“AI isn’t there to replace what you do. It’s an accelerant of your existing capability.” — Matteo Castiello, Insurgence
I’ll be honest with you, AI is a topic I find genuinely exciting. Not in a tech-for-tech’s-sake way, but in a ‘this is going to change everything for regional businesses if we get it right’ kind of way. And this week on The Business Huddle, I got to sit down with two people who are doing something about it right here in Gippsland.
Jules Blundell is TAFE Gippsland’s General Manager of Innovation and Product Strategy, and Matteo Castiello is the expert behind their new Accelerating AI for Your Business workshops hands-on, practical sessions designed specifically for business owners who want to start using AI confidently, without needing a technical background.
What followed was one of the most energising conversations we’ve had on the show. Here are the insights I think every Gippsland business owner needs to take away.
AI is already in your business — you just might not know it yet
One of the first things Matteo said that really landed for me was this: AI is a general purpose technology. It’s less like a single tool and more like electricity, it shows up in different forms, across different tasks, and the businesses that learn to harness it are already pulling ahead.
Australia is actually one of the fastest growing countries in the world for ChatGPT users with 157% year-on-year growth. That means there are people in your industry, in your region, quietly using these tools to draft emails faster, research competitors, create content, and streamline workflows. The question isn’t whether AI is coming to your sector. It’s whether you’re going to be ready when it does.
At 3 Little Birds, we’re already integrating AI tools into how we work, generating ideas, helping clients maintain consistency across their marketing when they don’t have a dedicated team. The time savings are real. But so is the learning curve, which is exactly why conversations like this one matter.
The hesitation isn’t about the technology, it’s about confidence
Jules made a really important observation when I asked what she’s seeing on the ground in Gippsland. Most businesses aren’t reluctant because they think AI is a bad idea. They’re hesitant because they’re worried about getting it wrong, about data security, about doing something they can’t undo, about looking foolish in front of a tool that seems smarter than them.
That fear is completely understandable. And it’s also, largely, unfounded.
Matteo walked us through the data piece clearly: if you have a paid subscription to any of the major tools like ChatGPT, Copilot or Claude you can simply toggle off the setting that allows your data to be used to retrain the model. Once you do that, using AI is genuinely no riskier than using email. Your data sits in a secure data centre, likely within Australia, and that’s that.
The bigger risk, as Matteo put it, is treating AI like a magic answer machine and publishing whatever it gives you without checking it. Think of it like a smart new intern. Enthusiastic, capable, surprisingly good, but still needs your expertise and your review before anything goes out the door.
The ‘Lego approach’ is the right one for small business
Jules shared how TAFE Gippsland is rolling out AI internally and the philosophy is exactly what I’d recommend to any small business owner: start small and keep building.
They’re working with Copilot, running a technology working group, experimenting with AI agents for compliance checking, and building from there. One task at a time. One process at a time. Not trying to revolutionise everything overnight.
This is something I talk to clients about at 3 Little Birds constantly. You don’t need to overhaul your entire operation to benefit from AI. Start with one repetitive task like drafting your weekly email, summarising a meeting, writing a first pass at social content and let the confidence grow from there. Matteo put it perfectly: “Start using it. Ask it five questions about your role and your business, and let it tell you how it can help you.” That’s genuinely one of the best places to start.
Regional businesses have a real opportunity to leapfrog
Here’s the stat that I think should get every Gippsland business owner’s attention: for the 40% of micro businesses and 52% of medium businesses that are integrating AI into their operations, stronger revenue growth and higher productivity are already being reported.
And here’s what Matteo pointed out that genuinely surprised me, regional businesses aren’t necessarily behind. Because the barriers to accessing AI tools are so low, and because the technology is moving so fast, there’s an opportunity for businesses in regions like ours to actually leapfrog more established organisations that have invested heavily in older systems.
I see this in marketing all the time. A smart, digitally savvy regional business is no longer limited by its postcode. Online, there’s no ceiling. And for businesses willing to embrace that, the playing field is more level than it has ever been.
Humans are still running the show and that’s the point
If there’s one misconception that Jules and Matteo were both passionate about clearing up, it’s this: AI is not coming for your job. It’s coming for your most tedious tasks.
Jules put it beautifully when talking about her own team: “It’s not about losing your job. It’s about changing what you do and how you do it.” AI works at a task level within a process, not at the level of an entire role. The human thinking — the strategy, the relationships, the creativity, the review — that’s still yours. AI just handles more of the drudge work in the middle.
That’s a message I believe wholeheartedly. At 3 Little Birds, AI makes us faster and more consistent. It doesn’t make us less us. And the businesses that understand that distinction are going to be the ones that use it most effectively.
Listen to the full chat with Jules and Matteo on GippslandFM below.