BCA calls for AI Research Consortium, AI regulations, in AI adoption blueprint
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The news: The Business Council of Australia (BCA) will release their ‘Accelerating Australia’s AI Agenda’ on Monday, outlining a year-by-year plan for the country to become a global leader in artificial intelligence by 2028.
The context: The BCA says that the blueprint would work to unlock the potential of AI to boost innovation, lift living standards, and address Australia’s decades-long productivity stagnation.
Setting out a phased approach, the BCA’s timeline is structured across three years from mid-2025, with year one focused on establishing foundations, year two focused on building capacity and infrastructure development, and year three on advancing collaboration and data optimisation.
Beyond the phased timeline, the BCA’s key recommendations include:
- Implementing practical and risk-based AI regulations;
- Simplifying data centre approvals to speed up infrastructure build;
- Establishing a national AI Research Consortium;
- Including standardised AI courses in every level of education;
- Expanding support for the National AI Centre to assist SMEs adopt AI;
- Establishing an Australian AI Safety Institute;
- Investing in AI research and development to position Australia as a trusted hub for AI; and,
- Creating better and more secure data sharing frameworks.
Citing 2023 research from the CSIRO, the BCA report says that Australia’s AI research community remains globally competitive despite being small. In 2023, Australia had about 0.3% of the global population but contributed 1.6% of all AI research – overperforming by nearly five times. It argues that Australia is particularly strong in the design and development of highly efficient AI that has low data, energy and processing requirements.
The BCA adds that AI’s overall adoption speed will be largely determined by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) accounts for 98% of businesses in Australia. However, recent findings show that just one-third of SMEs have embraced AI technologies, nearly a quarter struggle with implementation expertise and over 40% are yet to consider AI adoption.
The BCA refers to the Commonwealth Bank, the country’s largest listed institution, which has deployed AI to read, analyse and process customer documentation more efficiently and accurately than human employees. The bank has since halved verification times for loan applications.
What they said: CEO of the BCA, Bran Black said: “If we get this right, AI can deliver a significant productivity boost and that means higher real wages and more opportunities for more Australians.
“The choices we make now will determine whether we gain a competitive edge or fall behind. We need to be training more AI specialists, data scientists and engineers, while also educating the entire workforce on how we can improve the day-to-day work experience.
“Even if we apply AI to just the ‘boring but essential’ parts of our economy—like payroll processing or document analysis—the dividends to consumers and businesses could be significant.”
The source: BCA press release
