Most Australian business leaders expect to use generative AI tools without human oversight within three years, research has found.
The tools will allow the technology to solve IT issues and send messages to customers by itself.
But the study also found only half of Australia’s big businesses had clear AI strategies in place, and many executives still held concerns about the technology’s cost and the way it handled data.
Software firm Salesforce revealed the findings on Friday in its third survey into the use of generative AI in Australian businesses.
The research comes as companies wait for the federal government to release voluntary guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence, as flagged at a Senate inquiry earlier this month.
YouGov conducted the survey for Salesforce, quizzing 288 c-suite executives about AI, including business owners, directors, and executives in technical and non-technical roles.
It found the use of generative AI among participants had doubled every six months, rising from 19 per cent in July 2023 to 40 per cent in February this year, and to 83 per cent in July.
More than two in every five executives said they used generative AI tools all the time at work, and more than half said they considered themselves highly proficient in the technology.
Almost all executives surveyed (98 per cent) also said they would be confident to let AI tackle operations without human supervision or oversight within the next three years.
Some of the most popular AI-only tasks included fixing employees’ computer issues, composing internal and customer messages, writing code and keeping data safe.
Salesforce Australia country leader Frank Fillmann said the research showed business leaders were increasingly embracing the technology and investigating what AI tools could do in their businesses.
If deployed correctly, he said, the software could make routine tasks easier for clients and customers.
Fisher and Paykel were using the technology to check on appliance maintenance and order parts, for example, while hipages used generative AI to list tradespeople on its platform.
“When (hipages) want to onboard a tradie, instead of that being north of an hour, they can now use generative AI to power that onboard and they can do it in 10 minutes,” Mr Fillmann said.
“They can do it over a cup of coffee versus having to step out of work.”
Despite the high use of generative AI, however, only half of executives said their business had a clear strategy for using it, and most said barriers remained to its widespread use, including concerns about mistakes, incomplete training and data security and privacy.
Mr Fillmann said some of their concerns would be allayed with experience and education that generative AI software used in corporate settings was different to apps such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
“When people say generative AI, there’s a clear distinction between business AI, which has the proper governance trust architecture ... versus personal AI,” he said.
The federal government has yet to release mandatory rules for the use of AI technology in high-risk settings, although a Senate inquiry on August 16 heard voluntary guidelines could be expected soon.
