Acquire Intelligence buys Applied AI Australia in boardroom AI push
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Acquire Intelligence, a Melbourne-based AI consulting and business process outsourcing (BPO) firm with more than 9,500 staff across Australia, the United States, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic, has acquired Applied AI Australia, an executive AI advisory firm targeting the Australian mid-market.
According to a company press release, the deal adds boardroom-level AI strategy and governance advisory to Acquire Intelligence’s consulting and outsourcing capabilities, backed by a full consulting fee refund if viable value is not identified. No financial terms were disclosed.
Applied AI Australia founder Ramon Rodriguez joins as General Manager of Market Advisory and continues hosting the Applied AI Australia podcast.
Acquisition builds complete AI advisory-to-delivery model
Applied AI Australia’s advisory — covering AI readiness assessments, strategy briefings, and governance frameworks — now opens every Acquire Intelligence engagement before implementation scope is agreed.
The combined firm targets Australian mid-market organizations between $100 million and $1 billion in revenue, where Big 4 firms cannot profitably serve at scale and boutique operators cannot credibly deliver end-to-end.
If viable value is not identified before a dollar is committed, Acquire Intelligence refunds consulting fees in full.
“AI is only useful if it does one of three things: grow the business with less, cut the cost of running it, or get the product out the door faster,” said Scott Stavretis, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Acquire Intelligence.
Rodriguez brings podcast and executive audience to acquire
Applied AI Australia was built around a gap Rodriguez identified: board leaders approving AI budgets without a commercial framework for evaluating them.
The Applied AI Australia podcast — reaching Australian CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs actively making AI investment decisions — gives Acquire Intelligence a direct distribution channel to enterprise buyers at the moment of budget commitment.
Rodriguez’s transition to General Manager of Market Advisory places Applied AI Australia’s boardroom methodology inside a firm with delivery capacity across four countries.
“Our advisory finds the biggest and best wins for your business — the ones that deliver the most ROI without excessive costs or budget blowouts,” Stavretis added.
Australian enterprise AI investment is projected to reach $4.14 billion by 2030 from $644 million in 2024, per Grand View Research.
KPMG‘s 2025 CEO Outlook found 70% of Australian CEOs rank AI a top investment priority, yet a 2026 Tech Council and Datacom survey found only 7% believe Australia has the capability to match it.
The CSIRO National AI Centre and Forrester Consulting found Australian businesses averaging A$361,315 in revenue growth per AI-enabled solution implemented.
For Acquire Intelligence, the acquisition positions the combined firm as the advisory layer that determines which AI projects get funded — and which firms deliver them.
Acquire Intelligence recently ranked #7 in the OA500 2026, an objective index of the world’s top 500 outsourcing companies.
The company is currently subscribed as an Outsource Accelerator (OA) BPO Partner. Through OA’s Marketing, Sales, and Source Partner Hubs, the firm accesses a unified growth platform designed to convert high-intent prospects and accelerate deal flow in the outsourcing industry.
