Australia's R&D investment in AI more than doubled from FY22-24: ABS
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Business research and development (R&D) investment in FY24 was 18% higher than in FY22 with AI R&D investment growing by 143%. Although as a proportion of GDP business investment remained at 0.9%, remaining steady since FY18.
The numbers: Estimated gross expenditure on R&D as a proportion of GDP lifted to 1.69% in 2023-24, up from 1.66% in 2021-22. However, it is still well below its peak of about 2.25 % of GDP in FY09.
Businesses invested $24.4 billion in research and development in FY24, of which $668.3 million was invested into AI R&D.
The information and computing sciences research field soaked up 42% of total business R&D expenditure, up from about 38% in FY22. This was followed by engineering at 22% and biomedical and clinical sciences at 12%.
When divided by industry, the biggest contributors to business R&D investment came from professional, scientific and technical services (38%), manufacturing (21%) and financial and insurance services (14%).
Large businesses — those with more than 200 employees — accounted for $10.18 billion of investment whereas small to medium businesses accounted for $14.23 billion of investment.
This means SMEs now invest around 40% more in R&D than big businesses, up from about 25% in FY22.
The context: ABS head of business statistics Robert Ewing said that the data “shows how rapidly Australian firms have begun investing in AI”.
When considering the socio-economic objectives (SEO) of business investment, Ewing said “R&D spending on information and communication services is now the leading SEO in Australia, overtaking manufacturing”.
“Growth in Information and communication services was up 50 per cent to $5.9 billion. Manufacturing dropped 3 per cent to $4.6 billion, continuing a downward trend since 2019-20,” Ewing said.
At the conclusion of the federal government’s economic reform roundtable on Thursday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers flagged that he aims to make AI a national priority.
The source: ABS media release
