AI adoption surges among New Zealand businesses – report

The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasing among New Zealand businesses, according to the latest findings from Datacom's annual State of AI research. The survey, which involved 200 senior managers from New Zealand organisations with at least 100 employees, reveals that AI is being embraced at a rate significantly higher than in previous years.

The research indicates that two-thirds of New Zealand companies are now utilising some form of AI, up from 48% in 2023. Additionally, 88% of these organisations have integrated AI within the past two years. The change in sentiment towards AI is also notable, with 70% of respondents describing AI as "exciting" and expressing support for it, compared to 47% in the previous year.

Over 71% of respondents believe that the successful adoption of AI in New Zealand will drive economic benefits and new revenue opportunities. Moreover, 80% of those already using AI perceive it as having a positive impact on business operations, while only 2% reported that AI did not have a positive impact.

Justin Gray, Datacom's Managing Director for New Zealand, said, "It's positive to see New Zealand businesses realising the benefits of AI and feeling more confident in their understanding of AI risks and opportunities." He added, "We are seeing more companies identifying relevant AI use cases for their business and to date a lot of these use cases are centred on automation and data analytics."

The research identifies the most common applications of AI in New Zealand businesses as the automation of repetitive tasks and processes (24%), big data analytics and synthesis of insights (17%), and workflow automation and optimisation (15%). Other applications of AI include improving employee and customer experiences and contributing to innovation and strategy development.

However, the report also highlights certain areas where companies are lagging. Among businesses using AI, only 13% have audit assurance and governance frameworks, 48% have staff policies for AI usage, and 33% have awareness training for staff. Commercial and financial targets for AI usage remain low, with only 11% of respondents having these in place.

"Governance, policies, and AI targets are an area where we have got to get better," Gray commented. "There is huge potential for AI to transform the way we work, alleviate some of the repetitive work that can monopolise our time, and make our teams more productive, but we need the guardrails in place to ensure we're using AI safely and responsibly."

Lou Campagnone, Datacom's Director of AI, noted that many companies are still looking for help in identifying where to use AI within their organisations. "We're identifying new opportunities for AI on a monthly if not weekly basis. In our own payroll business, Datapay, we're using AI and machine learning for anomaly detection to improve the compliance of payroll and leave calculations and to reduce the impact of common payroll errors," he said.

Additionally, the report points to data management and governance as critical areas needing attention. Earlier research from Datacom highlighted that 30% of New Zealand companies believe that half or more of their data has issues such as being outdated, insecure, or inconsistent. Only 9% consider their data to be "clean."

Gray emphasised the importance of data quality for effective AI deployment, stating, "The quality of AI outputs is wholly dependent on the quality of data that is available – garbage in, garbage out."

The lack of AI expertise is another barrier to adoption. While 39% of the organisations using AI have dedicated skilled resources to manage it, 43% of the organisations not using AI cited the lack of available expertise as the main reason for not adopting the technology.

The research findings stem from a survey conducted in July 2024 by Curia Market Research, encompassing senior business leaders from various sectors across New Zealand.