Ten per cent of Australian businesses have pulled the pin on their first use of AI over security concerns, a new survey has found.
The data arm of tech giant Adobe polled hundreds of executives at $100m-plus revenue companies who make AI decisions, across Australia and New Zealand.
The survey found 10 per cent of the companies have halted their first use of AI for security reasons after the tech passed an initial IT check.
Of the 465 Australian and New Zealand businesses surveyed, 18 per cent of AI proposals are rejected for security reasons by an IT evaluation.
That rejection rate almost doubles for highly-sensitive industries such as finance, health and science organisations.
The survey was aimed at assessing how companies can expand their use of AI and what business structures are holding them back.
“What we found was that companies often lack pre-approved pathways that help move initiatives into production, including approved integration patterns, standardised security reviews, and established budget categories,” Adobe Asia Pacific digital strategy director, Jeremy Willmott said.
“Without these mechanisms, proposals must navigate a new or different process, significantly reducing their chances of success.
“The same applies to employees, roles and skills, with the latter remaining the biggest barrier to scaling AI. This remains a widespread and stubborn challenge, with 80 per cent of businesses saying the skills shortfall remained unchanged or worsened over the past 12 months,” Mr Willmott said.
The survey found 78 per cent of the Australian and NZ businesses are increasing AI investment year-on-year, and nearly 66 per cent think they are still underinvesting.
The survey extended across 12 industries, 11 countries, and 5633 executives, at companies which turn over at least $100m a year, though 60 per cent had $1bn-plus revenue.
The survey also found only 10 per cent of companies “comprehensively” measure return on AI investment.
A separate survey, from consultant EY Parthenon, says 58 per cent of Australian chief executives think they can “confidently” assess return on AI investment.
That survey says 37 per cent of Australian chief executives think AI-enabled tools are among the leading contributors to productivity gains in the past year, compared to 50 per cent globally.
Both surveys point to the importance of businesses investing in AI assessment, training and employee support as key to driving returns on investment.
EY chief economist Cherelle Murphy told the ABC on Monday their survey pointed to an investment-return lag.
“There’s a bit of disconnect there between the returns that chief executives are seeing, and the willingness to reinvest back in the business,” she said.
“So what we are encouraging them the to do is use those returns to invest in their people and to really sort of move forward and see this as a long-term gain.”