AI adoption is on the rise in Australia, with 46% of Australian workers using AI in their jobs and 51% excited about the prospect of AI replacing some tasks, according to Slack’s new Workforce Index. Australia is now ranked third for AI adoption rates globally, behind only Germany and Japan.
Globally, worker AI adoption rates have slowed over the last three months — growing just 4 percentage points, from 32% to just 36%. AI urgency is up, with 76% of workers feeling an urgency to become an AI expert but research indicates that uncertainty and discomfort around AI usage may be a blocker to AI adoption. 42% of Australian workers report feeling uncomfortable admitting AI use to their managers for fear they might be seen as less competent, lazy, or cheating.
Why it matters: According to McKinsey, AI could increase corporate profits by $4.4 trillion a year, and Salesforce research finds that sales teams using AI are up to 1.3x more likely to see revenue increase than those who don’t use it. To realise the benefits of AI, however, employers need to encourage employees to use the technology and equip them with the training and guidance needed to work successfully in the new agentic era.
Salesforce perspective: “A lot of the burden has been put on workers to figure out AI. The arrival of AI agents – with clearly defined roles and guidelines – will also help with this, alleviating the ambiguity and anxiety many workers feel around using AI at work and helping to accelerate adoption,” said Christina Janzer, SVP of Research and Analytics at Slack.
Detailed global and Australian findings:
Workers hide AI use out of fear, confusion
Without clear guidance, workers are confused about when it’s socially and professionally acceptable to use AI at work — and are keeping their usage under wraps.
- 42% of Australian desk workers said they are uncomfortable admitting to their manager that they used AI for common workplace tasks.
- Among those Australian workers who said they are uncomfortable, the top reasons include:
- Fear of being seen as less competent
- Fear of being seen as lazy
- Feel like using AI is cheating
On the other hand, the research found that globally workers who are comfortable sharing AI use with their manager are 67% more likely to have used it for work.
Workers aren’t using AI to focus on executive priorities
The data reveals a disconnect between what leadership wants employees to focus on and what workers expect they’ll focus on with the time saved by AI. Globally, execs want employees to prioritise upskilling and innovation, while employees expect to use the time saved by AI to catch up on busy work and existing projects.
The top areas that execs want employees to prioritise to move the business forward are:
- Learning and skill-building
- Innovation
- More work on existing projects
What Australian employees expect they will do with the time AI helps them to save:
- Administrative tasks
- More work on existing core projects
- Learning and skill-building
Workers expect AI-savvy employers
Despite uncertainty around AI in their current workplace, Australian workers want to skill up on AI as 80% feel an urgency to become an AI expert. However, 57% of Australian workers have spent less than five hours total learning how to use AI, and 30% of global workers say they’ve had no AI training at all, including no self-directed learning or experimentation.
Employers will need to solve for the gap in training and get clear about AI guidelines, as current employees and new professionals entering the workforce will gravitate to more supportive workplaces.
- Globally, workers with guidance to use AI saw a 13 percentage point increase in AI adoption since January, while workers with no guidance to use AI only saw a 2 percentage point increase, from 8% to 10% since January.
- 75% of Australian workers say that a prospective employer’s ability to provide and enable workers on AI tools is a factor in their job search.
- Nearly 2 in 5 workers globally say they’d prefer working for companies that provide AI tools and enable their use.
- Globally, people in their first job are 1.8x times more likely to say AI enablement is a “very important factor” in their job search.
More information:
- Dig deeper into the Slack Workforce Index results and learn how leaders can encourage employee adoption
- Read about the five distinct AI personas that employers need to understand
- Find more stats and data on worker AI adoption in the Salesforce stat library
- Get more insights on AI agent trends
Methodology: The survey included 17,372 workers globally – including more than 1000 in Australia — as well as Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S. and was fielded between August 2 and August 30, 2024.
The survey was administered by Qualtrics and did not target Slack or Salesforce employees or customers. Respondents were all desk workers, defined as employed full-time (30 or more hours per week) and either having one of the roles listed below or saying they “work with data, analyse information or think creatively”: executive management (e.g. president/partner, CEO, CFO, C-suite), senior management (e.g. executive VP, senior VP), middle management (e.g. department/group manager, VP), junior management (e.g. manager, team leader), senior staff (i.e. non-management), skilled office worker (e.g. analyst, graphic designer).
