Finance teams rekeying invoices, client service teams buried in email, reports rebuilt in Excel every month, and a Microsoft 365 tenant nobody has checked before Copilot arrives. We help Sydney organisations work out which AI projects are worth funding, then build them, with governance that holds up whether your obligations come from a client contract, APRA or the NSW Government.
Some of the work Sydney firms bring us needs no AI at all. We also provide IT consulting in Sydney, covering software selection, Microsoft 365 and cloud decisions, and custom software development for the client portals and internal tools a packaged product cannot handle.
Start with our AI strategy and advisory service, or read our guide to AI advisory services in Sydney.
Most Sydney enquiries start with everyday work: documents handled by hand, systems that do not share data, reports that take days, and customers waiting on a reply. Some also carry an obligation, such as a prudential standard or a client confidentiality duty, that decides what an AI project can and cannot do. These are the groups we hear from most, in every size.
Invoices rekeyed into Xero or an ERP, customer emails answered from scratch, and a spreadsheet that reconciles two systems by hand each week. Common in finance, customer service, distribution and field teams across Sydney.
Matter files, engagement letters and working papers sit in SharePoint and practice systems with years of loose permissions. Confidentiality between clients has to survive any AI tool you switch on.
A board wants to know what the organisation is doing about AI, what it will cost and what could go wrong. Advisory work answers those three questions in a document the board can approve or reject.
Banks, insurers, super trustees and the technology, claims and administration providers behind them. Any AI tool that touches a critical operation now has to sit inside the operational risk regime.
Agencies now register and assess their AI use cases on a central platform, and they need evidence from the vendors whose software contains the AI. Suppliers who can hand that evidence over early are easier to buy from.
Project teams spread across sites and joint ventures, each with its own spreadsheets. Carbon, safety and progress figures need to agree before a client or an auditor asks for them.
Many Sydney organisations already have AI in production without having decided to. A CRM vendor switched on a summarisation feature, a document platform added extraction, a team bought a chat licence on a credit card. Advisory work starts by finding what is already there, because a regulator or an agency buyer will ask about it first.
From there we rank new candidates and write the governance section a board can sign. Our article on AI advisory for Australian boards covers what directors should expect to see, and the AI business case template shows how the financial case is laid out.
Every AI feature already running, including the ones vendors switched on inside software you already own, listed with an owner.
Candidate processes scored on payback, data readiness and regulatory exposure, so the board sees the trade-offs side by side.
Which obligations each use case touches: CPS 230 and CPS 234 for regulated entities, the NSW AI Operational Policy for agency suppliers, and the Privacy Act for everyone.
Where an AI vendor becomes a material service provider, and what the contract needs to say about notification, testing and exit.
Build, run and licence costs set against current effort, with a single pilot first so the case is proven on one process.
Written so your team or another provider can execute it. We name tools we do not sell where they are the better fit.
Microsoft 365 Copilot answers from whatever each user can already open. In a law or accounting firm, a SharePoint site created for one client and shared too widely years ago becomes a confidentiality problem the day Copilot is switched on, because a plain English question can now find it.
Microsoft's data residency documentation lists Australian data centres in Sydney and Melbourne and covers Copilot as a stored workload for tenants whose default geography is Australia. Processing of prompts is a separate question: Microsoft states that requests from customers outside the EU may be processed in other regions. If a client contract or regulator requires in-country processing, raise it before you buy.
Readiness work comes first: audit, fix or contain, then a measured pilot.
Check that SharePoint sites holding one client's files are not readable by staff walled off from that client.
Find sites shared with every internal account, anonymous links and broken inheritance using SharePoint data access governance reports.
Map where customer, claims and HR records live, and whether Purview sensitivity labels cover them before Copilot can read them.
Start with a team whose permissions are already tidy, measure the work Copilot helps with, then decide on more licences.
See what this would take in your business
A free 30-minute review on Microsoft Teams. Bring the process you want fixed and leave with a clear first step.
Two of APRA's cross-industry standards shape almost every AI conversation we have with a bank, insurer or super fund. CPS 230 Operational Risk Management came into force on 1 July 2025 and requires an entity to manage its operational risks, keep critical operations running through disruption and manage the risks that come from service providers. APRA released targeted amendments on 30 April 2026, and the updated standard commenced on 1 July 2026.
CPS 234 Information Security has applied since 1 July 2019. It requires an entity to notify APRA no later than 72 hours after becoming aware of a material information security incident, and within 10 business days of a material control weakness it cannot fix in time. An AI system that reads customer records is an information asset under that standard like any other.
In practice this means an AI vendor supporting a critical operation may be a material service provider, with a place on the register, contract terms and ongoing monitoring. Our guide to CPS 230 and AI service providers covers where AI helps with the evidence load and where a named person has to make the call.
The NSW Government has run an AI assurance framework since 2022, and this year it became an operating requirement. Department of Customer Service Circular DCS-2026-02, issued on 30 July 2026, makes the NSW AI Operational Policy mandatory for agencies and replaces the older AI Ethics Policy. From 30 September 2026, agencies must use the AIAF Platform for every new AI use case registration and assessment, according to Digital NSW. The first signed annual attestation is due by 31 October 2027.
The policy states it is not mandatory for third-party suppliers. Agencies are still required to manage supplier AI risk through procurement and contracts, and contracts must let suppliers disclose AI use and notify material changes. The buyer's obligation becomes the supplier's paperwork.
Our detailed guide to the NSW AI Assessment Framework for agencies and suppliers sets out the registration questions, risk bands and dates. For the wider bid picture across Commonwealth and state buyers, see AI compliance requirements for government contracts.
Work out in advance which features are likely to trigger a full assessment, so a buying team is not surprised halfway through procurement.
Data sources, testing, human oversight and change control in a single pack. The same pack largely serves Commonwealth buyers under the DTA policy.
Write model and vendor change notification into your standard terms before an agency asks. See our notes on AI tender compliance for contractors.
Outside financial services, the Sydney projects that pay back fastest tend to involve documents: engagement letters, contracts, working papers, site reports and claims. The common thread is a person retyping something a machine can read, with a reviewer checking the result.
Document review, time capture and client onboarding, including the identity and risk checks that AML/CTF Tranche 2 brings to lawyers and accountants.
For Seymour Whyte, a Tier 1 infrastructure contractor in the VINCI group, we replaced emailed spreadsheets with standardised templates, SharePoint and Power BI for carbon reporting. The same pattern applies to contractors on transport and utility projects across New South Wales.
Sydney-listed groups preparing AASB S2 climate disclosures, and operators of assets covered by the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act, both need figures and controls that trace to a source.
Sydney organisations often hold more licences than they use. Before proposing a custom build we check whether Power Automate, Copilot or a feature in your existing platform already covers the job, because a configured tool is easier for a risk team to approve and cheaper to run.
Our AI and RPA comparison and the total cost of ownership guide for build or buy go deeper on the choice. Where the answer is a build, it becomes custom AI development or process automation, and where old platforms need connecting we follow our approach to integrating legacy systems with AI.
See what this would take in your business
A free 30-minute review on Microsoft Teams. Bring the process you want fixed and leave with a clear first step.
Every Sydney project we scope answers the same governance questions in writing: where prompts are processed, whether a vendor may train on them, who reviews an automated output, and how a decision is explained to the person it affected.
We default to Australian cloud regions. For work a regulator or client contract treats as sensitive, open models run on your own servers or private cloud.
From 10 December 2026, Privacy Act amendments require privacy policies to describe substantially automated decisions that significantly affect individuals. Credit, claims and onboarding workflows are the obvious candidates.
Privacy Act rules for automated decisionsEach system logs what it read, what it produced and who approved an exception, so an internal auditor can follow a figure back to its source.
AI agent governance and human overrideUse case approval, data access rules and incident handling written once and applied to every project, whether or not we build it.
Each phase is scoped and priced before it starts, so stopping after discovery is a normal outcome.
After handover, some organisations keep us on under managed AI services, and teams with their own developers often prefer team augmentation. Our AI consulting buyer's guide lists the questions to put to any firm you are comparing, including us.
Regional NSW manufacturers and processors can read about our manufacturing and processing work.
A free 30 minute video call. If there is a project, you receive a written scope with a fixed fee for the first phase.
Workshops in the room with the people who do the work, usually one or two days, and the rest over Microsoft Teams.
Built in your tenancy or an Australian cloud region under the access controls your security team sets. One process is piloted first.
Documentation, runbooks and admin rights stay with you, along with the evidence your risk or audit team will ask for.
We are a small consultancy, and that shapes how we work.
You deal with the consultant doing the work, with no account manager or offshore team in between.
Our principal consultant spent 18 years on data and systems projects for BHP, Rio Tinto and Senex Energy, gained while working with previous consulting employers. These companies are not Solve8 clients.
The founder's own products include Carbonly for emissions data and SupportAgent for on-premise investigation.
Australian business, working nationally
Australian regions or your own servers
Privacy Act and sector rules addressed in writing
Registered Australian business
Our principal consultant brings 18 years of enterprise delivery experience from projects for BHP, Rio Tinto and Senex Energy, delivered with previous consulting employers. These companies are not Solve8 clients. You work directly with senior people, not a sales team handing you off to juniors.
Guides on the regulatory and technical questions Sydney teams raise most
Questions Sydney organisations ask about AI advisory, regulation and delivery
Have a question about AI for your Sydney organisation that is not covered here?
Book a Free Scoping CallSolve8 works with organisations in every state and territory. See all the places we work.
Book a free 30-minute consultation. We'll discuss your project, timeline, and budget. No pressure, just honest advice.
Or email us directly at [email protected]