Applied AI Australia
Ramon Rodriguez, Executive AI Advisor and Founder, Applied AI Australia.
Ramon Rodriguez
I bring 15 years in commercial leadership, including nine years at News Corp Australia, to the decisions organisations face regarding AI: capital allocation, workflow redesign, value measurement, and accountable ownership.
An AI tool can produce a compelling demonstration without improving the underlying business. Faster first-draft production can create longer review queues. Automating a task may release hours without reducing cost or expanding capacity. Policy documents can describe controls that staff do not execute.
Advisory engagements encompass opportunity audits, operational reviews, governance frameworks, leadership counsel, and automated-decision disclosure. Every engagement starts with the commercial question and available evidence.
I partner with boards and executive teams so AI survives contact with the business and shows up in the numbers.
Every Australian organisation I walk into has the same four breakdowns. My Applied AI Framework fixes each one in order.
Revenue, Cost, Time, or Risk.
Companies run pilots that look exciting but never move the needle. Innovation theatre at scale. Expensive strategy decks and stalled pilots are the norm, and executives are tired of paying for them.
Every AI idea gets one brutal filter. Does this increase revenue, reduce cost, compress time, or materially reduce risk? If the answer is no, it's noise.
A short, board-ready list of AI initiatives that actually matter.
Organisations drop a tool on top of a broken workflow and call it transformation. The verification tax, humans checking the AI, wipes out the savings.
We don't buy in. We redesign the work.
A redesigned workflow and an Operational Task Ledger.
Start with the ledger, not the lab.
Pilots launch without being tied to a P&L line item. No baseline cost. No CFO stage-gate. Six months later, no one can say if it worked.
Every initiative is tied to a budget line before tech is deployed. We set a 90-day baseline and a CFO-co-owned stage-gate. If we can't tie it to a dollar outcome or defined risk reduction, we pause the build.
A one-page Commercial Ledger for every AI initiative.
The 10-20-70 rule.
Most AI failure is people and process. Technology vendors sell you technology anyway. Boards buy the deck. The frontline never adopts it.
I operationalise the 70%. AI literacy becomes a mandate. Existing domain experts are activated, not replaced. Every role gets clear guardrails on when to use AI and how to escalate.
A practical AI operating playbook that survives staff turnover.
Connected advisory and global delivery capability
Applied AI Australia was acquired by Acquire Intelligence in May 2026. Ramon Rodriguez leads the advisory practice and commercial assessment. Where an engagement indicates a requirement for software engineering, automation, or managed operating support, Acquire can scope delivery separately.
The relationship is explicit. A recommendation to engage Acquire stands on its technical and commercial fit. Internal execution or third-party delivery may also represent the correct path.
Regular conversations with executives across commercial leadership, technology, data, risk, and operations inform our advisory frameworks. These discussions bring diverse operating perspectives into our published research and client recommendations.
Podcast appearances represent independent peer discussions rather than formal client endorsements.
Provide a brief overview of your current workflow, pending investment choice, or board requirement to begin.
Five business days. Board-ready output.