90% of Australian midmarket businesses say adopting generative AI is a top business priority

Sydney – 21 October 2024 – Successful Australian midmarket organisations are more likely to put a high priority on generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) than those who are seeing lower revenue growth – and they are adopting new AI innovations in every corner of their business.

A recent study by SAP (NYSE: SAP) found Australian midmarket businesses, defined as companies with between 250 and 1,500 employees, with high revenue growth are more likely to put a strong priority on the adoption of Gen AI (50%) than those with lower revenue growth (43%).

“Business AI is the biggest opportunity for businesses in Australia today,” said Dr. Kim Oosthuizen, Head of AI, SAP Australia & New Zealand.

“But the benefits of Business AI are not only restricted to larger enterprises. Every organisation can realise the opportunities that AI offers in a relevant, reliable and responsible manner. That isn’t just summarising emails and creating images. It’s helping us complete the tasks we don’t want to do, providing insights quickly and reliably helping solve business problems.”

Adopting AI is a top organisational priority in Australia

The study, which surveyed 783 organisations in Australia and 12,003 globally, found use of artificial intelligence is a top organisational priority for midmarket businesses.

Adopting Gen AI is a medium or high priority for 90% of Australian businesses, while adopting standard business applications of AI like machine learning for data analysis and predictive analytics was a top priority for 88%. Other key priorities include preparing for cybersecurity threats, making operations more environmentally sustainable and addressing gaps in supply chains (all 89%).

Artificial intelligence is seen as a priority to transform organisational processes in every corner of the business.

Half of midmarket organisations in Australia place a high priority on AI to transform their data security and privacy (50%). Other high priority areas ripe for AI transformation include creating new business models (48%), implementing agile processes (47%), optimising supply chains (45%), boosting decision-making (45%) and personalising user experiences (45%).

AI is creating value for Australian businesses today

But AI isn’t just being planned to achieve future benefits. It is being implemented today.

AI is already in use to a moderate or strong degree in midmarket Australian businesses to gather market intelligence (85%), as well as to monitor for cybersecurity threats, detect fraud, monitor regulatory compliance, develop forecasts and budgets, and automate recruitment processes (all 84%).

Australia ranks higher than the rest of the world when it comes to AI uptake for monitoring cybersecurity threats (84% vs. 78% moderate and strong use), detecting fraud (84% vs. 78%) and gathering market intelligence (85% vs. 78%).

“AI is not new. In fact, we’ve been using it for decades,” continued Oosthuizen. “More than 27,000 customers are already using SAP Business AI today, including hundreds in Australia. We’ve released more than 70 Generative AI use cases in the past year, and we expect more than 100 use cases to be available by the end of 2024. We are making AI accessible for all businesses today. The time to explore the benefits of Business AI is now.”

Australian midmarket businesses see data as key risk to growth – and AI adoption

Yet challenges remain to drive growth in Australian midmarket businesses.

Respondents noted supply chain disruption (38%) and business siloes (35%) as key internal challenges to growth, alongside issues with lack of integration between systems (34%) and lack of change management processes (33%).

Data is also cited as an organisational risk when it comes to AI. Midmarket businesses in Australia said the biggest risks to their company from AI were acting upon incorrect information (35%), finding and retaining talent (33%), insufficient data size and quality (33%) and lack of transparency in results (32%).

“The better the quality and scale of your data, the better the results of your AI,” concluded Oosthuizen. “That’s why working with a technology partner like SAP is critical, because it is already built into the applications that power the most critical business processes. Only then can Australian businesses of every size make the promise of Business AI a reality.”

A spotlight on AI in finance

In Australia, the top three best use-cases for AI in finance is forecasting and analysis (33%), summarising investment portfolio performance (29%), conducting fraud detection (28%) as well as tax and regulatory compliance mandates (28%).

Financial departments in Australia have experienced the benefits of AI, with 90% of departments who had implemented AI citing a positive impact on both business growth and their ability to simplify everyday work.

“We’re seeing strong interest and adoption in AI from financial departments among Australian businesses as the technology drives great efficiencies and cost controls. From payroll and tax management through to meeting complex compliance regulations, there are various areas ripe for intelligent process automation – freeing up resources for more innovative financial decision-making,” added Oosthuizen.

A broader view on technology investment

Successful Australian midmarket organisations are focusing on technology to drive business growth and overcome challenges. Respondents with high revenue growth said their number one technology priorities were outsourcing systems to a managed service provider (18%), investing in new or updated analytics products and decision-making tools (17%) or moving software systems to the cloud (17%).

Conversely, Australian midmarket businesses with low revenue growth are prioritising investment in new analytics products and decision-making tools (20%), building customised software tools in-house (17%) or investing in new business software systems (16%).

“For Australian businesses to continue thriving, pace and operational cost efficiencies are paramount, which requires a move to the cloud.  When our customers are in the cloud, they access latest technologies faster and take immediate advantage of SAP Business AI,” commented Oosthuizen.

“SAP’s AI is already embedded into our customer’s applications and it relies on a gold mine of decades of relevant business data curated from huge customer data sets. We implore Australian organisations to partner with experts in AI, utilising their solutions – be it customised or off-the-shelf – in line with business needs.”

Oosthuizen added, “We deliver our technology in collaboration with our partner ecosystem, ensuring businesses are applying AI in the right ways, and utilising managed service providers should they require extended IT teams. It’s about taking the worry out of AI model creation and implementation, so our customers can quickly adopt the burgeoning technology and bring out their best.”

About this research

SAP Insights collected data from 12,003 respondents across 20 nations and 28 industries. Respondents were from organisations with between 250 and 1,500 employees, with director to C-suite titles. The study was conducted in March-April 2024 via an online survey.