31% of Young Australian Employees Trust AI for Decisions. For Over-55s, It’s 4%.

New Amplitude research on AI adoption across the Australian workforce has turned up a number, and it’s hard to ignore: 31 per cent of employees aged 18 to 34 trust AI to help inform their decisions. Among those over 55, the figure is 4 per cent.

That’s not a rounding error. That’s a different relationship with the technology entirely.

The same research found that 37 per cent of younger employees use AI tools daily as a natural part of how they work, against 20 per cent of their older counterparts. And when it comes to avoidance: more than 25 per cent of employees over 55 say they’ve stayed away from AI because they don’t trust its accuracy. Among under-24s, that figure is 7 per cent.

Why this hits small business differently

The original article, written for enterprise technology leaders, focuses on the boardroom problem: senior decision-makers who are sceptical of AI are also the ones controlling the budget for AI investment. That’s a real issue for large organisations.

For small business, the dynamic is more immediate and more personal.

The “leadership” in a small business is usually the owner. Often in their 40s, 50s or beyond. The staff, the barista, the retail assistant, the junior account manager, are often in their 20s, using AI on their phones and in their personal lives every day. There’s no IT department to implement governance. No chief digital officer to bridge the gap. Just the owner and the team.

The result is one of two things. Either the owner is sceptical and AI doesn’t get used, even while competitors start getting real gains from it. Or staff are using AI tools quietly, without oversight, producing outputs the owner never sees and can’t evaluate.

Neither is a good position.

The numbers behind the gap

The Amplitude research, which surveyed Australian workers across industries, found that only 8 per cent of respondents say AI is core to how their organisation works. Another 24 per cent say their organisation rarely uses AI at all, despite internal interest.

48 per cent believe adoption is improving. But they also think there’s a long way to go.

Meanwhile, 72 per cent of workers believe AI is highly beneficial to their careers. 37 per cent are already upskilling outside of work on their own time.

That last figure matters. If a business owner isn’t creating the conditions for AI to be used and evaluated properly, ambitious staff will still develop those skills, and they’ll take them somewhere that values them.

The practical version for small business owners

The enterprise recommendations in the Amplitude piece, governance frameworks, verifiable metrics, leadership familiarity programmes, don’t translate directly to a business with six employees. But the underlying logic does.

Start using it yourself, even badly. The trust gap shrinks with exposure. You don’t need a structured programme. Open ChatGPT and ask it to draft one thing you’d normally write yourself. See what comes back. Adjust. Try again.

Talk to your staff about what they’re already using. They probably are using something. Asking normalises it and gives you visibility into what’s happening in your own business.

Pick one area and measure it. Not “we use AI now”, that’s meaningless. Pick one specific use: responding to online reviews, writing job ads, summarising supplier invoices. Track the time it takes before and after. Concrete data is what shifts scepticism, for owners and their accountants both.

The trust gap is real. It’s not unique to Australia, but the Amplitude data suggests Australian workplaces are feeling it. For small business owners on the wrong side of that 4 per cent figure, the question is whether the gap closes on your terms or someone else’s.

This dynamic sits at the heart of a related problem in Australian IT services. Many of the MSPs serving small businesses are run by owners who built their businesses before any of this generational shift played out, and who are now approaching retirement. See: When Your IT Guy Retires: What Australian SMBs Need to Know About the MSP Crisis.

📖 More deep dives: News Deep Dives

Sources

• Mark Drasutis (Head of Value APJ, Amplitude), Your Organisation’s Biggest AI Barrier Might Be A Generational Problem, SMBTech, May 2026
• Amplitude, Australian workforce AI adoption research, 2026

📥 Free report: State of AI for Australian Small Business 2026, 13 research studies, the 2.8x growth gap, industry breakdown and practical first steps. Download free →

📊 Compare AI tools side by side | 💼 Free resources & AI prompt packs