Ninety-five per cent of New Zealand small and medium businesses (SMBs) with artificial intelligence (AI) say it boosts their revenue, according to a new Salesforce survey.
Now in its sixth year, the Small & Medium Business Trends report draws on insights from 3,350 leaders from small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across 26 countries, which this year included 50 from across New Zealand and 750 across APAC. The latest report highlights how forward-looking businesses are using AI to drive growth amid the meteoric rise of autonomous AI agents.
New Zealand businesses are in good company — only the United States and the United Kingdom had SMB leaders report better results in this latest research, while Ireland also reported a similar level of success.
Today, 82 per cent of New Zealand SMBs – compared to 75 per cent globally and 63 per cent across APAC – are at least experimenting with AI, citing benefits to revenue, productivity, and customer experience. This gap appears set to widen — 78 per cent of growing SMBs globally plan to increase their AI investment next year, versus 55 per cent of their declining peers.
In New Zealand, the technology is transforming both customer-facing and operational functions, with business leaders reporting their top use cases for AI to be marketing campaign optimisation, automated service chatbots, and automated recommendations for customers.
Why it matters: This new research follows an August 2024 study published by Slack that found SMBs can lose valuable time to technology inefficiencies, uncovering a need for AI solutions that boost productivity. In New Zealand, flexible accommodation provider Urban Rest is showing how the implementation of trusted AI is leading to increased revenue and productivity across the business. With Salesforce, Urban Rest has transformed its guest relations team, providing 24/7 support and ensuring its team can apply a 360-degree view of guests and properties to every customer experience. Along the way, it increased revenue by 1400% in under three years, and reduced the number of field service visits by up to 40%.
New Zealand SMBs Grappling With Growing Tech Complexity
For New Zealand business leaders, 74 per cent say they’re optimistic about their futures as they ramp up AI, above the APAC average of 70 per cent.
However, as technology offerings multiply and capabilities expand, these same New Zealand business leaders continue to face mounting pressure to effectively manage their tech stack.
- 70% say keeping pace with changing technology is challenging, compared to 68% globally
- 50% say there isn’t time to master all the tech their company uses (44% globally)
- 48% worry their company will be left behind when it comes to AI (51% globally)
- 82% are also more data-conscious than the global average (74%), saying that improving the quality of their data would increase revenue
SMB leaders who haven’t adopted AI may also have a blind spot about its prevalence. Globally, while 80 per cent of those using AI believe the technology is commonly used among their peers, only a third of non-users agree.
Trust Is Paramount in the AI Age
Security ranks as the top technology challenge for SMBs globally, reflecting the growing stakes of managing sensitive business data as SMBs expand their AI capabilities.
For New Zealand SMB leaders, poor integration with existing technology and lack of strategy or use cases are also top of mind as they manage their technology approach. This shapes their purchase decisions: 74 per cent of SMB leaders in New Zealand say they would spend more on technology from trusted vendors.
The Salesforce perspective: “Small to medium businesses across New Zealand are reporting overwhelmingly positive results from their early adoption of AI,” said Adrian Towsey, Area Vice President, ESMB, Salesforce ANZ. “Business leaders who have seized on early AI use cases – such as marketing optimisation and customer service – are scaling faster, with improved operating margins, making them among the most successful leaders at implementing the technology to achieve results”
“By using AI and autonomous agents to create personalised content, and provide improved service and recommendations for customers, SMBs can improve the customer experience and build trust.”
Customer Perspective: “Implementing our sales, service, marketing, and operations into one integrated platform where they can work together with trusted AI and data has had a significant impact on our business,” said Jeff Baars, Chief Commercial Officer, Urban Rest. “We’ve increased productivity and revenue even as we’ve dramatically increased the number of properties we look after in the last three years. And with the more general availability of autonomous agents, we’ve never been in a better position to deliver on our vision and promise to our customers.”
More information:
- Read the full Small & Medium Business Trends report
- Discover how small and growing businesses can get started on Salesforce Starter.
- Explore the Stat Library, Salesforce’s bookmarkable database of stats for journalists
Methodology
Data in this report is from a double-anonymous survey conducted August 3 through September 16, 2024. The survey generated 3,350 responses from leaders of small, medium, and growth businesses (200 employees and under) across North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, with 50 businesses in New Zealand and 750 total across APAC. For more demographic information, please refer to the full “Small & Medium Business Trends” report.
