You’re not as far behind on AI as you may think

While the hype is head-spinning, serious AI uptake is barely 18 months old for most SMBs, so the gap between the early movers and everyone else is small... for now. Arcanum AI's Asa Cox explores where to start and why now is the right moment.

AI has gone mainstream fast, with 69% of Australian small and medium businesses using it regularly.¹ But most of that is still surface level: summarising meetings, drafting documents and creating social posts, the things ChatGPT made easy.

Far fewer are using AI to do the heavier work that grows a business. A significant divide is opening up between the businesses dabbling and those driving real value.

The technology is already capable of solving real problems and automating full processes. What holds most business leaders back is knowing where to start and who to trust. In the meantime, their best people stay buried in admin, systems don't talk to each other and their intellectual property stays trapped in a few people's heads.

“The technology can already do almost anything you need. The question is where to point it first and then where to go from there. Think bigger, then bigger again,” says Asa Cox, CEO and co-founder of Arcanum AI.

Nobody goes into business to do admin

Done well, AI works alongside your people. It takes the repetitive load, the data entry, reporting and documentation, so they're freed for the work that genuinely needs a human.

The difference comes when it works on an organisation’s own data, the documents, customer history and processes that make it what it is, rather than the general knowledge any chatbot can reach. That's valuable intellectual property, so it must reside in a private, secure space controlled by the business.

Small businesses are already agile, and AI is the turbo that lets a small team take on much bigger, more established players. It shows up on the bottom line too: Deloitte's modelling puts the potential profitability lift at 45% or more for the small and medium businesses that step up their AI use.²

Make time to save time

The hurdle is that businesses can’t find the time and headspace to set it up properly. The way through is to start small and focused. Pick one job that already eats the team’s time, big enough to matter but safe enough to move fast on. The tasks people grumble about most are usually the right place to begin.

Be sure to involve your people in the planning too. Give them room to try things and be clear about why it's valuable. “There's plenty of fear around AI, so bring the team with you early. They’ll see for themselves how it helps them in their role rather than replaces it,” says Cox. “As a business keeps growing, it needs more good people to do meaningful work.”

Arcanum helped online retailer T Leaf T put AI to work. The business now runs its whole marketing in-house on around 21 AI agents, clawing back roughly 190 hours of work in 90 days, with no agency and no new hires.

You don't have to do this alone

Asa is one of three trusty guides in NEXTGEN and AWS's Must-Know Tech Guide for SMBs: Cloud, AI & CX. Read the guide for real-world advice on where to start, explore the hub for tools and success stories, or book a 15-minute 1:1 with Asa.

About Arcanum AI

Arcanum AI is an AWS Technology Partner that has been building AI specifically for small and medium businesses since 2016. Its platform, Numa, is up and running the same day with just an email address, with a team alongside you to train your people, build agents and connect your existing systems.

Related reading

• The best cloud is the kind you never think about
• Technology that brings people closer

References:

1. Intuit QuickBooks, 2026 AI Impact Report
2. Deloitte Access Economics, The AI Edge for SMBs, 2025