news: New research shows around half of the country’s small and medium-sized businesses are using the technology to accelerate growth, and National Australia Bank’s head of AI has called on Australia to “get on the bus” and adopt the technology. If you don’t, you risk being left behind.
Numbers: People who viewed new research results Capital overviewfound that 42% of small and medium-sized businesses are already using AI, with most of their management, marketing, and decision-making automated.
There are notable disparities across industries in AI adoption, with real estate (69%), finance and insurance (65%), and business services (61%) leading the economy, while manufacturing (31%), retail (22%), and transportation and storage (21%) are at the bottom of the list.
Overall, the country is divided between early adopters and skeptics, with 14% of companies planning to implement AI, and 16% believing AI is useless.
What they said: Pete Steele, Digital Data and AI Executive at NAB, said the research reflected the country at a tipping point as AI is integrated into the majority of businesses and its benefits shift from improving productivity to driving growth.
“Like us as a company, the experiment has passed and we are starting to turn to growth,” Steele said. Capital overview.
“We are starting to see adopters win clients, grow revenue and achieve very positive commercial outcomes.”
The split between early adopters and resisters presented an opportunity for NAB, the country’s largest business bank, to encourage its customers to “hop on the bus.”
“We don’t want our customers to be left behind,” said Steele, who predicts that two out of three companies will adopt the technology over the next year.
Mr Steele said the window for productivity improvements was open as NAB, under chief executive Andrew Irvine, became more outspoken about the economic challenges facing Australia and the need to improve productivity.
“Responsible adoption of AI is probably the single best opportunity we have,” he said.
He suggested that the federal government may introduce tax incentives or depreciation for AI training to encourage future adoption.
“A national approach with budgetary support for increased training would really help,” he said, adding there was room for better coordination across the industry to move the economy forward.
“Especially in tough times like the last few months, I think we’re going to need something like this to get us through.”
