AI in Australia: 60% of execs rush for adoption but only 35% of employees are guided

Recent research from Slack’s Workforce Lab underscores a significant artificial intelligence (AI) trend that is specific to Australian workplaces. While Australia leads in global AI adoption rates at 35% — matching Japan — a deeper dive into the statistics reveals nuanced challenges, including gaps in leadership guidance and gender disparities in AI trust and usage.

The study was released alongside this week’s Salesforce World Tour in Sydney and included feedback from 1,000 Australian workers out of more than 10,000 respondents worldwide. The study shows that 60% of Australian executives report a high degree of urgency to implement AI. This is 10% higher than the global average.

However, only 35% of Australian employees have received guidance from their leaders when it comes to navigating AI integration. This figure is notably lower than the global average of 43%, highlighting a gap in direct support and communication from leadership.

And this is a problem considering just how many workers are using AI. The report showed that Australian desk workers spend nearly half of their time (47%) on low-value or repetitive tasks. However, 48% express optimism about AI’s potential to alleviate these burdens, suggesting a readiness to embrace AI for more meaningful work.

Having this enthusiasm met with a lack of guidance from leaders is a problem. Talking about its integration is great, but it’s not particularly helpful without any follow-through or guidance from the top. It also poses potential security issues.

A Deloitte survey from September 2023 found that 66% of Australian workers using generative AI in the workplace were doing so secretly. Combining this without instructions or proper implementation from leadership in such a high proportion of Australian businesses is a potential recipe for disaster.

Christina Janzer, head of Slack’s workforce lab and SVP of research & analytics at Salesforce, points out that users are already witnessing productivity gains from AI and automation tools. Yet, the study brings to light the importance of bridging the gap between executive urgency for AI adoption and the practical support provided to employees, as well as addressing the gender disparities in AI trust and usage.

“The findings show the benefits for top executives to be increasing effectiveness and productivity, innovation of products and services, and cost reduction. However, despite this, there is also an evident disparity between the feeling of importance around AI, versus how desk workers feel it’s being integrated into their working roles,” Janzer said.

Gender disparity with AI trust

Separately, further data from Salesforce released this week revealed that generative AI adoption among Australian office professionals stands at 53%. But, while 61% of men report using or experimenting with generative AI at work, only 40% of women do the same.

This disparity extends to trust levels in generative AI, with 70% of men expressing trust compared to just 43% of women.

This data echoes research that Roy Morgan released last year, which showed that 67% of people who believe that AI causes more problems were women.

But as we reported at the time, that isn’t always the case. In fact, despite the continued  — and incredibly valid — conversations around AI bias, some women were more willing to trust AI than human beings.

A 2023 white paper titled Does Artificial Intelligence Help or Hurt Gender Diversity? revealed that women were 30% more likely to complete an application compared to men if AI was involved in the recruitment process.

“Complementary evidence from two surveys suggests that the gender treatment effect is driven by applicants’ perceptions of the relative bias they experience from AI vs human evaluators,” the white paper says.

This data wasn’t just based on a perception of human bias. It also found that human recruiters were more likely to score women “substantially lower” than men when gender-revealing names are attached to job applications.

So when it comes to Australian businesses, it looks like there are two gaping trust gaps that urgently need to be addressed.