Last week gave us a pretty clear snapshot of where the market actually is. We ran four in-person AI sessions across Melbourne and Sydney, caught up with a number of clients, and had part of our Philippines team over.
Nothing overly structured, but a lot of time in rooms with agency owners and consultants talking about what's actually changing.
What we're seeing on the ground
ChatGPT, note takers, sourcing tools, CRM add-ons — that part isn't the issue anymore. What's missing is how AI actually fits into the way teams operate day to day.
Almost every group said the same thing: "We're using it a bit, but it's not really changing much." And that's accurate.
So it feels like progress, but output doesn't really move. The teams getting real value are doing something slightly different. They're not more advanced — they're just more deliberate. They've stepped back and looked at where time is actually going, what parts of the role repeat, and what slows the desk down. Then they've built AI into those specific parts of the workflow.
From "using AI" to "changing how the desk runs."
It's not about doing new things. It's improving what's already happening — in exactly the right places.
Where impact is actually happening
1:1 prep based on real data. Coaching based on actual conversations. BD follow-ups driven by engagement, not memory.
Take one job brief and build everything from it — ads, outreach, candidate packs, interview prep. Structured outputs that are repeatable.
What used to take a few hours now takes a fraction of the time. But more importantly, the starting point is better — which makes everything downstream easier.
The bigger shift
This was probably the most important point from the week. Saving time doesn't matter on its own. If AI gives you back 10 to 15 hours a week, the question is: what happens next? Does activity increase? Do conversations increase? Do billings move?
Because if none of that changes, nothing's actually improved. The opportunity isn't just efficiency — it's capacity. And how that capacity gets used is what separates teams.
A personal note
We had part of the Philippines team over this quarter and honestly, it was one of the highlights. The goal wasn't just to get work done — we wanted them to experience Melbourne and Sydney, so we made time for that alongside everything else.
Redwood forest, the zoo, Sydney harbour. One of the team had her birthday while she was here, which turned into a full Bohemian Rhapsody singalong at a piano bar! They wrapped up by joining us for our end-of-quarter Agency Owner BBQ, which was a nice way to finish it off.
When you spend time like that together, offshore doesn't really feel like offshore. It just feels like one team.
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