The property industry has emerged as the largest adopter of AI among small and medium-sized enterprises, with almost seven in 10 businesses taking up the technology.
As businesses rapidly integrate AI, the property services industry had the largest uptake among small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), according to new data.
NAB’s new Embracing AI: Adoption & key opportunities for SMEs report, which surveyed 670 SMEs, showed that property services used AI the most with a 69 per cent utilisation rate.
According to the data, other industries with strong digital foundations or analytical workflows that had also been leading the adoption included finance and insurance services (64 per cent) and business services (61 per cent).
NAB said all three industries were well-positioned to benefit from AI, as they operated at high levels of digital maturity and handled large volumes of data.
“The nature of their work, reliant on tasks such as forecasting, modelling, compliance and process automation, means AI tools can deliver immediate and tangible productivity and efficiency gains,” it said.
Broadly, the data showed that 42 per cent of Australian SMEs used AI in their business, with 14 per cent planning to adopt AI, although 16 per cent reported that AI would not assist them.
When it came to the opportunities AI presented, SMEs have largely been turning to the tool to automate repetitive tasks and enhance marketing and sales optimisation.
Automation was found to be the primary reason for businesses’ integration of AI, with 35 per cent of SMEs responding that this was the area where AI could assist most.
Marketing and sales optimisation followed at 31 per cent, showing AI’s potential to improve targeting, customer insights and commercial performance.
SMEs also found AI to be useful in decision making, which had a result of 23 per cent, reflecting growing confidence in AI as a strategic tool.
Customer experience enhancement (22 per cent) and cost reduction and efficiency (18 per cent) were also a priority in AI, but their importance varies across industries.
Despite property services’ keen adoption of the tool, the sector was found to place minimal importance on AI-enabled decision making, at 15 per cent.
NAB said the finding likely reflected a greater reliance on human judgement or challenges in integrating AI into established decision workflows.
“These differences illustrate how confidence in AI-driven insights is closely tied to sector-specific readiness and clarity around use cases,” it said.
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