Survey Finds Aussie Workers Confident Using AI at Home—Just Not in the Office

Australians are learning artificial intelligence skills in their own time but remain reluctant to deploy the technology at work because of a lack of rules governing their use, a new survey by Salesforce has found.

The Salesforce study, conducted by YouGov, surveyed 2,132 people in Australia and New Zealand working across fields including law, finance, marketing, technology, research, and consulting.

More than four in five respondents (86 percent) reporting using AI in their personal lives, and that 76 percent of workers had tried AI agents capable of handling multiple tasks.

Another 95 percent said they expected the technology to have a positive impact on their work within the next two years.

But their personal experience with the technology did not mean they would blindly trust its outcomes; instead, it made them more likely to understand the software’s limitations, said Salesforce regional Vice President Kevin Doyle.

“The research tells us right now for knowledge workers, the best experience they’re having with AI is in their personal lives, and they’re ready for their professional life to catch up,” he said.

“Personal experimentation is boosting their confidence because when they do it in their personal lives … they can test things. If it doesn’t work, they understand why [and] they understand the hallucinations.”

A hallucination occurs when an AI model produces confident, plausible-sounding, but ultimately false or nonsensical information, such as inventing sources, statistics, or events.

This can be caused by several factors, including insufficient training data, flawed model assumptions, or biases embedded in the data used to train the AI.

Slow AI Uptake in Workplaces

But high levels of AI personal use don’t translate to the office.

Almost half of the people surveyed said they wanted greater transparency and control of AI tools in the workplace (47 percent) and strict rules about security and privacy (43 percent).

Salesforce’s study comes as tech companies and the government accelerate AI adoption in Australia.

In October 2023, Microsoft announced it would invest $5 billion to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Australia over the following two years, including an academy to train the AI workforce.

Then, in December 2025, the government released a National AI Plan to encourage investment in the technology.

Earlier this month, Microsoft also announced it had signed an agreement with the Australian Council of Trade Unions over the design of AI tools and rules, which would “prioritise skilling and elevate workers’ voices in the design, development and deployment of artificial intelligence across Australian workplaces.”

AAP contributed to this article