New research by HubSpot has revealed that only 17% of Australian businesses have officially implemented AI or AI-enhanced tools in the workplace. Despite this, over half of business leaders (51%) use AI to personally support their work, even though it hasn't been officially implemented into their workplaces.

The research, commissioned by Hubspot and Sling & Stone, was conducted by Lonergan Research. It surveyed 511 Australian Business Leaders nationally in organisations, across both capital city and non-capital city areas.

According to the research, more than two-thirds of businesses are looking to hire a head of AI in the next 12 months (69%). Almost two-thirds of businesses lack visibility of how much of their output is AI versus human-generated (59%). The top three reasons businesses do not have official AI policies in place are: lack of proper guidelines and policies for safe use (37%), concerns relating to data privacy & compliance (36%), and data quality (36%).

Businesses that measure and track AI usage are seeing greater ROI. Leaders that track and measure the impact of AI are significantly more likely to report business and workforce benefits than those that don’t. Over two-thirds of business leaders don’t have the systems in place to measure the impact of AI usage.

A staggering 81% of business leaders expect their organisation to hire more roles to support AI rollout and implementation. Business leaders in New South Wales have the highest average planned AI investment at approximately $48,000 over the next year. Only 14% of business leaders plan on using free AI tools over the next 12 months.

VP & MD, JAPAC at HubSpot, Dan Bognar, said: “Generative AI is a disruptive shift that has the potential to transform how businesses market, sell to and service their customers. However, in Australia, adoption is falling short of expectations. To bridge the gap between personal and business usage, organisations must connect AI to the data and tools that workers actually use, while setting clear policies for responsible usage. Beyond that, investing in training and implementing proper measurement frameworks will be crucial for organisations to accurately track AI ‘s business impact.”

“In Australia, we are seeing increased demand for AI-skilled workers as businesses look to better incorporate this technology into their everyday processes. This is particularly prevalent in the financial services, professional services and IT sectors. Furthermore, PwC research suggests that as AI adoption in these industries grows, job growth is expected to slow. This indicates a need for workers to develop new skills to adapt to the changing job landscape," said Bognar.

“Search is evolving to where the user is — on the go and on the device they’re using. Voice is becoming the dominant form of interaction and it will be important for businesses to support all of these modes. As AI becomes more integrated in the day-to-day running of businesses, the next big shift will be agentic AI. That is, AI agents that can take action on our behalf, freeing people up to focus on the more strategic work they need to do.”