Workplaces may be missing AI productivity gains

• Just 50% of employees are using AI in day-to-day work despite productivity and time savings.

• Organisations are underinvesting in technology skills training – only 33% of employees have had any training in the past 12 months.

• Almost two thirds of employees say their day-to-day work requires advanced computing power and 23% identify their role as regularly requiring advanced computing power.

Employers appear to be forfeiting an obvious source of productivity gains from AI and new technologies, as Australia continues to wrestle with declining productivity.

While nine in ten (91%) of employers say they encourage employees to use AI for regular work tasks, just 50% of employees are making use of AI in their day-to-day activities at work.

For those employees using AI the two most significant benefits they identify are that it saves them time (74%) and makes them more productive (56%).

The findings come from Australian workplace research released this year – based on surveys with a total of more than 2000 employers and employees from across the country – commissioned by local technology services provider Datacom in partnership with Microsoft.

Other benefits of AI use identified by employees in the study included helping with creative thinking (48%) and reducing errors (31%). 

The research findings also highlighted a lack of investment by employers in technology skills training – just one in three (33%) of employees had received any technology skills training in the past 12 months.

“The challenge when you look at these research findings is that we know Australia is facing productivity issues and we know that organisations need to invest in technology skills training, to ensure their workforce has critical digital skills that will enable them to take advantage of new and evolving technologies, but that knowledge is not translating into action,” said Datacom Managing Director Laura Malcolm. 

While training and support for AI is falling short, the research shows most employers are investing in the digital tools employees need to do their job.

Of the employees surveyed, 80% of employees surveyed noted their organisation upgraded or replaced laptops and other tech equipment at least every three years but 20% of employees feel their digital tools are falling short of what they need.

The vast majority of employers (98%) believe their employees have the digital tools and support they need to complete their work on a day-to-day basis and perform their role well. 

Among employees, 62% identified their day-to-day work as requiring advanced computing power and 23% identified their role as regularly requiring advanced computing power.

“It’s encouraging to see employers are equipping their teams with the digital tools they need, but if you go back to the figures around technology skills training – and the lack of it – it is likely that employees would experience greater efficiency and access more functionality from their devices if organisations were prepared to invest in proper training.”

“We would argue that investing in the tech is just one piece of the puzzle, you have to arm your workforce with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive and to help your organisation thrive.”

Andy Malakooti, GTM Lead - Device Partner Sales, Microsoft ANZ, said: “It’s encouraging to see that employers in Australia are strongly encouraging AI use and are willing to back their employees with the powerful tools they need to succeed. When we designed our new Copilot + PCs the driving factor was to deliver the processing power and integrated access to AI that will define the immediate future of our workplaces.” 

“Harnessing AI at the edge capability and having built-in access to a powerful AI assistant like Copilot is a significant step in addressing the findings in this research - enabling employers to provide direct AI access and create the opportunity for employees to easily get to grips with AI benefits in their everyday work.”

The research also looked at work satisfaction and ‘work perks’ among respondents – and 30% of employees identified effective software to fulfil their role requirements as a leading non-remuneration work perk, showing how highly people value having access to the right tools and applications.

The majority of employees (75%) identified as feeling satisfied with their current job, while 28% of employees felt their employer did not value or recognise the contribution they made to their organisation. 

Flexible working was shown to be a considerable driver of job satisfaction, with 68% of employees identifying it as the leading non-remuneration work perk. But the office space is still highly valued by Australian employees with 44% picking a great office/working space as the next best perk. 

Hybrid was identified as the most preferred work scenario (45%), followed by work from the office (36%) and nearly one in five (19%) prefer to work from home.

This Australian workplace research was commissioned by Datacom and carried out by YouGov. The research draws on the results of two surveys. One survey was comprised of a nationally representative sample of 1524 Australian white collar middle managers or below in organisations with 200+ employees – these are the “employees”. The second survey was comprised of a nationally representative sample of 521 Australian white collar senior managers or above, in organisations with 200+ employees – these are the “employers”. The surveys were conducted online in April 2025.