36% of Australian organisations lack AI maturity: research

A new survey of IT, OT and business decision-makers found that while 75% of respondents worldwide believe AI is essential for boosting business efficiency, 36% of Australian respondents believe their organisation is not mature in terms of IT adoption.

The survey commissioned by TeamViewer found that 68% of Australian respondents believe AI will stimulate the biggest productivity boom in a century, and 79% expect AI investments to increase in the next 6–12 months.

Australian respondents are already saving an average of 9.5 hours each month using AI tools, with 81% now using the technology at least once per week in their jobs. This percentage has nearly doubled from 42% in the past year alone, TeamViewer said.

The top ways AI is being used in Australian organisations include customer support automation (32%), data analysis (24%) and process automation (23%). Other common use cases include inspiration and ideation (11%).

Globally, 26% of respondents believe that failing to adopt AI will lead to falling behind competitors, and 25% believe that a lack of automation will result in higher costs. Meanwhile 72% agree that AI lets respondents focus on higher-level strategic work, while 70% say it has helped them acquire new skills.

However, just 34% of Australian respondents rate themselves as competent in using AI, and only 6% class themselves as experts in the technology. In addition, only 29% of Australian businesses trust AI to act on business forecasts, and only 20% trust AI to make decisions without human oversight. Globally, the survey found that 61% of respondents believe the AI hype cycle is over, and are now demanding practical applications for AI that deliver real-world results.

Australian respondents also report facing barriers to adopting AI, with the main ones including a lack of education on how to use AI (38%), as well as perceived security or legal risks (32%).

TeamViewer head of sales for Australia and New Zealand Andrew Belger said the results indicate the need to have an effective AI strategy in place.

“In Australia, the potential impact and benefits of AI are being taken seriously with the government recently proposing the need for a modern and effective regulatory system to unlock innovation,” he said. “AI is undeniably an investment but the returns are substantial, with 61% of decision-makers expecting AI to have a favourable impact on revenue in the coming year, with an anticipated average growth of 211%.

“This demonstrates that AI can significantly elevate an organisation’s financial performance beyond streamlining operations.”

TeamViewer has recently launched its AI-powered Session Insights solution, which the company says provides tools to help IT teams improve efficiency and streamline operations. Features include automated case documentation to help teams reduce the time needed to produce required reports, and analytics dashboards for helping teams track and meet SLAs.

“With the launch of TeamViewer’s new AI-powered Session Insights, we’re empowering organisations to make smarter decisions and optimise processes while adhering to the highest security and data privacy standards,” TeamViewer CPTO Mei Dent said. “We uphold stringent encryption practices to safeguard customer data, ensuring secure processing, while also providing admins the control to enforce company-wide policies and keeping users informed every step of the way.”

Image credit: iStock.com/da-kuk