A new survey finds that fear of missing out (FOMO) plays a big factor in artificial intelligence (AI) investment, with 73% of Australia IT leaders reporting they are worried their company will be left behind if they don’t use it.  

Despite this, IT decision makers from Australia reported average AI investments of AU$1.09 million (about AU$212,719  below the global average), possibly attributable to over a third (39%) having concerns about implementation costs.

Almost all (97%) Australia respondents in the ABBYY State of Intelligent Automation Report: AI Trust Barometer said they also plan to increase investment in AI in the next year with 90% predicting increases between 5% and 50%, although Gartner predicts that by 2025, growth in 90% of enterprise deployments of generative AI will slow as costs exceed value.  

The report gauged the level of trust and adoption of AI technologies across 1,200 IT decision makers in the UK, US, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore. The study was carried out June 3-12, 2024.

More than two thirds (68%) of decision makers in Australia admit that another key driver for AI was pressure from customers, making Australia AI investment the most customer-driven compared to 55% of respondents globally. Australian leaders were also the most motivated to address employee burnout, with 42% of Australia respondents citing it as a reason for AI investment compared to 32% globally.  

When considering concerns of AI adoption, the survey revealed that Australian IT leaders are most apprehensive towards the cost of implementation (39%). Other top concerns included a lack of talent or expertise (37%), technical complexity (35%), and staff misuse (34%). These three concerns suggest anxieties about the current level of AI proficiency and a possible need for upskilling and training to accommodate for the complexity of AI. Australian leaders also noted the highest concern for job replacement, with 61% fearing that AI will begin to take jobs compared to 50% globally.  

The significant majority (85%) of Australia respondents said they trust AI tools in general to benefit their business. Purpose-built AI and small language models have the most trust by a significant margin, being cited as trustworthy by 95% of Australia respondents compared to GenAI at 89%. More than half (52%) of Australia respondents said they were already using purpose-built AI tools, such as intelligent document processing (IDP).  

Maxime Vermeir, Senior Director of AI Strategy at ABBYY, commented, “It’s no surprise to me that organizations have more trust in small language models due to the tendency of LLMs to hallucinate and provide inaccurate and possibly harmful outcomes. We’re seeing more business leaders moving to SLMs to better address their specific business needs, enabling more trustworthy results.”  

(Maxime Vermeir is one of the keynote speakers at the ABBYY AI Summit being held in Sydney on September 5, 2024. For full details of the Summit Program and registration Visit HERE.)

When asked about trust and ethical use of AI, 90% of Australian respondents state they are confident their company is following all government regulations. Over half (59%) say their companies have trustworthy AI policies that teams adhere to, and a significant portion (49%) are seeking guidance from a consultant or non-profit – the highest globally. 57% of Australian respondents said they would feel more confident knowing their company had a responsible AI policy, although only 30% reported definite plans to implement their own policies soon. 

General trust in AI to benefit business was nearly equal between Australia and Singapore (85% and 86% respectively), however the two APAC countries differed significantly in their trust of purpose-built AI and SLMs with 95% of Australia respondents indicating trust versus only 87% in Singapore.