Adoption · Australia · 7 min read
Twelve percent of Australian businesses use AI. The gap is size, not sector.
Last checked 3 November 2026
Large firms almost quadrupling adoption in three years, from 9% in 2021-22 to 35% in 2024-25. Small firms are stuck at eleven percent. The difference is not the technology, it is the people around it.
Team level only · n ≥ 5 · band shown on every score · never an individual verdict
The short version
The ABS Business Characteristics Survey for 2024–25 puts AI use at 12% of all Australian businesses. Large businesses are at 35%, up from 9% in 2021–22. Medium businesses are at 22%, up from 3%. Small and micro businesses sit at 11%. By industry, information, media and telecoms leads at 38%, with professional services and finance at 24%. This is the most recent national data and it will be quoted at you, so quote it first.
AI use by business size, Australia
Large firms almost quadrupled adoption in three years. Small firms barely moved.
Source · ABS, Business Characteristics Survey 2024–25, 2026
Adoption is not the same as value
MIT NANDA's 2025 report found 95% of pilots produced little or no measurable P&L return, against roughly US$30 to 40 billion of spend. Two thirds of organisations were still in pilot mode. Report no longer hosted by MIT NANDA; these figures are as reported at publication, August 2025. That is not an argument against adopting. It is an argument against adopting the way most firms did, which was to buy the licence and skip the people.
The barrier data agrees from every direction. The World Economic Forum's employer survey names skills gaps as the biggest barrier to transformation (63%). Deloitte's 2026 enterprise survey names insufficient worker skills as the largest barrier to integrating AI into workflows, and education as the number one talent response. In KPMG's Q3 2025 AI Pulse, 55% of US leaders named technical skills gaps as a key challenge to deploying agents; by Q2 2026 that share had fallen to 37%, and the Q3 2026 Pulse (September 2026) names data readiness, not skills, as the top barrier. Gallagher's 2026 AI Adoption and Risk Survey finds more than half of businesses cite a shortage of AI-ready talent as a primary barrier, up from 30% naming skills shortages in the 2025 survey.
Where the pilots go
Nineteen in twenty pilots return nothing measurable.
Source · MIT NANDA, The GenAI Divide, 2025, 2025
The upside for the firms that get it right
CSIRO analysed job ads from more than 4,000 Australian firms between 2020 and 2023 and found AI adopters posted 36% more non-AI job ads than comparable non-adopters. Adoption grew the business, and the business hired people. PwC's barometer says industries most exposed to AI grew revenue per employee at 27% against 9% for the least exposed.
What to do first
Before the licence, measure the team. Who adapts fast, who needs structure, who will quietly route around the policy. That is the difference between the 5% and the 95%, and it is measurable in about 50 minutes per person for the leadership team assessment, or about 9 minutes for the individual profile.
Common questions
- What percentage of Australian businesses use AI?
- 12% in 2024–25. Large businesses 35% (up from 9% in 2021–22), medium 22%, small and micro 11%, according to the ABS Business Characteristics Survey.
- Why do most AI pilots fail?
- MIT NANDA reported 95% of enterprise generative AI pilots produced little or no measurable P&L return. Report no longer hosted by MIT NANDA; figure as reported at publication, August 2025. Employers name skills gaps as the biggest barrier to transformation (WEF, 63%).
- Does AI adoption reduce hiring?
- Not in Australia so far. CSIRO found AI adopters posted 36% more non-AI job ads than comparable non-adopters (2026).
- How many Australian businesses use AI?
- 12% of Australian businesses used AI in 2024 to 25: 35% of large, 22% of medium and 11% of small and micro businesses (ABS).
Sources · ABS, Business Characteristics Survey 2024–25. MIT NANDA, The GenAI Divide, 2025. WEF, Future of Jobs 2025. Deloitte, State of AI in the Enterprise 2026. KPMG, AI Pulse Q3 2025, Q2 2026 and Q3 2026. Gallagher, AI Adoption and Risk Survey 2026. CSIRO, April 2026. PwC, Global AI Jobs Barometer 2025.