One fire outbreak caused by lighting strikes, for example, could have damaged a pine forest if cameras had not alerted firefighters.
Pano AI revealed the findings on Tuesday after installing more than 100 high-resolution cameras across areas of NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
The detections follow a summer of severe heatwaves in several Australian states, and the fourth warmest January recorded since 1910, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Pano AI's fire-detecting technology, typically installed on fire towers, uses ultra high-definition cameras to scan for smoke during the day and heat at night.
It compares what it finds to a database of more than three billion images and alerts emergency services if it detects fire with a high level of confidence.
The technology identified 1132 unplanned fires during summer, including 667 in NSW.
Those fires were detected using 19 cameras, Forestry Corporation NSW innovation manager Jamie Carter said, and had proven particularly useful at night when fire towers were unstaffed.
In one instance, fire could have risked a pine plantation if not spotted by the technology and brought under control by fire crews.
"There was a big lightning storm that moved across the Victoria-NSW border and one of the cameras over at Timbillica picked up about six or seven new ignitions after dark," he told AAP.
"Knowing they were there in the evening, a lot of good work got done that night which meant we didn't have big fires developing the next day."
The technology could not replace humans with local knowledge, Mr Carter said, but it was helping to monitor more areas and predict the spread of more bushfires.
"They're definitely having an impact on reducing the number of fires that would get to a size where they'll cause significant damage," he said.
The technology is used by more than 150 government agencies in Australia, including the NSW Rural Fire Service, Country Fire Authority in Victoria, and National Parks.
While early in its adoption, Pano AI chief operating officer Arvind Satyam said it had helped firefighters reduce the time needed to call for aerial support from 30 minutes to five minutes.
"AI is absolutely being applied for good here," he said.
"AI can give you that advantage, can allow you to understand these incidents sooner, gives you the context, allows agencies to respond safely and more effectively."
Other efforts to detect bushfires early include Google's FireSat program that will use a constellation of 50 satellites to monitor remote parts of Australia by 2030.
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