For many service-business owners, finishing the day’s client work means starting another shift: answering emails, preparing quotes, chasing follow-ups and catching up on marketing.

Carly Woods knows how easily that work can follow an owner home.

The Gold Coast business owner, AI educator, speaker and mum has spent more than 20 years building and running businesses across automotive, financial services and professional services, including founding Get My Refund. Today, through Ethical Edge Solutions, she teaches business owners how to use AI and automation to ease that pressure.

“I know how much heart goes into building a business,” Woods says. “I also know what it feels like when everything depends on you and the work follows you home.”

In her interview with Gold Coast Current, Woods shared her pride in being named a finalist in the Entrepreneurs, Innovation & Tech category of the 2026 Gold Coast Bulletin Women of the Year Awards. Behind that recognition is a practical ambition: helping people build businesses that leave room for life outside work.

Turning possibility into something useful

Woods says using AI changed how quickly she could learn, create and develop ideas. She started Ethical Edge Solutions to help other businesses make practical improvements of their own.

As she worked with owners, she noticed many wanted to understand the technology and use it themselves. That experience led her to create the Automate to Dominate® Method.

Her focus is service businesses, where the person delivering the work is often also responsible for the administration that keeps everything moving.

“They’re often brilliant at serving their customers, but also responsible for the emails, quoting, follow-ups, marketing and admin,” she says. “They finish the client work, then start another working day.”

The approach starts with the business’s own information and everyday tasks, helping owners develop skills they can continue using as their needs change.

Organise, Automate, Dominate

The Method has three stages: Organise, Automate and Dominate.

First comes understanding how the business works, getting its information in order and identifying where time is being lost. Next is using AI to support suitable repetitive tasks, with clear instructions and human checking.

The final stage is deciding what to do with the capacity that creates. For one owner, that might mean growing the business. For another, it could mean giving customers more attention or finishing work earlier.

“We start with actual tasks in the owner’s business,” Woods says. “You don’t need to arrive with a technical background. You need something you want to improve and a willingness to learn.”

Making that first step manageable has been one of her biggest lessons. Faced with the possibilities of AI, an already busy owner can struggle to know where to begin.

“I can see so much they could do, but giving someone a hundred ideas doesn’t necessarily help them,” she says. “They need a starting point that matters to their business.”

She has learned to listen for the task making someone’s week harder, then help them make one useful change.

A local electrician’s experience

Woods points to Vince, a Gold Coast electrician she taught to use AI, as an example of what that approach can look like.

According to Woods, he had only recently bought his first laptop when he started. His days were spent doing trade work, while evenings went to business administration instead of time with his family.

She says he learned to connect his trade and building systems, receive weekly updates and move information between them. After a few hours of setup, he reported saving about a working day across the week.

Separately, Woods says he created his first air-conditioning campaign using AI and reported nine bookings following it.

For her, the significance of that experience extends beyond the business results.

“The business results are exciting, but getting more of his evenings back is what really matters to me,” she says. “That’s a practical change in someone’s life.”

That sense of giving back also shapes how Woods talks about her work. As a mum and business owner, she sees time as valuable beyond what someone can earn in it.

“Being able to stop working and be present with your family is a meaningful outcome.”

https://vinceelectricalandair.com.au/

Building on the Gold Coast

Woods says working with local business owners keeps her connected to the everyday challenges they face. She is involved with BNI GC and the Southern Chamber of Commerce, and values the support of the region’s business communities.

Being recognised locally through the Women of the Year Awards feels particularly meaningful.

“There’s so much behind building a business that people don’t see,” she says. “To have that work recognised in my own community feels very special.”

Alongside her teaching, Woods says she is leading a $3 million agentic AI platform project for small and medium-sized businesses in collaboration with Southern Cross University. She describes its focus as practical, affordable adoption, informed by her experience working directly with business owners.

“I want to do my part in putting the Gold Coast on the map for innovation,” she says. “That means contributing work that’s useful, supporting local businesses and building something here that can have an impact beyond our region.”

Start with one repeated task

For owners wondering where to start, Woods suggests choosing something they do every week, such as answering a common customer enquiry.

Her advice is to give the AI approved business information, show it how they would normally respond and ask it to prepare a draft. The owner should then check the details before sending it.

She also encourages measuring the whole process, including checking and corrections, to see whether it actually saves time.

“You don’t need to change everything at once,” she says. “Start with one useful improvement and build from there.”

Next, Woods plans to continue developing the Automate to Dominate® Method, progressing her platform project, and speaking and teaching. Her goal is to help more owners gain the confidence and capacity to decide what comes next for their businesses and their lives.

“I want to contribute to a future where business owners have more capacity to create, grow and enjoy what they’ve worked so hard to build.”

Find out more at carlywoods.ai or explore the Automate to Dominate® Method at automatetodominate.ai.