The $35 Billion AI Conversion Gap

Llew Jury

Welcome back to the AI Intelligence Podcast, brought to you by Advancer - The AI Agency. Right, so Ollie, here's a wild one for you—Microsoft dropped this stat recently: website visitors who land via AI-driven conversations, like you know, through ChatGPT or Google's new AI stuff, they're converting at basically ten times the rate of your old-school search traffic. I'm talkin' people who are primed, ready to act, not just window-shopping.

Ollie Carter

Hi Llew, hi everyone! Ten times? Wait, so if I run any regular business, that's not just a bump, that's like, completely game-changing. Why isn't everybody all over this?

Llew Jury

You'd think, right? But here's the rub: according to the latest Reserve Bank and QuickBooks findings, about forty percent of Aussie businesses are still just sorta fiddling around at the edges. Bit of ChatGPT here, mucking about with AI tools there, but almost no real integration into their actual work process.

Ollie Carter

Yeah, and those reports put some big numbers on what we're missing too, hey? Like that RBA piece—what was it, $35 billion of unrealised growth, just floating out there in the ether, not being grabbed?

Llew Jury

Yeah, mate, exactly. That’s about two hundred grand per SME left on the table, year on year. All down to inefficiencies, operational friction, and this shallow sort of tech adoption. I mean, honestly, it reminds me of when I was starting out—you get a bit of tech FOMO, so you try the latest thing, but never really bed it in. That’s what’s happening at scale in Aussie businesses right now.

Ollie Carter

It’s kind of like, everyone's read the menu, but no one’s ordering the main course, right? And I mean, we’ve touched on this “pilot purgatory” stuff in a couple of our last episodes. But the pain’s real: all these global case studies, proving AI’s not just hype, and we’re in Australia still playing’ with ChatGPT for emails. It’s actually sort of frustrating, isn’t it?

Llew Jury

Absolutely. And look, the global Microsoft data shows AI-led traffic is high intent and ready to convert. Yet locally, we're in this pattern of tinkering without committing. There’s real risk we just keep watching from the sidelines while the opportunity passes us by.

Ollie Carter

So okay, maybe this is where the new “AI agents” thing comes in. OpenAI’s shouting about ‘em, QuickBooks is rolling them out left and right. People seem either hyped up or deeply skeptical—“Isn’t that just a beefed-up macro?” I even heard one business owner say “Mate, I’m not letting a robot mess with my accounts.” What's your take?

Llew Jury

Yeah, fair point. I get why folks are wary. “Agent” gets thrown around, and people’s radar goes up—“sounds like marketing spin, or some Clippy reboot.” But here’s the thing—when it’s properly integrated, it’s a real shift. We’re not talking some dumb macro, we’re talking actual, proactive digital helpers embedded into your workflow. It’s not just about doing the repetitive process, it’s stitching those nine or so separate systems together, so you’re not copy-pasting things like it’s 2009.

Ollie Carter

But, and I’m not being a cynic here, is anyone actually seeing that in the wild? Like, show me the money, Llew.

Llew Jury

Look, the QuickBooks data really nails it. SMEs who’ve put proper AI agents into play—they’re saving, on average, six hours a week. That’s not a random stat, that's about fifteen to thirty grand a year back in their pocket, just from time clawed back. You're barely starting, and you're already seeing real ROI—not just “futurist” talk, real dollars and hours here and now.

Ollie Carter

So, the search tools are there, and now, the AI agents talk to each other? Or is this still “add another tool to my already-overflowing stack”?

Llew Jury

That’s the sticking point. The average SME’s using, what, nine different cloud tools? So integration's everything. If you just bolt on another disconnected widget, it’s more digital noise. But if your agents underpin your main platforms—finance, CRM, even customer engagement—that’s when you get this flywheel effect. Actual, tangible gains, not just tech for tech’s sake.

Ollie Carter

Alright, so maybe a bit of both—hype and help. But if you actually wire them in, that’s where you start closing that $209k inefficiency gap, right?

Llew Jury

Bang on. The buzzwords might annoy you, but the outcomes? That’s the real deal. If you do the groundwork, it pays off. You can see that extra six hours come back into your week, can’t fake that. The trick is making sure it’s working for you, not just giving yourself another dashboard to ignore.

Ollie Carter

Let’s get into the practical side then. Say you’re Jane—the hypothetical consulting business owner we talk about, right? She’s got all the usual suspects: invoicing app, project board, customer list... everything in silos. She’s losing half her week just running between tools and fixing admin stuff. That’s where the real day-to-day pain sits for most people.

Llew Jury

Yeah, and here’s what Jane does different—this time, she actually deploys an integrated AI-powered platform. Suddenly, admin agents are handling the grunt work. Invoices get filed, P&Ls get prepped automatically, CRM prompts her when clients go cold. Instead of bouncing between nine windows, she’s got one central hub, and six hours a week back to focus on growing the business—not just treading water.

Ollie Carter

And that’s the lesson, isn’t it? It’s not some magic bullet, it’s making the stuff you already do, but faster and with less friction. That means more nights off, or finally getting to that new service launch instead of letting it gather dust.

Llew Jury

Exactly. Look, most big corporates are stuck, terrified of moving too far—classic “AI paralysis.” And then you’ve got vendors selling these shiny benchmarks, but half the time those leaderboards are measuring nothing useful for your business. Plus, a lot of folks just stop at ChatGPT or email plugins, never progressing to a proper workflow overhaul.

Ollie Carter

So, if someone’s listening and they’re thinking, “Alright, how do I jump from dabbling to doing?”, give us the quick playbook.

Llew Jury

First—audit where you actually show up in AI tools. Are you visible if someone asks ChatGPT about what you do? Second—literally whiteboard your tool stack and where all that manual effort’s going. That’s the map to your pain points. Last thing, pick one chunky bottleneck—whether it’s follow-ups, invoices, or reporting—deploy an AI agent to eat up that problem for one quarter. Measure the time, and build up from there, bite by bite, not a big bang rewrite.

Ollie Carter

Spot on. Don’t try to become a robot overnight, just declutter the worst bits you’ve got and check if the ROI’s real. Start with search, visualize the pain, fix the bottleneck—then see what changes next quarter.

Llew Jury

Exactly. Keep it simple, keep it practical. That $35 billion isn’t going to find itself. Gotta turn curiosity into action, little wins at a time. Good chat, Ollie.

Ollie Carter

Thanks Llew, always a pleasure. Alright, that wraps us for this week on The AI Intelligence Podcast—with thanks to Advancer! And thanks for joining us, we’ll be back soon with more ways to help you make AI actually work for your business. Catch you next time, Llew.

Llew Jury

Thanks Ollie, see ya next episode. Have a good one, everyone!