AI automation — the questions Australian SME owners actually ask.

All prices include GST.

Phase 0 pilot: A$4,500 fully refundable. 10-to-30 day window.

Agents: A$3,000 each, minimum 4. So A$12,000 floor. Standard Build is 8 agents = A$24,000.

Standard Year-1 Engagement: A$56,500 = Phase 0 + 8-agent Build + 8 months of full retainer at A$3,500/mo (Month 5 to Month 12 = A$28,000).

Lite retainer: A$1,750/mo — reduced scope agreed at signing, same 3-month break clause.

Monthly LLM/API/SaaS run-costs are paid by the client directly — scoped during Phase 0, not included above.

Yes. Every price quoted on this site is in Australian dollars and includes GST.

AAA fees do not include the third-party run-costs your agents need to operate. These pass through to your accounts at cost — AAA does not mark them up.

Typical categories: LLM/API credits (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google), workflow automation hosting (n8n, Make, Zapier), third-party SaaS subscriptions your agents integrate with.

Indicative worked example for an SME-scale 8-agent build: roughly A$200–A$500/month in combined run-costs. This is an illustration, not a quote. Actual costs depend on which agents you build and how heavily they're used. Scoped and quoted during Phase 0 — before any commitment beyond the refundable pilot.

Phase 0 is a 10-to-30 day window. A first working result is delivered by day 10. You then decide between day 10 and day 30 whether to continue or refund.

The full A$4,500 is refundable up to day 30, no questions asked. The shortest exit is day 10 (early confirmation either way). The longest is day 30. The decision window is yours.

Each agent is A$3,000 including GST. The minimum order is 4 agents, so the Build floor is A$12,000.

The full Standard Build is 8 agents at A$24,000. Each agent is paid on delivery, not upfront. Milestone-locked — if an agent isn't delivered, you don't pay for it.

Standard Year-1 Engagement clients get the ceiling included. The Standard package is Phase 0 + 8-agent Build + 8 months of full retainer at A$3,500/mo. Once signed, you can scale to up to 14 agents total during the retainer period at no additional build cost — agents 9 through 14 included.

Below the Standard package? Additional agents during retainer are charged at A$3,000 each. The 14-agent ceiling is specifically a feature of the Standard package.

Want to top up later? A client who started with fewer than 8 agents can top up at any point — paying the difference at A$3,000 per agent. From that point the 14-agent ceiling applies. No upgrade traps. The price you signed at is the price that holds.

Full retainer — A$3,500/mo incl GST. Daily cockpit review by Raj, continuous agent tuning, quarterly strategy review, direct founder access (phone, email, WhatsApp), 14-agent ceiling on the Standard package, model swap included when new LLMs ship.

Lite retainer — A$1,750/mo incl GST. Reduced scope, agreed at engagement signing. Same 3-month break clause. Direct founder access retained — the lite tier reduces frequency and SLA, not access. 14-agent ceiling does not apply; additional agents during lite retainer are A$3,000 each.

Both retainers are optional. Walk away after the 3-month break clause if it stops working.

Yes. If you've completed an Aarambh — The Founder Forge engagement (aarambh.space), 80% of the Aarambh fee credits to AAA when you start a full Standard Year-1 Engagement within 12 months.

Worked example: A$25,000 paid to Aarambh → A$20,000 credit on AAA. The Standard Year-1 (A$56,500) becomes A$36,500 net.

Credit applies only to the full Standard package. One-off, non-stackable, non-transferable. Combined engagement, single operator — Aarambh handles the foundation, AAA handles the AI layer.

Clients who sign the full Standard Year-1 Engagement (A$56,500 incl GST — Phase 0 + 8-agent Build + 8 months full retainer) receive a Custom GPT trained on the business plus a Media Pack — worth A$7,000 — at no additional cost.

Media Pack format is your pick: NotebookLM podcast, 5-min audio brief, or explainer video.

Bonus is gated to the Standard package. Partial engagements — 4-agent Build, lite retainer, no retainer — do not qualify. Bonus locks in at signature.

Privacy Act 1988 + Australian Privacy Principles compliant by design. AAA aligns with the National AI Centre Guidance for AI Adoption (October 2025). Where AHPRA, TGA, or Medicare requirements apply (healthcare clients), governance frameworks are documented before any data flows.

Mutual NDA signed before Phase 0 begins. Read-only access to your existing systems. You own all tooling. We document everything.

You own everything we build. The agents are deployed in your accounts (Make, n8n, OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) — not mine. If we part ways, you keep the agents, the prompts, the documentation, and the credentials. We provide a full transition pack.

This isn't a vendor lock-in business. It's a working partnership.

Different problem. AI subscriptions often go unused because owners buy the tool but never build the workflow. AAA builds the workflow around your existing systems — Xero, Cliniko, ServiceM8, LEAP, your inbox — so the AI actually does the work, not just sits in a tab.

Tools are commodities. Workflows are the moat.

No — and here's the honest read.

On 13 May 2026, Anthropic launched Claude for Small Business — 15 pre-built workflows, 15 reusable skills, and connectors to QuickBooks, PayPal, HubSpot, Canva, Docusign, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Slack. It ships at no extra cost to Pro / Max / Teams subscribers. That's a real launch worth knowing about.

What it does well. Turnkey workflows for US-based small businesses using the named tools. If you're a US-based business on QuickBooks + PayPal + HubSpot, the toggle-in approach gets you running quickly.

Where the Australian SME gap remains. Anthropic's connector list does not include the systems most Australian SMEs actually use — Cliniko, Halaxy, Best Practice, Medical Director (healthcare); MYOB, Xero AU (accounting); ServiceM8, Tradify, simPRO, AroFlo (trades); LEAP, Smokeball, Actionstep, PEXA (legal); or the hundreds of niche AU SaaS systems that don't appear on a US product roadmap. The pre-built workflows assume a US toolchain that most Australian SMEs don't run on.

What this means for AAA. Tools commoditise. Workflow integration on the AU stack is what AAA actually sells. Anthropic's own framing makes this point — small businesses don't set up these systems themselves. AAA is the operator who does the setup, makes the connections that aren't pre-built, and tunes the workflow to your actual business.

Tools, plugins and integrations keep arriving — weekly, sometimes daily. AAA continuously monitors and tests them, integrates the ones that genuinely help, and tells you honestly when an off-the-shelf tool is enough and you don't need a build. If Anthropic ever ships a Cliniko connector or a ServiceM8 integration that does what an AAA agent does for less work, we'll tell you and recommend you use it. The Phase 0 refund stands either way.

Accounting: Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks. Healthcare: Cliniko, Halaxy, Best Practice, Medical Director, Genie, MediRecords, Power Diary, Nookal. Trades: ServiceM8, Tradify, simPRO, AroFlo. Legal: LEAP, Smokeball, Actionstep, PEXA. CRM: HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive. E-commerce: Shopify, WooCommerce. Plus custom APIs for anything else.

We orchestrate via Make, n8n, Zapier — and direct API calls where needed. If you have a system we don't list, we either integrate it or build a custom connector.

No. That's the architecture. AAA agents sit on abstraction layers — not locked to OpenAI, Anthropic, or any single provider. When the next model ships — your stack swaps the engine while keeping the wiring intact.

Switching models is hours of work, not weeks. It's part of the full retainer. This is the structural difference between a workflow we built and a tool you bought — tools rot, workflows evolve.

Honest answer: no. AAA augments. The Klarna case is instructive — they replaced 700 customer-service FTEs with AI in 2024, then publicly reversed course in May 2025 because the quality dropped. Human judgment matters.

What AAA does: removes the admin and repetitive work that stops your staff from doing the work that actually pays. Your team gets their day back. Your owner gets their week back.

Phase 0 is fully refundable for 30 days, no questions asked. If you don't see clear, measurable value within the pilot window, every cent comes back.

Build phase agents are paid only on delivery — not upfront. If an agent isn't delivered, you don't pay for it. The retainer has a 3-month break clause.

Risk on the operator at every step. That's the only fair way to do this work.

Top 10 Australian SME verticals: Allied health, trades & field services, accounting, legal & conveyancing, food distribution, GP practices, retail/e-commerce, construction, logistics, and tech/SaaS.

If you're outside these — call anyway. The AAA architecture is industry-agnostic; the verticals listed are simply where the patterns are most documented.

You get Raj. Every single time. No junior developer. No junior analyst. No "account manager" who hands you off after the sale.

This applies across all tiers including the lite retainer — direct founder access is retained at every level. The lite tier reduces frequency and SLA, not access. If you're not talking to Raj, you're not engaged with AAA.

Yes. If you're an active AAA client and you refer another Australian SME who signs Phase 0 and reaches the 30-day milestone — you receive A$500 credit applied to your next retainer invoice (or paid out if you're not on retainer).

No cap on referrals. No expiry. Trust travels. Eligibility: client must be in good standing, referral must be a genuine new prospect (not an existing AAA contact), and the referred client must complete Phase 0 (i.e. either continue past day 30, or refund — both qualify).