Australian organisations have moved beyond AI curiosity. The strategic case for AI is now broadly accepted across executive teams. What is less settled is whether the organisational conditions required to scale AI are actually in place. ADAPT’s latest research across CIOs, CDAOs, CFOs, infrastructure leaders, digital leaders, and government leaders points to the same conclusion: ambition has accelerated, but execution maturity remains uneven.
ADAPT’s latest research indicates that the market has entered a different phase. Across nearly 600 CIOs surveyed over the past 12 months, AI strategy rose from the fifth-ranked priority to the top priority in 2026, overtaking broad-scale technology modernisation and cost optimisation. The issue is no longer whether AI matters, but what is preventing organisations from scaling it.
The evidence suggests that scale is being constrained less by intent than by enterprise conditions.
- Data maturity
- Integration and interoperability
- Cloud and platform investments
- Organisations are moving forward
