ABS: Big Australian Firms Use AI 3x More Than Small Ones

Transcript

This is Field Notes — your two minutes on the AI news that actually matters to Australian business. Today: ABS: Big Australian Firms Use AI 3x More Than Small Ones.

Official ABS data: 35% of large Australian businesses now use AI versus 11% of small ones. The gap is widening fast — here's how a small firm closes it.

Thirty-five per cent of large Australian businesses now use AI. Among small and micro businesses, the figure is eleven. That three-to-one split is not a survey blip — it is the official picture from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and the firms that moved first are pulling away. Here are the four things to take away. First. Official ABS data (Business Characteristics Survey 2024-25, released 25 June 2026) shows 35% of large Australian businesses use AI, versus 11% of small and micro businesses — a three-to-one gap. Second. Large-business adoption nearly quadrupled since 2021-22 (9% to 35%) and medium-business use rose more than sevenfold (3% to 22%); the fast movers are compounding a lead. Third. Professional, scientific and technical services sit at 24% adoption — double the 12% national average — so a quarter of a services firm's competitors are already using AI. Fourth. Small firms close the gap by putting AI on one revenue-chain workflow first — the quote, the missed call, the close — not by buying every tool at once.

So what does this actually mean for your business? That's the short version — enough to know whether it's worth a closer look this week.

That's your brief for today. Thanks for spending a couple of minutes with me — the links are in the show notes. Field Notes is brought to you by Coterie Labs. I'm Matilda. Until next time.