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With AI tools increasing in popularity, the market comparison provider reveals what types of businesses are most likely to implement the new tech.
Market comparison organisation Small Business Loans Australia (SBLA) released the results of a study that investigated the prevalence of AI in small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and found that 25 per cent of SMEs use AI in their business and 35 per cent plan to incorporate AI in their operations in the next two years.
The study found that 40 per cent of respondents do not plan on introducing AI into their business over the next two years.
SBLA conducted a survey that interviewed 205 business directors and decision-makers from businesses that ranged from having one to 200 employees.
Larger businesses with more employees were the most likely to use or plan to implement AI, with 90 per cent of businesses that had 51–200 employees already using or planning to use AI in the next two years.
Businesses with 11–50 employees were the next most likely to have implemented or plan to implement AI (82 per cent), followed by businesses with one to 10 employees being the least likely to use or plan to use AI in their operations (41 per cent).
Western Australia was the most likely state to have implemented AI, with 40 per cent of SMEs in Western Australia already using AI in their business. Western Australia was followed by 28 per cent of NSW SMEs having implemented AI, 26 per cent of Victorian SMEs, 19 per cent of South Australian businesses, and 17 per cent of Queensland SMEs.
Western Australia was also the state that reported the most resistance to AI, with 47 per cent of Western Australian respondents saying they do not plan to introduce AI in their businesses.
The report found that 39 per cent of NSW respondents plan to introduce AI in the next two years and 38 per cent of South Australian SMEs plan to do the same. SBLA found that 37 per cent of SMEs in Queensland plan to incorporate AI into their business in the next two years and 35 per cent of Victorian businesses.
SMEs were most likely to use AI-powered customer or data analytics tools, with 27 per cent using or planning to use this type of AI tech in their businesses. The report found that 25 per cent of SMEs were using or planning to use AI for reporting purposes and a further 24 per cent were using AI chatboxes and email replies.
The least popular usage of AI was for customer relationship management bots, with only 11 per cent saying that they use or are planning to use this AI function.
Broker AI tools have been on the rise with Effi Technologies recently launching a new SMS AI bot specifically for mortgage brokers.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) also found that 87 per cent of SMEs using AI had reported time and savings costs following the introduction of AI in their businesses.
[Related: AI saving time and costs for 87% of SMEs: CBA]
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