- We surveyed over 500 small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to provide a comprehensive overview of the current AI landscape in Australia and New Zealand.
- Australia and New Zealand are seeing a surge in AI adoption among small and medium-sized businesses, with almost half of the companies surveyed significantly increasing their AI investments.
- Businesses are using AI to drive growth, improve customer experience, and control costs.
Businesses are significantly increasing their investment in artificial intelligence (AI), recognising it as a key driver of growth and innovation, according to a new survey of 500 Australian and New Zealand small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) commissioned by Schneider Electric, a leader in digital transformation in energy management and automation.
Notably, two-thirds of respondents will increase their IT budgets this year, and nearly half expect AI funding to increase significantly more over the next five years, with 43% of respondents saying that addressing embedded AI will be their top focus this year.
The study, “An Essential Guide to Understanding AI for Australian and New Zealand SME and Mid-Market Leaders,” explores the growing landscape of AI and its potential to drive significant growth and innovation for SMEs. The study delves into potential use cases for AI across industries, covering key considerations for AI investments such as infrastructure, data management, security, people, process, goal setting and the role of partner services, from edge computing to core solutions such as colocation, private data centers and cloud services.
Key insights include:
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AI offers a wide range of opportunities and businesses are embracing it: 48% of Australian organisations say they are taking an enterprise-wide approach to AI with significant investment, and a further 43% report that enabling embedded AI will be their biggest focus this year.
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AI investment is expected to increase significantly over the next five years: Nearly half (46%) of respondents expect a significant increase in AI spending.
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SMEs prioritise growth, customers and cost control. The survey revealed that growth is the top priority for businesses in Australia. Cost control remains a key concern.
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Security and data are the biggest obstacles to AI adoption: Over 42% of respondents cited security and data as the biggest obstacles to AI adoption this year.
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A hybrid approach to AI infrastructure is likely: Research shows that a combination of edge computing, cloud computing, and on-premise environments will be most prevalent for AI projects.
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The vast majority of SMBs (80%) agree that edge environments should include AI solutions. They also say the edge needs to be upgraded, with edge computing expected to be included in up to 10% of AI projects.
The survey revealed that CX technology is the top investment priority in Australia, while modernization is the biggest IT management challenge, followed by security. Nearly half of those surveyed said AI-generated films and videos will have the biggest and most urgent impact on their organization.
“These findings clearly demonstrate that AI is no longer just for large enterprises, but that organizations of all sizes and sectors are looking to leverage the technology to achieve their growth, efficiency and customer satisfaction goals,” said Joe Craparotta, vice president of Secure Power at Schneider Electric.
“AI is already embedded in many of the platforms enterprises use, but now is the time to unleash its power to improve business outcomes,” he added.
“We also know that AI has great potential to help organisations make more intelligent decisions in the areas of operational efficiency, electrification and digitalisation to help solve our energy challenges,” he said. “We hope this research will help SMEs to use AI to drive not only operational efficiency but also sustainability across their businesses.”
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