Steve Nuttall shared important insights into the rapidly developing world of AI and its potential impact on the aftermarket at Autocare

A popular presentation at Autocare 2025 was ‘AI In The Workplace And The Workshop: Transforming The Future Of Business,’ presented by Fifth Quadrant Director, Steve Nuttall.
Fifth Quadrant is a research partner of the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA) and specialises in automotive and mobility market research, offering data-driven insights to enhance strategic decision making and growth.
In his hour-long presentation, Steve touched on the fast moving pace of AI development and discussed how AI is being applied, AI agents, and the role of robotics in automotive, while noting that he believes that the value-add offered by AI is exponential.
“(A value-add) of $115 billion or five percent of the Australian GDP is a realistic proposition, so AI is going to contribute significantly to our economy – the only uncertainty is exactly how quickly the technology can be adopted,” Steve said.
“If we’re not adopting it, none of those numbers will come to life. If we don’t have people with the right capabilities, this will not happen. If we don’t have the regulation in place, this might not happen very safely either.”
When it comes to the adoption of AI, Steve outlined ongoing research of 400 Australian SMEs and highlighted various usage cases which he says industry members would be wise to take heed of.
Leading uses for AI from the surveyed businesses included data entry (27 percent), a generative AI assistant (26 percent), fraud detection (25 percent), marketing automation (24 percent), predictive analytics (21 percent), customer support bots (20 percent), sales forecasting (19 percent), and supply chain optimisation (15 percent).
Steve recommended that attendees check out the Department of Industry’s SME AI Adoption Dashboard – accessible at www.industry.gov.au/publications/ai-adoption-tracker – for more insights and inspiration when it comes to using AI in their own businesses in their local markets.
“Perhaps even take those use cases that I listed and plug them into your favoured AI platform such as Chat GPT and prompt it, this is how SMEs in Australia are seeing the opportunity for using AI, what does that mean for me as an automotive workshop?” Steve said.
“It will give you a list of all the things that you could be doing, and you can ask for more information and examples and just really start to unpack the opportunities for your workshop or your business. It is amazing what tools as simple as this can do for your business, so don’t hesitate to learn how to use it – don’t be afraid of it.”
AI Agents were a hot topic during the discussion, with plenty of questions from the audience via the interactive Slido application which saw those enquiries transmitted to Steve in real time.
As well as providing examples of AI Agents such as part ordering assistants and predictive parts maintenance, Steve provided a first-hand demonstration of ‘Emily,’ a developing AI voice agent which is currently being trialled to conduct market research for Fifth Quadrant and called Steve and conducted a survey with her live during the seminar.
Steve played the role of the owner of an independent service and repair business. Emily asked Steve which suppliers he used and how he rated their performance. Steve mentioned that Emily is being trained for many other tasks beyond market research, such as managing inbound customer enquiries, booking customers in for a vehicle inspection and taking payments.
On robotics, Steve presented a number of examples and discussed the emergence of what was referred to as ‘the robot economy.’
“When the cost curves hit a certain point, they will reach a point where the marginal cost becomes practically zero, so we will see the cost of labour of a robot plummeting to zero over the next two decades,” Steve said.
“Right now, they are the most expensive and the least capable that they will ever be – they are going to get cheaper, and they are going to get better. They will be improved by at least one order of magnitude, every eight years, and we will certainly see big changes happening.”
Having said that, Steve says he doesn’t see robots or AI replacing human jobs, stating that rather they will take over tasks.
“Think about when email was introduced, and they were saying, the postal service hasn’t got a future once email comes in. And yet, it is still around. The system has evolved. And robots will be the same,” Steve said.
Steve also warned that now is the time to start planning for robots and how they will impact our workplaces and our planning, while noting that is in the national interest to invest in robot technology.
“If we don’t, other countries are going to get ahead of us. In terms of the potential contribution of robots to our GDP, it is huge, and if we are behind on that, as a country we will be left behind and those other countries that are investing, well their productivity will skyrocket,” Steve said.
Steve also touched on what is being called the transition to ‘superhuman AI,’ which has been discussed in the media recently.
“In two years’ time AI itself will be accelerating AI research and development, and behind the scenes companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are already working on AI models that will train and create and code the next AI. Right now, humans are coding for that AI, but the next generation will be AI training and coding,” Steve said.
“Soon, we will reach the point where we are going beyond the limits of human intelligence into this superhuman intelligence, and that means we will be in a position of really solving massively complex global challenges.”
For some, this may feel like an overwhelming, and perhaps even scary, concept.
“There is no shortage of very scary reports about the potential for human disruption. But being scared isn’t going to stop it from happening. And I think the more you learn and the more you know, the better,” Steve said.
“I am a very strong believer that as we go down the pathway that moves towards superhuman AI that it must be done within a framework of responsible AI.
“It is important that what is developed is developed in alignment with our interests, that it has the checks and balances and controls around it, to make sure – for instance – when it is writing its own code or the next system, it is doing so aligned to our values and our interests and isn’t hiding that it is doing something that is not aligned. There needs to be regulation, there needs to be guard rails. And there are very smart minds working on that.
“One of the next pieces to be released by Fifth Quadrant is the Responsible AI Index, sponsored by the National AI Centre, part of the Department of Industry, which looks at the performance of Australian organisations at implementing AI responsibly. The report will be released along with a self-assessment tool which you can use to get a Responsible AI score for your business as well as tips on key areas for improvement. I really recommend you look out for these when they come out. It is outside of our control to change what OpenAI and Anthropic and so on do, but we can control how we use AI in our own companies and making sure we are doing so responsibly.”

If you have questions about AI, Steve invites you to email him at snuttall@fifthquadrant.com.au