What AI does
Copilot in Outlook or Gemini in Gmail drafts replies to course enquiries using your approved catalogue — dates, prices, venues and prerequisites — and prepares enrolment details for staff to check.
Practical AI for small and medium businesses
How a training provider could save about $61,000 a year in staff time with AI
At a glance
The short version
What it costs
About $15,000 to set up and $525 a month to run with AI automation.
What it saves
Pays for itself in about 6 months, then about $61,167 a year in staff time, after running costs.
This is an illustrative example, not a past client project. It uses AI features the vendors document today and our cost model. Your own figures depend on your workload and costs.
What would it be worth for your team? Enter your team size and hours for a quick estimate.
Try the AI Savings and ROI calculatorStep by step
How AI helps
Today: A provider with 10–30 staff running many public courses each month, handling about 400 enquiry and enrolment emails a week. Staff answer the same questions about dates, prices, prerequisites and locations, then copy attendee details into the booking system: about 12 minutes each.
What AI does
- Copilot (or Gemini) reads the enquiry and identifies the course and question.
- It drafts a reply from your approved catalogue file, quoting dates, prices and course codes exactly.
- It flags anything not in the catalogue for a person to answer.
- For bookings, it summarises attendee details from the email for staff to check and enter.
Your team still
- Check every reply against the catalogue and send it.
- Make all eligibility, funding, recognition and assessment decisions.
- Keep the catalogue current and enter bookings.
Tools: Microsoft 365 Copilot or Gemini, with your catalogue. Course systems such as Arlo and aXcelerate do not yet offer AI for enquiries, so we use your email tools. For RTOs, staff approval of each reply is a compliance control.
Two ways to do it
AI automation or an AI agent?
| AI automation | AI agent | |
|---|---|---|
| Tools | Microsoft 365 Copilot or Gemini, with your catalogue | ChatGPT dots (new, pilot first) |
| Set-up cost | $15,000 | $10,000 |
| Running cost a month | $525 | $1,050 |
| Pays for itself in | about 6 months | about 5 months |
| Value of time saved each year after that | $61,167 | $49,807 |
Our view: Good fit for high-volume, catalogue-based replies. For RTOs, staff approval of each reply remains a compliance control.
AI automation
Pros
- Copilot or Gemini drafts from your approved catalogue
- Low monthly running cost
- Staff approval keeps course information accurate (important for RTOs)
Cons
- Staff start each reply and enter bookings by hand
- Course systems have little AI of their own yet
AI agent
Pros
- Drafts are waiting each morning
- Could enter bookings in your course system (to be tested)
- Sends staff a daily summary
Cons
- Costs more each month
- A wrong fee or date is still a risk, so approval stays
- Your course system may block it
How an AI agent would do it
- The dot watches the enquiries inbox and drafts each reply from your approved catalogue file.
- For bookings, it prepares the attendee details and, after approval, enters them in your web-based course system through its browser.
- It sends staff a daily list of drafts and any questions outside the catalogue.
Not sure which option suits your training provider? We can help you choose and plan a pilot.
Request a consultationBefore you decide
If the saving is smaller
If AI saves 25% less time than we assume, AI automation pays for itself in about 7 months and saves about $44,300 a year. These figures value every hour saved at the hourly cost, because your team can put the time into other work, such as more clients or fewer extra hours.
What we check first
- Your weekly count of enquiry and enrolment emails and time per email.
- An approved, version-controlled course catalogue.
- For RTOs, how course codes and accredited wording must appear.
- What your team will do with the time saved, such as more client work or fewer extra hours.
Not included: Eligibility, funding and assessment decisions, automatic replies and changes to student records.
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