Business Leaders Across Australia Adopt AI for Growth

As Australian executives stand at this crossroad in history, the latest wave of artificial intelligence is not only reshaping the landscape of society, it also offers new opportunities to radically reinvent the way we do business.

Although the appetite for organisations to become “AI-ready” is high, leaders must now navigate a course that aligns intention with implementation.

While as many as 60 per cent of Australian and New Zealand business leaders believe AI will rival if not outrun the creation of the internet and AI’s influence to be on par or even bigger than the transformation brought by smartphones, very few companies are fully leveraging AI as a transformative factor for their business and the majority of corporate leaders are not yet leveraging AI to strategic advantage.

A recent global study conducted by TCS also found that while Australian business leaders see AI as a tool to unlock revenue at one of the highest rates of any global market, most companies lack a cohesive strategy or ways to measure the success of their AI implementation— yet it will likely be challenging to get boardroom buy-in for AI implementations without these success metrics.

To fully leverage all that AI has to offer, company leaders will need to make big changes to their business models—and to their infrastructure.

As well as managing a culture of AI-readiness and talent development.

Dr Harrick Vin, chief technology officer for TCS, said recently: “Enterprises should As Australian executives stand at this crossroad in history, the latest wave of artificial intelligence is not only reshaping the landscape of society, it also offers new opportunities to radically reinvent the way we do business.

Although the appetite for organisations to become “AI-ready” is high, leaders must now navigate a course that aligns intention with implementation.

While as many as 60 per cent of Australian and New Zealand business leaders believe AI will rival if not outrun the creation of the internet and AI’s influence to be on par or even bigger than the transformation brought by smartphones, very few companies are fully leveraging AI as a transformative factor for their business and the majority of corporate leaders are not yet leveraging AI to strategic advantage.

A recent global study conducted by TCS also found that while Australian business leaders see AI as a tool to unlock revenue at one of the highest rates of any global market, most companies lack a cohesive strategy or ways to measure the success of their AI implementation— yet it will likely be challenging to get boardroom buy-in for AI implementations without these success metrics.

To fully leverage all that AI has to offer, company leaders will need to make big changes to their business models—and to their infrastructure. As well as managing a culture of AI-readiness and talent development.

Dr Harrick Vin, chief technology officer for TCS, said recently: “Enterprises should view scaling AI adoption as a business endeavour, not a technology implementation project.

“To embark on this journey, enterprises should start with a top-down vision to enhance stakeholder value, and then engineer and orchestrate activity-specific purposive AI agents (that blend traditional and generative AI methods judiciously) to achieve the value targets.

“These purposive AI agents will need to be consistent, efficient and responsible.

Further, to prevent AI legacy, these agents will need to be built for rapid adaptations, not just functionality.

Achieving this at scale is a team sport that involves business, technology, data, legal, risk and compliance, as well as talent engagement teams.

Therein lies the biggest challenge for building AI-mature enterprises.”

Presently, one of the main challenges preventing businesses from bridging the gap between planning and execution is data management.

Companies must look to AI not just as a means of automating processes but as a transformative force capable of reshaping the competitive landscape and a company’s success within it, and that requires data.

Companies must invest in building robust data infrastructure and governance processes that ensure data is accurate, consistent, and accessible across the organisation.

Without them, even the most advanced algorithms “To embark on this journey, enterprises should start with a top-down vision to enhance stakeholder value, and then engineer and orchestrate activity-specific purposive AI agents (that blend traditional and generative AI methods judiciously) to achieve the value targets.

“These purposive AI agents will need to be consistent, efficient and responsible.

Further, to prevent AI legacy, these agents will need to be built for rapid adaptations, not just functionality.

Achieving this at scale is a team sport that involves business, technology, data, legal, risk and compliance, as well as talent engagement teams.

Therein lies the biggest challenge for building AI-mature enterprises.”

Presently, one of the main challenges preventing businesses from bridging the gap between planning and execution is data management.

Companies must look to AI not just as a means of automating processes but as a transformative force capable of reshaping the competitive landscape and a company’s success within it, and that requires data.

Companies must invest in building robust data infrastructure and governance processes that ensure data is accurate, consistent, and accessible across the organisation.

Without them, even the most advanced algorithms will struggle to yield meaningful results.

In tandem with investing in technology and infrastructure, business leaders must also establish an organisational environment and change management process that fosters a culture of innovation, experimentation and continuous learning.

The road from potential to performance requires business leaders to take a collaborative approach, both in terms of organisational culture and leaning into strategic partnerships with external experts.

Further strategic partnerships with AI research institutions and industry partners can also expedite the AI development process through access to cutting-edge research, specialised AI talent, and shared data pools.

It is this approach that will enable Australia to be a pacesetter in the coming AI transformation.

As executives continue to recognise the value of investing in AI for innovation, businesses are already thinking expansively about what AI can do.

Reducing resource and material waste is the top overall objective driving AI investments for business leaders in Australia, reflecting the nation’s focus on sustainability and a technology-enabled road to net zero.

To forge ahead, businesses need to radically reframe their perspective on AI, and this work needs to start now – if it hasn’t already.

Beyond being a tool for automating processes, it is a transformative force capable of reshaping a company’s success – something only 3 per cent of Australia and New Zealand businesses are currently harnessing.

Excitement about AI’s transformative potential should be encouraged, yet companies should focus on the value not the technology to drive tangible business outcomes, such as revenue growth, cost savings, and improved customer experience.

Source: Vikram Singh is country head for Australia and New Zealand at Tata Consultancy Services.