An AI consultant who gives you a straight answer, not a pitch.
Independent AI consulting for small and mid-sized Australian businesses. Where AI would actually pay in your business, what to build, which tools to trust, and what to leave alone. From someone who has used it at an advanced level every day for more than three years, and spent 30 years inside businesses like yours before that.
What AI consulting means here
It means paying for the answer rather than for a build. Which parts of your business AI would genuinely help with, in what order, at what cost, and with what return. Then, if you want, help getting it done.
Most of what gets sold as AI consulting to small business is a tool demo with a proposal stapled to it. The advice is shaped by what the vendor sells. I do not resell the AI tools I recommend, so when I say a job is worth automating it is because the numbers say so, and when I say it is not, you have saved the cost of finding out the hard way.
The work is independent, it is done by me personally, and it is scoped so a business of fifteen people can afford it.
What I help with
Six shapes the work takes. Most engagements are one or two of them, and nearly all of them start with the audit.
01
Where AI fits in your business
A ranked answer, not a brainstorm. Which parts of the week are worth handing to software, what each would return, and what to leave alone. This is the AI audit, and it is where most engagements start.
What the audit covers02
Implementation and builds
Once the audit says what is worth doing, I build it. Workflows, assistants trained on your own material, document handling, reporting, integrations between the systems you already pay for. Fixed price, built in stages.
How the builds work03
Choosing tools and vendors
Which model, which platform, which of the twelve products pitching you this month is real. I do not resell the AI tools I recommend, so the answer is the one that fits the job rather than the one that pays a commission.
04
Getting the team to actually use it
The most common way AI fails in a business is that it gets built and then nobody uses it. Short, practical training for the people doing the work, written guidance they can keep, and a check-in a month later.
05
Guardrails: data, privacy and judgement
What can safely go into an AI tool, what never should, how to set accounts up so client data stays yours, and where a human has to stay in the loop because the cost of a wrong answer is too high.
06
A second opinion
Someone has quoted you an AI project and you want an independent read on it before you sign. I will tell you whether the scope makes sense, whether the price is fair, and what questions to ask them.
How to evaluate an AI vendorThree years at the sharp end of AI, thirty years inside real businesses
I have been studying and using AI at an advanced level for more than three years. Not reading about it. Using it every day, building with it, and running my own business on the systems I have built. That is how I know what holds up in practice and what only works in a demo.
Before that, thirty years in trade, wholesale and marketing, most of it running sales and marketing for import and distribution businesses in the UK and Australia. I have sat where the invoices pile up and the reporting arrives too late to act on. That is the half most AI consultants are missing, and it is the half that decides whether an automation is worth building.
And you deal with me. No account manager, no offshore team, no handover to someone who was not in the first conversation.
What that looks like in practice
- Daily, advanced use Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini as working tools, not novelties. Prompting, evaluation, and knowing when each one is wrong.
- Agent workflows, built and running n8n and custom code. Email triage, quoting, reporting, research and content pipelines that run without a person watching them.
- My own business runs on it Marketing, research, admin and client work at Dynamo Wheel are automated end to end. I am the first customer for everything I recommend.
- Independent of any vendor I do not resell the AI tools I recommend, so the recommendation is the one that fits the job.
Four steps, and you can stop after any of them
The first step costs nothing. The audit stands on its own. Nothing here needs you to commit to a build.
A conversation
You tell me what is eating the time or where things fall through. If it is simple, I will just tell you what to do on the call. No fee for this.
The audit
Two to three weeks looking at how work really moves through the business, ending in a written document that ranks what is worth doing. Fixed fee.
A plan with numbers on it
The top one or two items, scoped and quoted properly, with the expected payback written next to the price. You decide whether to proceed.
Build, or advise, or both
I build it, or your team does with me alongside, or you take the document elsewhere. All three are fine outcomes.
Quoted on application, in three shapes
The AI audit is a fixed fee, quoted once I know the size of the business and how much of it you want looked at. It is deliberately scoped to be a small fraction of what the builds it recommends would cost.
Builds are fixed price, scoped from the audit, with the expected payback written next to the price. Single workflows are usually a few thousand dollars. Connected sets across a whole part of the business are more, and are built in stages so you approve each one.
Ongoing advisory is a monthly arrangement for businesses rolling AI out across a team over time. A set number of hours, a monthly review, and someone to ring when a vendor pitches you something. Month to month, no lock-in.
I could put an hourly rate on this page. It would tell you very little, because the useful question is what the work returns, not what an hour of it costs. What I will commit to is a number before we start, in writing, that does not move.
All prices exclude GST.
Before you engage anyone for AI work
What an AI audit actually looks like
What is in the document, why it is structured that way, and what to expect when you commission one.
Read itHow to evaluate an AI vendor
Twelve questions to ask before you engage anyone, and what a problematic answer sounds like.
Read itFive places AI actually fits
Where the money usually leaks in an established Australian business, in the order I tend to find it.
Read itCommon questions about AI consulting
What does an AI consultant actually do?
Works out where AI would genuinely save time or make money in your business, and where it would not, then helps you get there. In practice that means looking at how work moves through the business, ranking the opportunities by payback, choosing tools, scoping builds, and helping the team actually use what gets built. The useful version is independent of any vendor, so the advice is not shaped by what someone is trying to sell you.
How much does AI consulting cost in Australia?
It varies more than almost any other service, because "AI consulting" covers everything from a two hour conversation to a six month rollout. My work is quoted on application, in three shapes: a fixed fee AI audit, fixed price builds scoped from that audit, and an optional monthly advisory retainer. You get the number before anything starts and it does not move. If the return does not clear the fee, I will say so rather than take it.
Do we need an AI strategy?
Most small and mid-sized businesses do not need a strategy document. They need a short, ranked list of the two or three places AI will pay for itself, and a plan for the first one. The AI audit is that list. A forty page strategy for a fifteen person business is a way of spending money without changing anything.
What is the difference between an AI consultant and an AI automation agency?
An agency sells builds, so every problem tends to look like something to build. A consultant is paid for the answer, which is sometimes "build this", sometimes "connect the two systems you already pay for", and sometimes "hire a person". I do both the advice and the builds, but the audit comes first and stands on its own, so you are never paying for a build to find out whether you needed one.
What is your actual experience with AI?
More than three years of studying and using AI at an advanced level, every day, on top of 30 years running sales and marketing inside real businesses. I build agent workflows in n8n and in custom code, I run my own business on them, and I have watched plenty of good sounding ideas fail in practice. That last part is where most of the useful advice comes from.
Which AI tools do you recommend?
Whichever fits the job, and I will tell you which one and why. I work with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and the business tools around them, plus n8n and Make.com for workflows, and custom software when nothing off the shelf will do. I do not resell any of the AI tools I recommend, so there is no commission steering the recommendation.
Is our business data safe with AI?
It can be, if it is set up properly, and that is part of the job. Business grade accounts with commercial terms rather than free consumer ones, data kept in systems you own, and a clear line on what should never be handed to an AI tool at all. I will tell you plainly what goes where and what is retained before anything is built.
Do you only work with businesses in Sydney?
No. I am based in the Hawkesbury and work with businesses across Australia and overseas. None of this needs me in the room. Calls run at a time that suits you, and the audit is done through conversations and shared access rather than site visits, unless a site visit is genuinely the fastest way to see how the work gets done.
What if you tell us AI is not worth it for us?
Then that is the answer, and you will get it in writing with the reasons. It happens regularly. Some businesses need a process fixed or one person hired, and no amount of AI substitutes for that. Finding that out for the price of an audit is a lot cheaper than finding it out after a build.
Tell me what you are trying to sort out
Call, text or send a message. If AI is the right tool for it, I will tell you what and roughly what it would take. If it is not, I will tell you that too, and it will have cost you nothing.
Prefer to text? Send an SMS to 0450 785 436.