Key Takeaways
- Despite real strengths in research, skilled migration, and land availability, Australia dropped from 15th to 23rd on the IMF's World Digital Competitiveness Ranking in 2025.
- Australia ranks 20th globally for private AI investment despite being the world's 14th largest economy, outpaced by countries a fraction of its size.
- An RBA survey found 70% of medium to large businesses had made minimal or no AI investment over the past five years.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next major technology-driven economic transformation and defining geopolitical advantage. For Australia, the question is whether to be an active participant in it or simply a consumer of technology built and controlled elsewhere.
Artificial Intelligence in Australia: State of Play is a new special report series tracking Australia's evolving position in the global AI landscape. Updated quarterly, each edition will revisit core themes while introducing new focus areas as conditions change. Themes covered across editions will include Australia's regulatory environment, infrastructure, the labour market, research and development, investment and adoption.
This inaugural report examines Australia's current competitive position in the global AI economy, investment in AI companies and data centres and AI adoption across the private and public sectors.
The picture that emerges is of a country with genuine opportunities that it risks squandering through inaction. Australia's data centre sector notably attracted $10 billion in investment in 2024 alone. Unless that infrastructure is paired with a concerted effort to develop a domestic AI industry, Australia may end up as a high-capacity factory for foreign AI companies, generating value it doesn’t retain.
Download the report to see the full story.
