Australian organisations lag global peers in realising AI’s transformational potential, reveals Deloitte survey

12 February 2026: Australian organisations are investing in AI but are lagging behind global peers in realising its transformational potential, according to research from Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise report.

The “State of AI in the Enterprise: The Untapped Edge” report is based on a survey of over 3,000 director to C-suite-level leaders around the globe and in Australia who have direct involvement in their companies’ AI initiatives.

The findings show that while adoption and investment in AI are accelerating, many Australian businesses are struggling to move beyond pilots to adopt AI at scale. This underscores the need for leaders to make clear, strategic choices if they want to keep pace with global peers and successfully scale AI across their organisations.

Key quotes

“AI has moved beyond experimentation. It’s now a strategic conversation for nations and organisations alike, about resilience, sovereignty, and competitive advantage. Australian leaders who pull ahead will move decisively from pilot to production, stop treating AI as isolated use cases, and make the enterprise-wide decisions that turn ambition into a repeatable capability and scale AI across products, services, and operations.”
– David Alonso, Australia AI Market Leader.

“Australian organisations are making strides in AI adoption, but the data shows they are still trailing global peers when it comes to genuine transformation. Many are seeing productivity gains, but few are using AI to go beyond productivity and into growth. To close this gap, leaders need to move beyond incremental improvements and single use cases, and rethink how work is done in a world of abundant digital labour.”
– Stuart Scotis, National Leader for Technology, Innovation and GenAI, Deloitte Australia.

“Agentic AI forces Trustworthy AI out of theory and into operation. When systems can decide and act, organisations must embed real risk management - clear accountability, guardrails, and intervention points - into agentic workflows. That’s how trust is maintained as autonomy scales.”
– Dr Elea Wurth, Trustworthy AI Leader, Asia Pacific and Australia.

Bridging the pilot-production gap

Moving from pilot to production is a crucial step in capturing AI value, yet while AI experimentation is accelerating, Deloitte’s survey found that only 25% of global respondents and 28% of Australian respondents have moved 40% or more of their AI pilots into production.

However, the pathway to value appears to be clear and achievable for those respondents, with 54% of global respondents and 57% of Australian respondents expecting to reach that level in the next three to six months.

Reimagining AI’s value beyond productivity

AI’s real-world business impact is rising fast, and 61% of Australian respondents report it is improving efficiency and productivity. However, one-third of Australian organisations are still focused on deploying AI to automate existing processes or make only minor tweaks or optimisations to them.

Success with AI will likely hinge on achieving strategic differentiation and lasting competitive edge, which means using AI to reimagine what is possible for the business rather than optimising what already exists.

For agentic AI, governance and growth go hand in hand

Agentic AI is poised for further growth, yet just over half of Australian companies say talent and skills gaps present a significant barrier, while 42% point to cost hurdles and technology or data availability issues.

Furthermore, only 22% of Australian companies report having a highly advanced model for agent governance. Companies seeing the most success are taking a measured approach - starting with lower-risk use cases, building governance capabilities and scaling deliberately. In the AI era, governance is what turns ambition into responsible, scalable growth.

Physical AI and sovereign AI on the rise

Resilience in the age of AI increasingly depends on sovereign AI readiness, and organisations are taking note. Today, 72% of Australian companies factor country of origin into their vendor selection.

Physical AI is rapidly becoming integral to operations worldwide, with manufacturing, logistics and defence leading the way globally. Adoption is projected to surpass 80% both in Australia and globally within two years - setting the pace for the next wave of industrial automation.