A realistic breakdown of AI implementation costs in Australia — what drives the price and what to budget.
Many Australian small business owners assume AI is out of their reach. That assumption is increasingly wrong. Commercial AI products are cheaper and more accessible than ever, and for small businesses the ROI often arrives faster because there are fewer layers between decision and deployment.
At the most accessible level, AI features inside tools you may already use — Microsoft 365 Copilot, Google Gemini for Workspace, HubSpot, Salesforce — add real capability for $30–$60 per user per month in product licensing. Cornerstone AI Partners typically helps configure, integrate, and roll out these products for $5,000 to $15,000 depending on scale and stack complexity.
For specific workflow pain, commercial automation platforms like Zapier and Make replace manual processes with AI-enabled automation. These Process Automation engagements typically run $10,000 to $30,000, often paying back within six months.
For more ambitious rollouts — firm-wide Copilot deployment, or integration of a specialised commercial AI tool (Otter for meetings, Intercom Fin for customer service, Gong for sales) — engagements typically fall between $15,000 and $60,000.
We don't build bespoke AI. For most businesses, commercial AI products cover every real use case at a fraction of the cost and risk of a custom build. The question isn't "what AI should we build?" — it's "which commercial AI products are right for us, and how do we get them working?"
Every Cornerstone engagement starts with a free discovery process — initial call, Client Discovery Questionnaire, a joint AI Readiness Assessment session, and a written summary. You see a proposal with numbers only once we're confident we can help. There's no charge for any of this.
We deploy commercially available AI products. We don't build bespoke AI, and we don't run standalone training workshops.
A structured planning engagement producing a prioritised 12–24 month roadmap of commercial AI products to adopt, in what order, at what cost, and with what expected outcomes.
Our core service. We select, deploy, configure, and integrate commercially available AI products — Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, Claude for Business, Gemini, Salesforce and HubSpot AI features — into your existing systems. We do not build custom AI.
Workflow automation using commercial platforms — Zapier, Make, n8n, Power Automate — often with AI steps included. Scoped, built, tested, and handed over with documentation.
A monthly retainer for ongoing support of your deployed AI stack. Delivered predominantly by our own AI assistant with human escalation. From $500/month.
A free, no-obligation discovery call to understand your business, identify where AI can help, and explore what working together might look like.
Book a Discovery Call