Published on the 30/07/2025 | Written by Heather Wright

But ROI for other digital adoption shows promise…

Local small and medium-sized businesses are seeing rapid benefits in tech adoption according to new research, but they’re still reticent when it comes to artificial intelligence, with nearly 40 percent not planning to adopt the technology, and many saying it’s not needed or relevant.

The MYOB 2025 Business Monitor, which surveyed 1,000+ SMB owners and operators across New Zealand, shows nearly half of those who measured return on investment for their spend on digital tools reported a positive impact or ROI within six months of upgrading their technology. That includes 15 percent who say they saw an impact in the first three months, and 14 percent for whom the improvements were ‘immediate’.

“As business owners become more familiar with the capabilities of the technology, that process might uncover some surprising boosts for their business.”

But despite all the hype around AI, it’s a technology SMBs are hesitant to adopt, with most SMBs yet to start proactively using AI.

Just under a third (32 percent) of SME operators have started using AI tools in their business, according to the MYOB survey. While that’s a low number – and leaves 68 percent not using the technology yet – it is nearly double last year’s survey result of 17 percent.

Australia’s figures for SMB uptake are marginally higher, with the Department of Industry, Science and Resources’ latest AI Adoption Tracker showing 40 percent are adopting AI. That’s a five percent increase on the previous quarter (July-Sept 2024).

Data from the June 2025 survey shows 49 percent of businesses with less than 20 employees ‘don’t intend to implement AI’, (which in that report’s speak can also mean they don’t intend to implement AI within the next 12 months). Roll that out to include those with up to 199 employees and the figure is still a high 47 percent, well up on May’s 36 percent (different SMEs respond to the survey questions each month).

However 21 percent say they’re not aware of how to use AI (down just two percent) and 38 percent say they have no plans to adopt the technology (down four percent). In New Zealand, among those not using the technology, 39 percent said AI simply wasn’t needed or appropriate for their business, and 30 percent said they don’t know enough about it.

The two countries are also tracking similarly with SMB’s application of the technology, with generative AI assistants, data entry and document processing, fraud detection, marketing automation and customer support and chatbots topping the list for Australian businesses adopting AI. Among those looking to introduce AI, data entry and document processing and fraud detection were the key applications favoured.

Dean Chadwick, MYOB chief customer officer, says in New Zealand SMEs are primarily employing AI tools to bolster their marketing efforts – helping with copywriting of marketing materials and press releases (39 percent) or generating social media posts (31 percent).

Chadwick notes that the use of AI aligns with the top skills SMEs identified would be most important for their business over the next five years – customer service (40 percent) and sales and marketing (32 percent).

Copywriting technical documents, reports and training materials (25 percent), customer service support such as chatbots and virtual assistants (21 percent) and analysing markets, trends and risks (21 percent) were other top uses by Kiwi SMBs.

He says supplementing the deep customer knowledge SME owners and operators are known for with AI tools could make a significant difference to what can be achieved for smaller businesses.

“In taking the heavy-lifting and time investment out of some of these tasks, the efficiency gains AI provides to SMEs not only ensures business owners can focus on higher-value tasks, it also offers a reprieve on workload,” Chadwick says.

Workload has been a key factor negatively impacting the mental wellbeing of one-third of local business operators in the past two years, according to other MYOB research.

“Intelligent tools that can help ease this burden will likely improve employee engagement and wellbeing as a result.”

Australian SMEs meanwhile, are more focused on business outcomes including faster access to accurate data to inform decision making (22 percent), improved customer experience/engagement (18 percent) and stronger security, data protection and fraud detection (18 percent). They’re also doubtful about AI’s abilities to enable more agile product and service innovation, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources’ figures.

They’re not buying into talk that AI will improve employee experience/engagement or increase revenue or cashflow, however, with 43 percent and 42 percent respectively saying it was ‘unlikely’ to help achieve those outcomes.

A May 2025 survey of 829 Kiwi white-collar workers by AI advisory NewZealand.AI and recruitment company Cultivate found general AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity were among the most used tools (used by 82 percent of respondents).

Integrated productivity tools such as Copilot and Gemini took second spot (53 percent), with just 14 percent reporting using custom-built or specialist AI solutions in what the study organisers said was ‘a sign that adoption was largely employee-led rather than organisation driven’. (One could also argue, however, that it might be in part down to what is readily available for organisations, which are still grappling with best use of the technology and how to scale adoption.)

Indeed among the Kiwi MYOB respondents not using AI, 18 percent said there aren’t AI tools specific to their needs. That’s on part with the 19 percent who say they don’t trust the technology.

Challenges remain the same

All three reports highlight similar challenges such as skills gaps, funding constraints and the rapid pace of technological change as barriers to adoption.

Knowledge and confidence play a big role in the adoption of new technologies, Chadwick notes.

“It’s understandable that a portion of SMEs are hesitant to embrace AI in their business. However, given the integration of AI in a range of everyday systems, from autocompleting sentences in email to reminders and forecasting in business management software, it’s also possible many business owners don’t realise they’re already using AI,” he says.

Forty-four percent of Australian respondents agreed they didn’t have the expertise or skills in their business to implement AI, with 43 percent noting a lack of available funding.

The issue of skills gaps extends well beyond small business with the NewZealand.ai report noting that only 13 percent of workers say they’ve received company-led AI training and over half reporting having no training at all – despite 44 percent of workers saying they’re using AI tools at least daily at work.

Chadwick says while business operators should carefully evaluate any technology before attempting to implement it, discussing the use of AI with business peers or a business advisor can provide a view of how it can be applied in practical scenarios as they look to explore its potential for their business.

“Whether it’s in their next conversation with a business mentor or chatting about the technology with other local business operators, staying curious about AI and hearing from others about their use of it can help business owners weight up the risks and opportunities of AI adoption,” he says.

“As business owners become more familiar with the capabilities of the technology, that process might uncover some surprising boosts for their business.”