An optimistic playbook for the AI-augmented future 

AI gets real at Arcadian Digital, where Melbourne technologists are proving that smart code and human curiosity can move business faster than hype ever could.

Adrian Randall is big on critical thinking. It’s the habit that shaped his career and now fuels his optimism about artificial intelligence, which now makes up over a quarter of Arcadian Digital’s revenue, a contribution that’s growing by 200% quarter on quarter. 

He views AI-augmented business platforms as the next leap in productivity, not a threat – tools that enable humans to do what they do best: think, create, and solve. 

“In the AI era, the average person will need to think bigger,” he says. “Curiosity will be the new superpower.” 

That belief powers Arcadian Digital, the agency Randall founded in 2014 after a decade of engineering combat and encrypted communication systems for Australia’s Navy and Air Force, among others. The defence-born precision of those years, where every line of code carried consequence, now guides how his Melbourne team designs intelligent systems for business. 

Today, Arcadian is a 25-person digital agency specialising in custom web applications, integrations and AI-driven optimisation. The company is seeing an increasing number of AI-related enquiries each week and is on track to double in size over the next three years. Its mission is to help businesses use AI not to replace people, but to amplify them. 

“AI and automation aren’t the same thing,” Randall says. “Automation moves things from A to B. AI learns from the movement. It helps humans make better calls.” 

Randall’s integrative mindset defines Arcadian’s projects across logistics, manufacturing, customer service, education and health. In transport and logistics, they are working with Bowens Timber and Hardware to streamline picking and packing trucks. 

AI analyses past loads, routes, driver performance, weather and traffic to recommend the most efficient way to load and schedule each order on a truck physically. 

“In the AI era, the average person will need to think bigger. Curiosity will be the new superpower.” 

Adrian Randall

In manufacturing, Arcadian’s AI generates design files for robotic cutting and welding, reducing manual programming and production delays. And for the Queen Victoria Market trader portal, its creative AI workflows ensure brand consistency at scale without losing tone or identity. 

Education sits at the centre of every Arcadian deployment. “Everyone thought AI was a silver bullet,” Randall says. “But you’re not going to replace your whole team. You still need someone to check things before they go out.” Each system includes human approval gates because, as Randall puts it, “Even if a human helps load a truck, would you send it out without a second set of eyes? Pretty much everyone says no.” 

Across all of their AI projects, Arcadian finds that AI reliably achieves over 80% of desired outcomes, with human oversight refining the rest. Randall calls this moment the fifth industrial revolution, one defined by collaboration between creativity and computation. 

“AI should give us freedom to focus on creative work,” he says. “The fear is overplayed. The real winners will be the ones who think critically, stay curious and build with intent.” 

And for those who do? Randall smiles. “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, then go with others, including AI.” 

Learn more at arcadiandigital.com.au