Is Your Business AI-Ready — or AI-Exposed?
Heavy industry contractors are facing a convergence of regulatory pressure, principal and prime contractor scrutiny, and unchecked shadow AI risk.
The window to act strategically — before compliance becomes crisis — is closing fast.
AI That Works helps you understand exactly where Sovereign AI is essential, where SaaS is sufficient, and what your 12-month roadmap looks like.
Sovereign AI Assessment
Strategy & Governance
The Challenge: Four Forces Converging Now
Heavy industry contractors are navigating a compliance and competitive landscape that has fundamentally shifted. Ignoring these pressures isn't a neutral position — it's a liability.
Regulatory Tightening
SOCI, DTA, IRAP, and AS/NZS 42001 are moving from guidance to enforcement. The regulatory cliff hits between 2026–28. Boards and GCs that aren't across these obligations are exposed.
Prime Contractor Pressure
RFQs are increasingly demanding AI governance statements, data sovereignty evidence, and compliance credentials. Contractors without documented frameworks are being screened out before shortlisting.
Shadow AI Risk
67% of staff are using ChatGPT or similar tools without policy controls. Proprietary bid data, engineering specs, and client information are leaving your organisation daily — untracked and unprotected.
"Build It Yourself" Paralysis
Internal teams can't answer three fundamental questions: where to invest, what to build sovereign, and what to buy. Without a decision framework, budgets stall and competitors move ahead.
The cost of inaction is measurable. The competitive advantage window is now — not after the next tender cycle.
What We Do: Three Questions That Drive the Assessment
Prop Power's Sovereign AI Assessment is a structured advisory engagement — not a software implementation, not a vendor pitch. We answer three questions that no internal team can objectively answer alone.
1
Where Is Sovereign Essential vs SaaS Acceptable?
We classify every AI use case across three tiers: Essential (sovereign required — bid pricing, compliance data, safety systems), Valuable Optional (sovereign preferred but SaaS viable with controls), and Overkill (standard SaaS is the right call). This removes decision paralysis and stops over-engineering.
2
What Are Your Governance & Regulatory Gaps?
A forensic review of your current posture against SOCI, IRAP, DTA, AS/NZS 42001, and the Privacy Act. We identify actual gaps — not theoretical ones — and prioritise them by risk and remediation cost.
3
What Is Your 12-Month Roadmap and Cost?
A sequenced, costed action plan that your ELT can approve and your operations team can execute. Tied to ROI evidence: tender automation at $130k/year, reporting at $140k/year, with 3–6 month payback periods.
What You Get: Deliverables by Phase
The assessment is structured across three phases, each producing board-ready outputs with direct commercial application. Every deliverable is tied to a heavy industry use case with documented ROI.
Phase 1 Outputs
- Regulatory exposure map (SOCI, IRAP, DTA, AS/NZS 42001)
- Shadow AI risk register with staff exposure quantification
- C-suite briefing pack — board-ready, GC-approved language
Phase 2 & 3 Outputs
- AI opportunity report with sovereign vs SaaS classification
- Architecture options across Azure Container Apps, AKS, AUCloud
- Governance blueprint, pilot pack, and prioritised 12-month roadmap
ROI Benchmarks: What the Numbers Look Like
These figures are drawn from documented outcomes in heavy industry deployments including Fortescue, BHP, and Tier 2 civil contractors using Buildxact and Doreva. Your numbers will vary — but the order of magnitude is consistent.
$130K
Tender Automation
Annual savings from AI-assisted bid preparation. 75% reduction in tender compilation time.
$140K
Reporting Automation
Annual savings from automated compliance and progress reporting across project portfolios.
$550K
Portfolio ROI Ceiling
Aggregate annual benefit identified in mid-tier contractor assessments across all AI use cases.
3–6 mo
Typical Payback
Assessment investment recovered through first-wave AI automation savings.
These are not projections built on optimistic assumptions. They reflect documented savings from contractors operating in the same lanes — mining services, civil infrastructure, energy, and resources.
Typical Investment: Three Engagement Bands
Fees are scoped to your organisation's complexity — revenue, entity count, regulatory exposure, and AI maturity. All engagements include steering calls, facilitated workshops, and a formal executive presentation.
Optional Add-On: Compliance Audit
Formal IRAP or AS/NZS 42001 gap audit with remediation schedule. Scoped separately.
Optional Add-On: Board Workshop
Half-day facilitated session for board members and GC on AI governance obligations and risk posture.
Why Now: Four Time-Sensitive Drivers
This is not a "plan for next financial year" decision. Each of the four drivers below has a hard timeline attached — and the cost of delay compounds with each passing quarter.
1
Regulatory Cliff 2026–28
SOCI amendments, DTA mandates, and AS/NZS 42001 enforcement timelines converge between 2026 and 2028. Organisations without documented AI governance will face audit, penalty, and exclusion from government supply chains.
2
Prime Contractor Pressure
Tier 1 primes are embedding AI governance requirements in RFQ prequalification criteria now. Contractors without a governance statement are being filtered before evaluation. This is already happening on Commonwealth and state infrastructure projects.
3
Cost-Competitive Window
First movers in sovereign AI for heavy industry are locking in efficiency gains — $130K–$550K p.a. — ahead of the market. That gap widens every tender cycle. Early adopters build pricing and delivery advantages that compound.
4
Shadow AI Liability
Every day without a shadow AI policy is a day of unmanaged IP leakage, Privacy Act exposure, and potential SOCI breach. The 67% staff usage figure means this is not a future risk — it is a current, active liability on your balance sheet.
How We Work: Strategy First, Always
What Prop Power Is
We are strategy and governance advisors. We are not software builders, not resellers, and not system integrators. Our only obligation is to give you an objective, evidence-based assessment of where AI creates value and where it creates risk in your specific operation.
This means our recommendations are vendor-agnostic and pathway-neutral. We tell you what's right for your business — not what's convenient for a product margin.
Your Options After Assessment
At the conclusion of the engagement, three pathways are available. There is no lock-in and no preferred outcome on our side.
- Build internally: Assessment outputs are detailed enough for your team to execute the roadmap independently
- Engage Prop Power for delivery: We can support governance implementation, policy development, and pilot delivery
- Outsource to vetted partners: We maintain alliances with MindHive, AUCloud, and Microsoft Azure partners for technical implementation
Our infrastructure references: Azure Container Apps, AKS, AUCloud sovereign hosting, and MindHive's AI governance frameworks inform our architecture recommendations — without commercial bias.
About Prop Power: Built for This Industry
Heavy Industry DNA
Our practice was built in the sectors we serve — mining, energy, civil infrastructure, and resources. We understand the operational, contractual, and regulatory environment that Tier 2–3 contractors navigate daily. This isn't applied from the outside; it's built from the inside out.
Sovereign AI Frameworks
We have developed and deployed sovereign AI governance frameworks aligned to DTA, IRAP, SOCI, and AS/NZS 42001. Our work references outcomes at scale — informed by approaches taken at Rio, BHP, Fortescue, and leading Tier 2 contractors using platforms like Buildxact and Doreva.
Alliance Network
We maintain active alliances with MindHive for AI governance tooling, AUCloud for sovereign hosting infrastructure, and Microsoft Azure partners for scalable deployment. Clients benefit from pre-negotiated commercial arrangements and implementation pathways that have already been stress-tested.
Ready to Get Clarity in Eight Weeks?
Book a 45-minute discovery call. No obligation, no pitch deck — just a structured conversation about your current AI exposure, regulatory obligations, and where the highest-value opportunities sit in your operation.
At the end of the call, if there's a fit, we provide a tailored Statement of Work within five business days. The SoW is fixed-fee, scoped to your organisation's complexity, and structured to deliver board-ready outputs within your assessment band.
Step 1
45-minute discovery call — current posture, key risks, opportunity areas
Step 2
Tailored Statement of Work delivered within 5 business days
Step 3
Assessment commences — board-ready outputs in 6–12 weeks
The window is open now. Contractors who complete their sovereign AI assessment in the next two quarters will enter the 2026 tender cycle with a documented governance framework, a competitive advantage, and measurable cost savings already in motion. Those who wait will be catching up under duress.