Which AI tools are worth paying for in a small business? (Australia and New Zealand)

For most small businesses in Australia and New Zealand, the AI worth paying for is the AI inside the software you already pay for, plus one general assistant on a business plan. That usually means the AI built into your accounting software (Xero's JAX or MYOB's AI features), Microsoft 365 Copilot if the business already runs on Microsoft 365, and a business plan for one chat assistant such as ChatGPT, so client work stays off staff's personal accounts. The cost that decides whether any of it pays back is not the licence; it is whether staff are trained to use it on their own work.

Prices below are as each vendor listed them on its own Australian or New Zealand page on 30 October 2026. They change, so check before you buy.

What does Microsoft 365 Copilot cost a small business?

Copilot Business is an add-on, sold per user to businesses already on an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan, or bundled with Business Standard or Premium.

Sources: Microsoft's Australian and New Zealand Copilot pricing pages.

Microsoft also includes Copilot Chat at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 plans when staff sign in with a work account. It is the cheapest place to build habits before you pay for seats.

Worth it when: most of the team's work happens in Word, Outlook, Excel and Teams, and the files Copilot can read are tidy. Copilot works on your own files and mail, so over-shared folders become a privacy risk; fix permissions before switching it on.

What AI is already in Xero and MYOB?

• Xero JAX is available to all Xero subscribers in Australia and New Zealand, and Xero says there is currently no extra charge for the chat. It can, for example, create an invoice from an earlier quote. Automatic matching of high-confidence bank transactions sits on the higher plans. Xero Australia · Xero New Zealand
• MYOB has Ask Iris for questions about the books, Smart Reconciliation that only auto-matches at 90% confidence or more, an AI BAS feature in beta in Australia, and a connector in beta that gives Claude or ChatGPT read-only access to the books. MYOB Australia · MYOB New Zealand

Worth it when: you already use the software. The question is not whether to buy it but who reviews what it does. Someone still has to reject wrong bank matches, keep the records (five years in Australia, seven in New Zealand) and answer for the BAS or GST return.

Is a ChatGPT business plan worth it?

If staff are already using ChatGPT for work, yes, mainly for control rather than features. OpenAI sells business workspaces with admin controls and says business data is not used to train its models by default, which is a different arrangement from staff's free personal accounts. Its price is listed in US dollars on OpenAI's site.

It does not remove your privacy duties. In Australia the OAIC recommends not entering personal information into publicly available AI tools; in New Zealand the Privacy Commissioner expects a privacy impact assessment and no personal information in prompts unless the provider confirms it is not retained. See Australia's Privacy Act and ChatGPT and New Zealand's Privacy Act and ChatGPT.

What should a small business not pay for yet?

• A second and third assistant for the same job. Pick one, approve it, and train on it.
• An AI tool for a process nobody has written down. If the steps are not clear to a person, an AI will not make them clearer.
• Seats for everyone on day one. Start with the people who write the most, and add seats when they are using them every week.

How do you know it is paying back?

Measure before and after on the same tasks: how long a quote, a client letter or a month-end close takes, and how often the output needs fixing. Our piece on measuring the return on AI training sets out a simple version.

Square1 Ai trains small business teams in Australia and New Zealand on these tools, live online: see Copilot, ChatGPT for staff and AI for office admin in Australia, and the same pages for New Zealand.