AI consulting Australia
AI consulting for small businesses in Australia
Clever Merchants is an AI consultancy based in Dublin, Ireland, founded by Ger Devereux, who also runs Shamrock Electrical, an electrical wholesaler in Rathcoole. We work remotely with owner-managed businesses in Australia with 5 to 50 staff: trades, professional services, retail, distribution and agencies.
We find the two or three AI workflows that save the most hours in your business, build them into the tools you already use, and keep them running. The starting point is the free AI Readiness Review: 6 questions, about 3 minutes, an instant industry-specific report, then a personal follow-up from Ger within 24 hours.
3 minutes
Free AI Readiness Review, 6 questions, instant report
Fully remote
Online review, video calls, built inside your existing tools
72 hours
Shamrock Electrical cited by ChatGPT after our own work went live
What we do
What does an AI consultant do for a small business in Australia?
An AI consultant finds the admin your business repeats every week, chooses the tools that remove it, builds the workflow and measures the hours saved.
In practice that means looking at how your business actually runs: who answers the phone, how a quote gets written, who chases the invoices, how you find out whether last month made money. Most owner-managed businesses have the same four or five bottlenecks, and they are all admin that follows the same pattern every time. That is exactly the work AI handles well.
Some Australian owners search for an AI agency, others for an AI consultant. The difference matters less than whether anyone builds the thing. A slide deck of recommendations does not answer the phone, so we do both halves: the advice, described on our AI consulting services page, and the build, described on the AI implementation services page. If you already know you want automations built and run for you, the AI automation agency page covers that model.
The first step is the free AI Readiness Review. Six questions about your business, not about AI, and the report names the two or three workflows most likely to pay back first in your industry.
The workflows
Which AI workflows do we implement for Australian businesses?
The seven below cover most of what an owner-managed business needs, and your AI Review report shows which two or three matter most.
| Workflow | What it replaces | The time it addresses |
|---|---|---|
| AI receptionist | Voicemail, missed calls, the owner answering the phone from a ute or a site | Every call that currently rings out during the working day |
| Automated lead follow-up | Replying to web enquiries and quote requests by hand, usually that evening | The evening spent chasing enquiries that arrived while you were working |
| AI-assisted quoting | Typing quotes from scratch and re-pricing the same line items | Quote preparation, often the single largest block of admin in a trades business |
| Invoice chasing | Remembering who owes what and sending reminders manually | Credit control at month end and the cash you wait too long for |
| Job profitability reporting | A spreadsheet built after the job closes, if it gets built at all | Monthly reporting, plus the losing jobs you only spot afterwards |
| Document collection and processing | Chasing certificates, receipts, supplier invoices and compliance paperwork | The admin that sits between jobs and never quite gets done |
| Weekly management reporting | Pulling figures out of three systems on a Friday afternoon | The Friday report, and the decisions you make without it |
Across a business of this shape the AI Review report estimates a combined range of 8 to 15 hours per week. That is the report's estimate for the workflows it selects, not a guarantee, and your own report shows how the range breaks down for you.
Working remotely
How does remote AI consulting work from Dublin for Australian businesses?
The review is online, calls are by video, and the build happens inside your existing tools, so most work moves forward while Australia sleeps.
We have no office in Australia and we do not do site visits. You take the review when it suits you, the report arrives instantly, and Ger's personal follow-up lands within 24 hours. After that you can reply by email or WhatsApp in your own time, and the workflows are configured and tested inside the phone system, inbox, CRM and accounting software you already run.
The time difference is real, so here it is plainly. In September 2026 Dublin is on Irish Standard Time (UTC+1) and Sydney and Melbourne are on UTC+10, which puts the east coast 9 hours ahead: 7am in Dublin is 4pm in Sydney. Daylight saving starts in New South Wales and Victoria on 4 October 2026, and Irish clocks go back on 25 October 2026, so through the Australian summer the gap is 11 hours and 7am in Dublin is 6pm on the east coast.
In practice, early morning in Dublin is late afternoon or evening for you, so that is when video calls go, and they are kept short because most decisions can be made in writing. If you are outside New South Wales and Victoria, your own gap will be different, and we work it out with you on the first call. Between calls, the work carries on during the Irish day, which is your night.
Sydney and Melbourne
Do you offer AI consulting in Sydney and Melbourne?
Yes, remotely. Sydney and Melbourne keep the same clock all year, so the review, video calls and implementation run exactly as described above.
If you searched for an AI consultant in Sydney or AI consulting in Melbourne, you were probably expecting someone who can drive to your premises. We cannot, and we would rather say so up front. What you get instead is the same process an Irish client gets: a review built around your industry, a short list of workflows worth building, and a build inside your own systems.
The businesses the review is designed for are the same in both cities as anywhere else: trades and construction firms quoting jobs across the suburbs, accounting, legal and recruitment practices buried in document chasing, retailers and distributors reconciling orders by hand, and agencies whose owners still write every proposal.
If you want local, face-to-face advice as well, the federal Digital Solutions programme has a provider in each state: the Australian School of Employment in New South Wales and the Melbourne Innovation Centre in Victoria. It covers AI among other digital topics, and the section below explains who qualifies.
Supports in Australia
What government support for AI adoption is there in Australia?
Digital Solutions gives small businesses up to five hours of one-on-one digital advice for a small fee, and AI Adopt Centres support eligible SMEs.
Digital Solutions is for small businesses with fewer than 20 full-time equivalent staff and for sole traders, in metropolitan and regional areas. Workshops and webinars cost nothing, a small fee applies to the one-on-one advice, and the topics include AI and emerging technologies alongside software, online selling and cybersecurity.
The AI Adopt Centres provide free specialist services, including training, one-on-one consultations, roadmaps and AI safety guidance, for eligible SMEs in National Reconstruction Fund priority sectors that trade interstate or internationally. There are four: SMEC AI, the ARM Hub AI Adopt Centre, SAAM and ARAIN. Eligibility is set by each centre, so check with them directly.
Clever Merchants is not a provider in either programme. The free AI Readiness Review is simply something you can do today, in 3 minutes, and the report gives you a clear list of workflows to take into a Digital Solutions session or an AI Adopt Centre conversation. If you would rather hire a firm based in Australia, our guide to the best AI consultants in Australia names the alternatives.
First-hand, not second-hand
Why an Irish electrical wholesaler is the proof
I own Shamrock Electrical in Rathcoole, County Dublin. It has been trading for over a decade, it runs a real Shopify store with real margin pressure, and every recommendation Clever Merchants makes gets tested there first. I am not a consultant who read about small business. I run one, with the same phones, quotes and supplier invoices an Australian trade business deals with.
When we put structured data and question-answering content live on the Shamrock site, ChatGPT named the business 72 hours later. Asked about Irish electrical suppliers it said, in its own words, that Shamrock is the obvious one. Perplexity and Gemini followed. That is the standard we hold ourselves to: a result you can screenshot, not a promise.
Read the Shamrock Electrical case study
Cost
How much does an AI consultant cost in Australia?
The AI Readiness Review is free, GEO programmes are fixed at €6,500 or €7,500, and AI implementation is scoped after the review.
01
Why there is no single figure
An AI receptionist for a three-ute plumbing business and job profitability reporting for a 40-person contractor are different jobs. Price depends on which workflows you need, which tools you already run, how clean your data is, and what has to be integrated.
02
What you get free first
The review, the instant report naming your two or three highest-impact workflows, and a follow-up conversation with Ger within 24 hours. You know what would be built and why before any money changes hands.
03
Who it is for
Owner-managed businesses in Australia with 5 to 50 staff, repetitive admin, and real revenue. If the owner is still doing the quoting, the chasing and the reporting, the numbers usually work.
Published prices on this site are in euro. The full breakdown of what is free, what is fixed and how implementation is scoped is on the pricing page. For what other consultants in the market charge, read how much an AI consultant costs.
Questions Australian business owners ask us
Do you work with businesses anywhere in Australia, or only in Sydney and Melbourne?
Anywhere in Australia. The work is remote from Dublin, so a builder in Brisbane or an accounting practice in Perth gets the same review and the same implementation as a business in Sydney or Melbourne.
What size of business is AI consulting in Australia built for?
Owner-managed businesses with roughly 5 to 50 staff, where repetitive admin is eating the owner's week, in trades, professional services, retail, distribution and agencies. A sole trader or a large enterprise can still run the free review, but the recommendations are built for the middle.
Is the AI Readiness Review free for businesses in Australia?
Yes, it is free, with no card and no obligation. It is 6 questions, takes about 3 minutes, produces an instant report, and Ger follows up personally within 24 hours.
How do time zones work for AI consulting in Australia from Dublin?
Sydney and Melbourne are 9 to 11 hours ahead of Dublin depending on the time of year, so early morning in Dublin is late afternoon or evening on the east coast. The review is online and most of the work moves forward asynchronously, with video calls booked for your late afternoon or early evening.
Do you visit clients on site in Australia?
No. Everything is delivered remotely from Dublin: the review is online, calls are by video, and the workflows are built inside the tools you already use.
Find out where AI saves your business the most time
Six questions, about three minutes, an instant report for your industry, and a personal follow-up from Ger within 24 hours. Free, no card, no obligation, wherever you are in Australia.
Take the free AI Readiness Review