About
About Graham
Finance and operations professional turned AI builder. I bridge the gap between business needs and technology solutions — and I reckon that's where the magic happens.
My Story
I spent 20+ years in finance and operations — managing multi-million dollar budgets, implementing business systems, and finding ways to make companies run more efficiently. From construction firms to resource companies, I've seen first-hand how much time and money gets wasted on manual processes.
One stint stands out. As CFO of a regional airline, I steered the business through the 9/11 aftermath and the Ansett collapse landing at the same time — renegotiating with bankers, holding the cash position, keeping 200+ staff paid while the industry was in freefall. You learn a lot about what matters when everything's on the line at once.
When AI tools started becoming practical in late 2022, I saw the opportunity immediately. Not the hype — the real, practical applications. The accounts payable clerk spending hours on data entry. The estimator taking days to produce a cost report. The manager drowning in emails. These are problems I'd spent my career trying to solve with spreadsheets and systems. AI changes everything.
I've been watching business disruption and data-driven decision-making since 2018 — so this isn't a bandwagon for me. It's the direction I've been pointing at for years, finally with the tools to back it up.
So I taught myself to build. Python, React, Next.js, APIs — not from a CS degree, but from a genuine need to make things work. I built an AI assistant that manages my email and makes phone calls, a paediatric drug calculator for emergency nurses, and a field sample scanner for geologists on remote mining sites. I also put together a spreadsheet column-correction tool for messy data imports, a cycling activity analyser that turns Garmin data into useful insights, an AI-powered interactive audiobook player to help students with PDF study materials, and a fully automated video production pipeline. Each project taught me something new about what AI can actually do for businesses.
Now I'm offering that same approach to other Australian businesses. Not with jargon or hype, but with practical solutions designed by someone who understands both the technology and the business problems it's solving.
Beyond Work
Based in Perth, Western Australia. When I'm not building AI solutions, you'll find me out on the road bike — usually with a group called the Fat Bastards — or involved with the local Men's Shed.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who is Graham Blackwell?
- Graham Blackwell is an Australian AI consultant based in Perth, Western Australia. He spent 20+ years in finance and business systems leadership at WA civil and mining-services firms, most recently Halo Civil Engineering, before moving full-time into practical AI consulting for small-to-mid businesses.
- What does Graham Blackwell do?
- Graham helps Australian SMEs adopt AI through three productised offers: a fixed-price AI Readiness Review (from AUD $2,500), a 4-week AI Implementation Sprint (from AUD $12,000), and an ongoing AI Advisor Retainer (from AUD $1,500 per month). Focus areas include accounts payable automation, document processing, and AI assistants for finance and operations workflows. Graham knows the construction-stack systems most WA SMEs run — Procore, InEight, Jobpac, MYOB, Xero — from years implementing them firsthand.
- Where is Graham Blackwell based?
- Perth, Western Australia. Graham serves clients across Australia and has deep on-the-ground knowledge of the Western Australian civil construction and mining services sector.
- What industries does Graham work with?
- Graham works with Australian small and mid-sized businesses — from sole traders through to civil engineering, earthworks, mining services, drilling, and specialty subcontractor SMEs. He has hands-on experience implementing Procore, Xero, MYOB, ApprovalMax, Definitiv payroll, Calxa, and AssetAccountant across civil construction and mining-services businesses, including a full MYOB-to-Xero migration across multiple entities.
- What is Graham's professional background?
- Graham was Finance and Business Systems Manager at Halo Civil Engineering through to October 2025, where he helped lead the successful rescue of another civil contractor out of voluntary administration via a Deed of Company Arrangement, integrating and building it up as part of the Halo group, and managed finance across multiple entities at $60 million turnover. Prior to that he held a Business Systems Specialist role at a WA mining-services firm, implementing Procore, MYOB, Xero, ApprovalMax, and Definitiv across the operation.