I work as an AI consultant and technology partner for small and medium businesses. One person who learns how the business runs, decides which AI tools earn their place, builds the systems on the business's own machines, and stays across the technology as it changes. The owner keeps running the business; the technology has someone whose job it is.
The practice runs on the same systems I set up for clients: AI agents that read the business's numbers, draft in the owner's voice, follow up the quotes, and keep working after everyone has gone home. I build with these tools every day, and the advice comes from that.
What the work looks like
Every engagement starts with the business itself: how the money comes in, where the hours go, which jobs repeat every week. From there the work is picking the smallest set of tools that cover the real work and setting them up properly. Files the business owns, systems on the business's own machines, and plain records of every decision, so nothing is locked to me or to any one AI vendor.
Three ways in, depending on the appetite:
- A half-day working session, $2,000. Live on Zoom, screen shared the whole way. We set up your first AI system together on your machine and build the first tool your business actually wants. The training page covers the format in detail.
- A full advisory engagement, $15,000. The technology decisions for the business made properly: what to adopt, what to skip, what to build, in what order, with the first systems stood up as part of the engagement. The advisory page carries the full shape.
- Retained advisory, from $5,000 a month. The ongoing version: an AI partner who stays across the business, keeps the systems current, and answers directly when a decision comes up. The technology keeps moving; retained clients keep pace with it.
Who is doing the work
I'm Daniel Bilsborough, based in Melbourne. Enterprise technology background, Hewlett-Packard and then Siemens on the BBC account in London, RMIT double degree in business administration and computer systems engineering, fifteen years running my own businesses, and current ads-and-growth work at Northbase digital agency. Everything I recommend is running in my own practice first.
There is no team and no handoff to junior staff. The person you speak to is the person who does the work, which is most of the reason engagements move quickly.
What gets built
The systems are practical: an agent that reads the spreadsheet or bank export the business already keeps and turns it into a Monday morning picture of what came in and what's owed. Follow-up that goes out on time. Drafts in the owner's voice for the emails that repeat. Records of every client and decision the business can lean on. Each one is set up on the business's own machine, documented in plain files, and demonstrated working before we move to the next.
Where the whole ask is one of those systems, AI agent setup is that work on its own: the agent chosen, built on your machine, and handed over documented.
A fuller account of the thinking behind the model is on the AI consulting guide, which covers what traditional consulting costs and how this practice differs.
Talking it through costs nothing.
Email what your business does and what you'd want handled, and you'll get a straight answer on whether this is a fit, including when it isn't.
Get in touch →Questions owners ask
What does an AI consultant for small business do?
Identifies where AI genuinely helps the specific business, chooses the tools, and guides or does the implementation. In this practice that means working directly with the owner rather than through a project team.
How much does it cost?
Independent AI consultants in Australia typically charge $200-500 an hour. This practice prices by engagement: $2,000 for the half-day working session, $15,000 for a full advisory engagement, and retained advisory from $5,000 a month.
What is an AI partner?
The ongoing version of the same work: one person who knows the business, handles the technology decisions, and keeps the AI systems current as the tools change. It suits owners who want the technology handled while they run the business.
Do we need this?
The engagement starts by finding the real work AI can take over in your business: quoting, follow-up, reporting, drafting, the admin that repeats. When the honest answer is that there is little to gain, that is the advice you get.
Remote or in person?
Melbourne based, works anywhere over Zoom. The systems are built on your machines with you watching, so distance has little bearing on the work.