Aussie workers love using AI but employers aren’t as enthusiastic, Workday survey finds

Almost two thirds of Australians are using AI at work and 96 per cent say they’re confident with the technology but employers are failing to see a return on their investment, survey results show.

Two thirds of workers who responded to a survey say AI is already being used in their office.

Almost two thirds of Australians questioned in a survey say they’re using AI at work and 96 per cent of those are confident with using the technology to assist with complex work.

However, employers have told the same survey they’re failing to see a return on their investment in the technology.

About 65 per cent of respondents to an AI survey conducted by HR platform Workday confirmed their employer had introduced AI, which was about 5 per cent higher than the global average.

Workday’s vice-president of AI Kathy Pham said the figure was likely to actually be a lot higher as numerous companies had begun to embed AI into their services but not all had declared it openly.

“I think if you look at the history of all of AI, we all have used AI without actively knowing it,” she said.

What companies had begun to focus on was determining what processes should and shouldn’t be automated.

Workday’s survey, which quizzed more than 2500 people across the US, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, found that 83 per cent of respondents believed AI would enhance human creativity.

Ms Pham said that was largely because AI could in some cases be used to complete the first iteration of work.

“AI has a component there to perhaps help us get there with our creativity … we take the results from it and we’re able to be even more creative with documents or find more creative ways to run our organisations, or better ways to think about leadership plans,” she said.

Similarly, about 80 per cent of respondents believed the use of AI in the workplace could help workers develop new skills.

That finding could be in relation to the time saved by using AI to create documents.

The Workday survey’s latest result arrives as some evidence emerges Australian employers are actually pulling back on introducing AI technology to their workplaces.

About 56 per cent were given an artificial intelligence reality check in 2024, when 58 per cent said their investment in the technology had failed to meet expectations.

That finding, by a Cisco survey, showed about 70 per cent of investors had pulled out of active deals due to AI considerations.

Despite AI failing to live up to expectations, Australian companies were continuing to allocate resources to the technology, and it was estimated between 10 to 30 per cent of their IT budget had been set aside.

But hiring of AI staff appears to have slowed, according to recent JobsAdder data. It found the number of advertised roles had fallen 35 per cent over a two-year period.

AI roles hit an all-time high when ChatGPT was first launched into the public domain, and about 3750 roles were advertised.

By the end of 2024, the number had shrunk to 2022.

However, the data could indicate a slowing of hiring – or a lower turnover as staff with AI skills understood attracted hefty pay offers to stop them from seeking opportunities elsewhere.

Originally published as Aussie workers love using AI but employers aren’t as enthusiastic, Workday survey finds