Business leaders around the world are looking into AI’s ability to help them run more effectively and produce better business benefits. Not all organizations, however, are on a fast track to achieving powerful AI benefits.
According to 2025 IBM research, for example, 77 % of managers say they need to follow general AI swiftly to keep up with competitors— but only 25 % firmly agree that their organisation’s IT system can support scaling AI across the organization.
Artificial development in Australia is advancing, but also limited. In the 2024 World Digital Competitiveness Ranking by the International Institute for Management Development, which measures states on their online knowledge, systems, and future preparation, Australia placed 15th of 67 countries — up only one casino from 16th in 2023.
Lack of the efficient capacity and confidence needed to leave AI project experimentation stages is one of the issues that keeps Asian businesses from growing.
” When an entity is working with any unfamiliar technology, the normal position will be to remove it and put it in a playground, because of its perceived riskiness”, says John Hanna, Neudesic Australia.  ,” This is not entirely a representation of technology, but one of operational capability. To efficiently use AI technologies, it takes both organizational capacity and professional talent.
Developing the practical capability to manage Artificial projects, and operationalise them when completed, is an especially difficult challenge for Australia’s middle market organisations — which are competing against larger companies, across international markets, for little pools of experienced AI talent.
Working with a reputable integrator with extensive AI experience and credentials can assist mid-market organizations in overcoming the capacity gaps that prevent them from utilizing AI for impact beyond the sandbox. The right integrator partner will make sure that the following steps are crucial to Australian mid-market organizations ‘ AI journeys, helping them boost their AI confidence and advance their success.
Define the outcomes AI will deliver
Organisations need to determine their AI objectives, and align them to their business priorities, before taking other steps. Securing buy-in and approval is made simpler by having clear AI objectives and use cases as well as identifying metrics for evaluating improvements in the areas where AI is ultimately used.
Businesses typically use AI to increase productivity, improve the quality of work, or pursue larger business value initiatives like enhancing customer service or bringing new products to market more quickly are some examples of where businesses use it for impact. An integrator partner that provides data and AI strategy services, such as a seasoned Microsoft partner, Neudesic, can assist Australian mid-market organizations in identifying the uses for AI to generate tangible, quantifiable benefits.
Build a data foundation underpinned by expertise
Working with AI presents new challenges and restrictions to organizations ‘ processes for managing their data and maintaining the integrity and security of that data.
Organizations need to have enforceable guidelines for the classification of data, such as those for AI-based projects, as well as guidelines for the use of external data ( which may have copyright or licensing requirements ). Organizations also require information on who is in charge of their datasets, especially those created specifically for AI use, along with other security, storage, and compliance issues.
An integrator partner with experience building data foundations for leading multinational corporations can be a valuable asset to mid-market organizations with the limited AI talent in Australia.
According to Hanna, “having a trusted partner can help businesses avoid common]data and technology ] blunders and mistakes, which reduce investment regrets and foster business confidence in the technology at a faster rate than would otherwise be possible.”
Empower data-driven decision making
No matter what size or scale of their businesses are, all organizations require enterprise-grade AI in order to be able to grow over time and provide the insights needed to guide them through an uncertain future.
The quickest way to both generating valuable insights to support data-informed decisions and strategies and implementing tried-and-true technology solutions to targeted problem and opportunity areas is by applying tried and tested technology solutions.
” Ultimately the breadth of data businesses need to deal with is vast, disparate and unstructured, often pushing existing systems, processes and teams that rely on analysing known patterns, beyond their capabilities”, says Hanna. The adoption of AI offers a way to analyze this information at a scale and speed.
Advance AI with confidence and capability
Having the right people, approach, and technology behind their AI initiatives helps organisations move projects forward with confidence. Making organizational progress with AI a top priority rather than just the experimentation phase requires a level of functional capability that Australian businesses must master on their own.
Neudesic, an IBM Company and award-winning Microsoft pure-play partner, brings enterprise-grade IP and world-class experience and partnerships to the Australian market to help companies realise impact from their AI investments.
To find out more about Neudesic, go to https ://www.neudesic.com/.
