Source : THE AGE NEWS
Making a custom suit can take four or five weeks to make from concept to completion, plus extra time for fittings.
For designer Daniel Narvaez, founder of Mister Mister, AI offers a way to test an idea before committing to the cutting and sewing.
Using images of fabrics and styles, Narvaez visualises concepts in minutes. “I could probably build out a conceptualised collection in a day,” he says. Producing physical samples would otherwise mean months of waiting, his production team’s time and tens of thousands of dollars.
There are limitations, but the trade-off can be worthwhile. “You do lose the texture, but when the goal is to get a quick visual before deciding where to spend the money, it works.” Narvaez, a former banking business analyst, says his test for adopting new technology is simple: “It’s all about use case,” he says. “It might not be a money maker. It might be a timesaver.”
That focus on practical application is increasingly shaping how Australian small businesses approach AI. CommBank analysis shows spending with software suppliers integrating AI increased 15 per cent in FY26 as businesses seek practical ways to incorporate the technology into the tools and processes they already use.
Make time work harder
Narvaez estimates he once spent up to 20 hours a week on administration, a workload he now partially hands to AI. When migrating his website, AI turned weeks of work into days. “I essentially launched and migrated 127 pages in two nights,” he says.
Rebecca Warren, executive general manager of CommBank Small Business Banking, says this focus on everyday problems is growing.
“We’re seeing businesses move beyond experimenting with AI and become much more deliberate about where it can genuinely help them day to day,” she says. “For many small businesses, it’s about reducing manual processes, making better use of information or freeing up time to focus on customers.”
Know what to hand over
Saving time doesn’t mean letting AI do everything. When thanking loyal clients for supporting Mister Mister over its 15 years, Narvaez exported his accounting data and used AI to filter the list, removing people who had retired or relocated overseas, and identifying clients to contact personally.
“It did half the job for me,” he says, correcting himself. “Well, it did the whole job for me.”
But the next step was his. In a business built on personal relationships and taste, Narvaez knows where automation ends.
“For human-touch businesses, I think you’re better off using it as a business companion, as opposed to taking over your business,” he says. “It’s just become like my right-hand man.”
Keep the human in charge
Warren agrees useful technology gives owners better access to information while leaving important decisions in their hands.
“The real opportunity is for AI to support the person running the business, giving them more capacity to focus on customers and the decisions where their experience and judgement matter most,” she says.
One example being tested is CommBank Companion, allowing eligible business customers to ask plain-language questions about their available CommBank financial data, including cash flow and spending, helping turn information that might otherwise require manual searching, into a quicker answer.
Narvaez likens AI to a helper: capable and eager to take smaller jobs off your plate, but not the person running the show. “We are the decision makers,” he says. “It is the doer of the small task.”
Ultimately, the value of AI lies in choosing which work to hand over. Automating repetitive tasks leaves more time for the creative work and relationships that require a human touch.
As Narvaez puts it: “We started the businesses, the robot didn’t.”
Explore more ways CommBank is helping small businesses navigate emerging technologies with practical insights, tools and support at the CommBank Small Business Hub.
