear human line of accountability. Williams was speaking about trusted media generally and has not commented on Chetona.
Chetona's background gives her a relevant starting point, but it does not guarantee commercial success. The proposed business would still need a detailed operating plan, product validation, funding, privacy and cybersecurity controls, appropriate insurance, legal and regulatory review, and evidence from carefully designed pilots. Its strongest proof would be measurable: faster response without lower accuracy, broader access without weaker cultural judgment, and automation without loss of accountability.
A credible launch path could begin with a small number of supervised Australian pilots, transparent baseline measures and independent review. The company could then develop graduate and mid-career training pathways so communications professionals learn to use AI critically, while technical staff learn the realities of media law, reputation, stakeholder expectations and public trust.
Chetona's career has moved from communicating the expansion of digital financial access to explaining the possibilities and limits of artificial intelligence. Her next goal is to turn those lessons into an Australian enterprise. If it succeeds, its contribution will not be measured by how much content AI can produce. It will be measured by whether organisations become faster without becoming careless, more inclusive without becoming generic, and more visible without becoming less trustworthy.
