How much does AI cost for a small business?
Less than doing nothing. Every build is scoped and quoted fixed price before work starts, so you have a number in writing after the gap analysis, no surprises, no lock in. Compare that against what the admin already costs you: businesses that adopt AI report saving four or more hours a week, often much more.
How do I pay for a build?
You get a fixed quote in writing before anything starts. You pay half to start, and the second half only when it is working in your business.
How long does a custom AI build take?
28 days. It starts with a free 15 minute call, then a gap analysis in week one, then a scope and fixed quote you approve before anything is built. The first working version is delivered at day 21 so you can test it on real work, your feedback goes in, and the final system goes live and your team is trained at day 28. Support continues after go live.
Where do I even start with AI in my small business?
Start with one problem, not a platform. Pick the job that eats the most hours, quoting, phones, reports, compliance, and fix that first. That's what the gap analysis does: a free 15 minute call, then a map of where AI actually pays off in your business before you spend a dollar on building anything.
Do I need technical staff to use AI in my business?
No. That's the whole point of how I build: you get a working system in 28 days, your team gets trained on it, and ongoing support keeps it running as your business changes. You run your business; the system just quietly does the admin.
Is my business data safe with AI?
It has to be, I build for NDIS and aged care providers where privacy isn't optional. On the scoping call I'll walk you through exactly where your data lives, what the AI can see, and what it can't. If a vendor can't answer that question plainly, walk away.
Will AI replace my staff?
No, and I'd know. I've employed more than 900 people over 20 years. AI done right takes the boring work off your people, the data entry, the after hours quoting, the report writing, so the humans do the work that needs a human. I build to keep good staff, not replace them.
How quickly will I see a return on AI?
You should feel it in the first weeks after go live, hours coming back. Because a working version lands at day 21, you're testing it on real work before the build is even finished. If the hours aren't coming back, we fix the build, not the invoice.
Is AI actually useful for a small business, or just hype?
Both exist. Plenty of hype, and plenty of real results: my clients get back 15 hours a week on admin and 3 hours a day on quoting. The test is simple, does it remove hours from a job you already do every week? If AI can't genuinely fix your problem, I'll tell you on the first call and save us both the time.
How do I know an AI vendor is trustworthy?
Ask them what businesses they've run, not built for, run. Ask for a fixed quote in writing. And make sure there's a human you can ring when something matters. With me you get a grandfather in Brisbane on the other end of the phone, not a chatbot and a ticket queue.
What does Ask Yr Grandpa do?
Ask Yr Grandpa is an AI consultancy and product studio based in Brisbane, Australia, founded by Gus Gale after more than 20 years running businesses across NDIS, aged care, youth justice, residential care, community services, trades and labour hire. It builds custom AI for any Australian or New Zealand business, delivered in 28 days, and runs six live platforms: Titus CRM for NDIS, aged care and community providers; LIFE-AI, funeral home management software for independent funeral directors; Cater2Me for catering and events businesses; GetSignQuote for sign, print and trades businesses; ShipSorted for shipping and freight; and Poto AI for mentoring organisations. Roster Agent for security companies is coming soon. A custom AI Receptionist is still available as a scoped 28 day build, not as a seventh live SaaS listing.
Do you work with businesses outside the NDIS and community sector?
Yes. The roots are in community services, but the custom AI build works for any service based business. Live platforms already cover catering and events (Cater2Me), sign, print and trades (GetSignQuote), funeral homes (LIFE-AI), and mentoring organisations (Poto AI). The custom build pipeline has delivered for trades, construction and professional services. If your business loses time to admin, manual quoting, repetitive workflows or compliance paperwork, those are exactly the problems AI fixes. The 28 day process is the same regardless of industry.
Do you work with organisations outside Australia?
Yes. Poto AI serves mentoring organisations across New Zealand and Australia, and Titus CRM and custom AI builds are available to any service based business in either country. English speaking operators elsewhere can take the same video discovery call; quotes are in Australian dollars. See the AI consultant New Zealand and AI for small business pages for how that works. The studio is headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland and runs on Australian Eastern time.
How does AI help NDIS, aged care and community organisations?
It removes the administrative load these providers carry daily. For NDIS providers, Titus CRM automates progress notes, screens recruitment candidates around the clock, answers inbound calls through an AI receptionist, generates compliance reports, and tracks NDIS budgets against plan line items in real time, saving 15 or more hours a week in admin. For aged care providers it streamlines rostering, incident reporting, staff credentialing and client management across multiple sites. For community organisations, AI handles programme reporting, participant tracking and funder acquittals. It replaces up to six separate tools with one system.
How is Titus CRM priced?
Titus CRM can be rented weekly or the build owned outright, with no per user fees and no lock in contracts. Every plan includes the full admin portal, the field staff mobile app and all core modules. For current pricing, see titus-crm.com or ask on a free 15 minute call. 11 organisations are currently live on the platform.
Is Titus CRM compliant with NDIS audit requirements?
Yes. Titus CRM was built inside a real NDIS provider and designed against the NDIS Practice Standards from day one. It includes 18 QMS registers across governance and risk, incidents and safety, complaints and feedback, workforce and screening, and participant records, six of which auto populate from operational data. It also handles incident reporting with automatic severity classification, staff credentialing with expiry alerts, AI assisted progress notes, and NDIS budget tracking against plan line items. It was built for providers who need to pass audits, not just store data.
Do you have software for funeral homes?
Yes. LIFE-AI (life-ai.com.au) is funeral home management software for independent funeral directors, built by Ask Yr Grandpa. One system covers the work from the first call to the final invoice: the arrangement record, itemised quoting the family can actually read, a family portal so relatives can see the arrangement and the cost without ringing the office, rostering of staff, vehicles, chapels and celebrants with clash detection, supplier price lists with the margin on every line, and chain of custody so the home always knows where each person in its care is and who handled them. Foundation Offer: A$29/week + GST, 30 cases a month included, then A$9 + GST per extra case, for the first 3 funeral homes only, with no per user fees. Itemised pricing disclosure statements for Australian state regulation are built in, with Queensland and New South Wales covered in full; a funeral home in another state or country gets a general disclosure its own director is responsible for reviewing against local law. It is built for independent single location and small multi branch funeral homes rather than corporate groups.
Do you have software for catering and events?
Yes. Cater2Me (cater2me.com.au) is software for catering and events businesses, built in Australia. It collects enquiries into one inbox, turns them into quotes a customer can open on a public link, and keeps the menu, roster, run sheet and margins with the job. A$69/week + GST. One plan, no per user fees, 7 days free, no lock in. It is not a restaurant POS.
Who is Gus Gale?
Gus Gale is a Brisbane based founder and builder with over 20 years running businesses in NDIS disability support, aged care, youth justice, residential care, school mentoring, trades and labour hire, employing more than 900 staff along the way. He has been knocked down more times than he can count and rebuilt each time. He now channels that experience into six live platforms, Titus CRM, LIFE-AI, Cater2Me, GetSignQuote, ShipSorted and Poto AI, plus Roster Agent for security companies (coming soon), a custom AI build service, and the lessons shared openly through Ask Yr Grandpa with no paywalls.
