Our Story
Inside Capgemini's Generative AI Taskforce, Ash spent his days helping large enterprises think about AI from the end of 2022. The conclusion surprised him. Despite the budgets and the noise, most enterprises were not ready to absorb the technology in a meaningful way. The real urgency, and the place where AI could change a business overnight rather than over years, was small and medium business.
Agentive® started out chasing a bigger idea: a multi-agent AI system capable of delivering almost any kind of project. What emerged was something more interesting in November 2025. The similar but simpler architecture, pointed at a single business, could effectively assist the owner: a second version of them working alongside, running the operation 24/7.
That insight reframed the company. The question became which industry to bring this to first. Accounting and bookkeeping firms were the clearest answer: structured work, high admin load, clear ROI, and a profession quietly drowning in compliance. Agentive® was built for them.
Our Vision
the AI Platform that Creates and Runs the Businesses of the Future
Every business owner has AI support
Affordable, always-on help from day one
Admin work handled in minutes, not hours
Emails, documents, and bookkeeping done while you sleep
Your AI learns your business and improves over time
Knows your clients, your tone, your processes
Add new skills as your business grows
Start with the basics, add finance, marketing, and more
Meet The Team
Founder
Core Team
JP Payawal
Engineer
Accountant
(Part-time)
Accountant-Engineer with 13 years of Australian accounting experience. Builds AI Employee skills grounded in real ledger work.
Currently hiring: senior DevOps engineer and a sales / customer-success lead. See open roles.
Advisors
Industry advisors keeping us grounded in real Australian accounting practice and enterprise AI delivery.
AI Workforce
Built and run on MyAgentive, our own dedicated AI works alongside the team, handling client work, internal coordination, and the systems that keep Agentive running.
Agentive Mother
Monitors, manages and maintains our AI Employees and the customer relationships behind every deployment.
Executive Assistant
Runs scheduling, communications and internal coordination across the team and our clients.
Bookkeeping & Accounting
Handles reconciliation, transaction review, BAS preparation and day-to-day ledger work.
Marketing, SEO & CRM
Drives content, SEO and the marketing pipeline, and keeps the CRM clean and current.
Powered by MyAgentive, the same dedicated AI platform we deploy for our customers.
Our Journey
Foundation Year
Agentive founded in Melbourne
Filed provisional patent for AI agent technology
First AI Executive Assistant pilots with professional services
Pivot to Accounting and Bookkeeping
Q1: Product Launch
- • Pivoted to AI Employee for accounting and bookkeeping firms
- • Launched dedicated finance-industry AI platform
- • First accounting firm pilots deployed
Q2: Enhance and Expand
- • Enhanced AI Employee capabilities for accounting and finance
- • Piloted with additional verticals: builders, financial advisers, brokers, property advocates
- • Tested CRM, marketing, and sales automation skills
Q3-Q4: National Expansion
- • Expand to all accounting and bookkeeping firms across Melbourne, Sydney, and Australia
- • Pilot additional verticals: financial advisers, SMSF specialists, audit, and compliance
- • Begin testing with builders and trades
2026 Goal
- • Reach 100 SME businesses across Australia
- • Establish Agentive as the leading AI Employee provider for accounting firms
- • Validate expansion into adjacent finance verticals
Scale Across Service Industries
New Verticals
- • Scale to builders, tradies, and construction firms
- • Expand across broader finance sector: financial advisers, SMSF, audit, compliance
- • Enter additional service industries across Australia
2027 Goal
- • Expand to 1,000 SME businesses in Australia
- • Become the go-to AI Employee platform for Australian service industries
- • Proven, repeatable deployment model across multiple verticals
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Agentive and our AI services
What is Agentive?
Agentive is an Australian AI company that builds AI Employees for accounting firms and bookkeeping practices. We help accountants and bookkeepers reclaim hours every day by automating bank reconciliation, BAS preparation, email triage, and admin work. Our AI is hosted entirely in Australia, with all inference running on Australian soil. No business data ever leaves the country. Based in Melbourne, we serve clients across Australia with enterprise-grade security and full data sovereignty.
Who founded Agentive?
Agentive was founded by Dr. Ash Khalilian, who brings 26+ years of IT, software and data experience with a PhD in Information Systems. He has delivered 36+ enterprise projects for organisations including ANZ, Westpac, Telstra and Qantas, and was formerly the Generative AI Lead at Capgemini. He saw that accountants and bookkeepers needed AI more than anyone and built Agentive to serve them.
Where is Agentive located?
Agentive is officially registered in Sydney and headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. All AI infrastructure is hosted in Australia, and all AI inference runs on Australian soil. No business data ever leaves the country. We serve clients across Australia.
What makes Agentive different from other AI companies?
Every Agentive AI Employee is a single-tenant deployment, fully dedicated to your business. It learns your processes, your clients, and the way your practice works. All data and AI inference stay in Australia, designed to align with APRA CPS 234, ASIC RG 255 and TPB obligations. Dual-firewall architecture keeps financial and restricted client data secure. We never allow Australian business data to train general-purpose AI models. Enterprise-grade security at small business pricing.
What services does Agentive offer?
Two main services: (1) AI Employee subscriptions for the finance industry, specifically built for accounting firms and bookkeeping practices, with skills for bank reconciliation, BAS, email triage, and more. (2) AI consultation services to help businesses integrate AI Employees into their existing systems, train the AI on their specific processes, and automate workflows. See real-world use cases for how businesses benefit.