Short answer
Check the licence first — ai & automation agencies are not licensed in Australia, so check qualifications and public liability insurance instead. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 14 Australian ai & automation agencies in this directory, only 35.7% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 0% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
AI & Automation Agencies handle AI assistants and chatbots, workflow automation across the tools a business already uses, custom models and the integration work that makes them reliable. This is what to check before you let one into your house, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
There is no AI and automation agency licence — so check something else
Nobody licenses AI work, and the field is new enough that most agencies are new too. What can be checked is concrete: a system they built that is running today for a client who will take a call, where your data goes and which model provider sees it, and whether the thing they build is yours to run without them. Treat any claim about what the AI will do unsupervised with the same caution you would give a new employee.
There is no national licence register in Australia — each state and territory runs its own. The regulator for your state is listed at the bottom of this guide, and checking a number takes about a minute.
What 14 Australian ai & automation agencies actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For ai & automation agencies:
| What we checked | AI & Automation Agencies | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 35.7% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 25% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 0% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 100% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 100% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 23 | 39 |
What goes wrong with ai & automation agencies
- Customer or staff data sent to a model provider under terms nobody read
- An automation that runs unsupervised with no log and no person checking its output
- A build you cannot run, change or move without the agency
What to ask before the work starts
- Which system of yours is live today, and what does it do when it is unsure?
- Where does my data go, which provider sees it, and under what agreement?
- If we part ways, what do I keep and can my own team run it?
A AI and automation agency who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median AI and automation agency in this directory has 23 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do ai & automation agencies need a licence in Australia?
- No. Nobody licenses AI work, and the field is new enough that most agencies are new too. What can be checked is concrete: a system they built that is running today for a client who will take a call, where your data goes and which model provider sees it, and whether the thing they build is yours to run without them. Treat any claim about what the AI will do unsupervised with the same caution you would give a new employee.
- How do I check an AI and automation agency's licence?
- There is no national register. Each state and territory has its own regulator — NSW Fair Trading, the Building and Plumbing Commission and Energy Safe Victoria in Victoria, QBCC in Queensland, Building and Energy in WA, Consumer and Business Services in SA, CBOS in Tasmania, Access Canberra in the ACT, and the NT Government. Search the licence number the business gives you on the regulator for the state the work is happening in.
- What percentage of Australian ai & automation agencies have a verifiable ABN?
- 35.7% of the 14 ai & automation agencies in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should an AI and automation agency have?
- The median AI and automation agency here has 23. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
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