Only 20% of Australian organisations mature in AI adoption

The vast majority of professionals in Australia (86.2%) believe businesses should embrace AI, but only 20% describe their organisation as ‘mature’ or ‘very mature’ in the technology, according to research from consultancy V2 Digital.

A survey of more than 400 professionals at various levels of seniority found that 76.5% believe AI is a business priority. Meanwhile, almost three-quarters of respondents indicated that their organisations are either encouraging or strongly encouraging the use of AI.

But at the same time, the average rating applied to the level of AI skills of the people in respondents’ organisation was just 4.5 out of 10. This was higher among sectors such as the technology industry (5.2), but much lower among government respondents (2.75). Respondents on average also rated their organisation’s AI training at just 3.17 out of 10.

Perceived barriers to the adoption of AI include too many competing priorities (cited by 42.9% of respondents), lack of skills (38.1%), a lack of strategy (32.9%), ethical concerns (28.9%), regulation and compliance (25.7%), and fear of the technology (24.4%).

The top three perceived ways to overcome these barriers were starting a training program (42.4%), allocating budget (40.1%) and recruiting AI-skilled staff (33.2%).

The report meanwhile includes commentary from industry leaders from pioneers of AI adoption such as QBE Insurance, Boston Consulting Group, TechDiversity Foundation, TikTok and UNSW.

Report author and V2 Digital Director of Data and AI Steve Tzortzidis said the research has helped identify both roadblocks to AI adoption and ways to overcome them.

“AI will undoubtedly shape the future in ways impossible to predict. We set out to benchmark how we’re currently tracking on this AI evolution and better understand organisational pain points. Organisations need a level of data maturity with the right foundations and governance in place to effectively embrace and utilise AI,” Tzortzidis said.

“Whilst the majority of Australian professionals acknowledge the business benefits of AI, businesses are failing to harness it.”

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