Brisbane-based tech company ORCA Opti releases AI governance assistant

Australian AI security and compliance specialist ORCA Opti has released Opti Assist Free, a no-cost, AI governance assistant built for regulated Australian organisations

Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Brisbane, ORCA Opti is a governed AI and compliance platform built for regulated Australian organisations.

The solution runs on Australian infrastructure, does not send user inputs to third-party AI providers, and does not train on customer data. Organisations sign up with a Microsoft 365 work or school email account, with no credit card, procurement approval or trial period required.

Each user receives enough free credits to run multiple queries, create documents and policies in a secure environment, and run a structured compliance gap analysis against frameworks including ISO 27001, Essential Eight, DISP, NDIS Practice Standards, ISO 42001, PSPF and DSPF.

Free users also get access to ORCA Opti's specialist industry agents.

The output is a nine-section readiness report, scored from 0 to 100 across each compliance domain, with gaps rated by severity, prioritised remediation steps, and audit-ready language.

The product also aims to serve as an entry point to ORCA Opti's broader governed AI stack. Organisations that need more than one user, additional credits, deep research, automated workflows or full governance, risk and compliance tooling can upgrade through paid Opti Assist and Opti Core tiers, all built on the same architecture.

"A DISP readiness report at this level of detail used to cost around $5,000 and take three weeks. We're giving it away for free, on sovereign infrastructure, and it takes about fifteen minutes,"  said Kathryn Giudes, founder and managing director of ORCA Opti.

"This is so much more than a modern agent. It's a governed AI environment, with a compliance assessment built in. That is the version of AI Australian organisations have been waiting for. Not only does ORCA keep the privacy and security guardrails, it also enables real-time ESG, anti-slavery reporting and simplifies self-reporting requirements."