Quanton has launched operations in Australia, expanding the New Zealand-founded AI and automation consultancy’s presence in a market where many companies are struggling to turn their AI spending into revenue.
Ursula Riemer, Strategic Engagement Director and Australia Country Manager, is leading the practice from Adelaide as the company builds out its Australian customer and delivery footprint.
The launch follows a decade of work in Australia and New Zealand focused on automation and AI projects. Quanton said its efforts have saved organizations in the region more than 6 million manual hours.
This expansion comes as companies continue to increase their investments in AI while reporting mixed results from their implementation. Quanton argues that the main barrier is not the technology itself, but how organizations approach implementation, particularly in terms of leadership, culture, and change management.
Research cited by Quanton points to a large gap between adoption and value. RAND Corporation’s 2025 analysis found that more than 80% of AI projects fail to deliver meaningful business value, which the company later said was confirmed by Gartner.
Other studies suggest a similar pattern. A 2026 Enterprise Survey by Writer found that despite widespread adoption, only 29% of organizations are seeing a significant return on investment from generative AI. Meanwhile, a KPMG survey of 274 Australian executives found that AI-related issues are a top business concern in the short and medium term.
The Technology Council of Australia’s 2026 Technology Leaders Survey further adds to this, finding that only 7% of business leaders believe Australia has the capacity and infrastructure to meet future AI demands.
Garry Green, managing director at Quanton, said many organizations still view AI as a procurement decision rather than a broader business transformation issue.
“The question most organizations have is: Which AI tools should I buy? That’s the wrong question,” Green said.
“The right question is: do we have the leadership capacity, the desire for behavior change, the systems and data maturity to actually make this work? Most people don’t. No amount of technology will solve the problem.”
He said he has repeatedly seen companies run successful pilots but fail to scale across the organization.
“We’ve seen this pattern repeat itself dozens of times,” Green said.
“Companies invest in AI, run successful pilots, declare victory, and then spend the next 18 months figuring out why they weren’t able to scale. The pilot went well. The organization wasn’t ready.”
Regional expansion
Founded in Auckland in 2016, Quanton said it launched New Zealand’s first robotic process automation program and has since worked with organizations in banking, insurance, utilities, logistics, healthcare and government. The Australian launch is also aimed at providing closer support to existing Australian customers.
Mr Riemer said the Australian market did not need another supplier solely focused on AI tools.
“Australian businesses don’t need another AI vendor right now. They need a partner who’s already done the hard work, who knows where AI implementations are stalling, how the wrong company culture can undermine change, and how to build the internal capacity to make AI stick.”
“We’ve spent 10 years at ANZ learning those lessons and we’re bringing all of that here.”
Quanton said this works across readiness assessment, implementation and executive enablement, and is aimed at helping clients build internal capacity rather than relying on external advisors long-term.
leadership focus
The company also used the announcement to highlight its Executive AI Leadership Program for C-suite executives. Quanton said the program combines AI transformation strategy with behavioral science leadership and is co-directed by Green and behavioral science expert Mark Carter.
Green said companies that are more advanced in AI adoption tend to share similar organizational characteristics.
“Organizations that are winning with AI today have three things in common,” says Green.
“They are aligning executives on what AI is actually for. They are investing in change infrastructure, not just the tools, but people, governance, and culture. And they start by looking clearly at where they actually are, not where they want to be. Most organizations are missing at least two of those three.”
He said much of the executive training offered on the market still focuses too much on explaining technology rather than preparing leaders to manage organizational change.
“Most AI leadership programs teach about technology,” Green says.
“This builds the ability to really lead change in strategy, governance, culture and AI, as well as the accountability of colleagues and the right technology to make it ingrained. We saw real demand and launched the program with global corporate leadership in Asia Pacific. They quickly understood the value of what was on offer and over the next four months sessions will be run in Sydney, Singapore and Auckland.”
