National

The AI trap: firms buy too much tech, too little talent

Jun 24, 2026

Atlassian says companies are over-estimating how much AI can do without human intervention. -AAP Image

Australian businesses are spending too much on artificial intelligence and not enough on the humans in charge of it, costing them investment returns, according to one tech giant.

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Companies are also failing to establish clear rules and goals for the technology, and are over-estimating how much AI can do without human intervention.

One of Atlassian's top executives issued the warnings on Wednesday after studying the progress of six project teams tasked with using AI to transform operations.

The findings come after a study from the National AI Centre revealed more than one in three Australian businesses were adopting the technology, even though almost half of all organisations expressed concern it was evolving too fast.

Software giant Atlassian set up six product teams to test ways to harness the technology and asked behavioural scientists to study their results, its chief people and AI enablement officer Avani Prabhakar said.

The teams with the best results had a clear goal and could address the 30 per cent gap between what AI could achieve and where humans needed to step in to set tasks, rules and standards, she said.

''(With) 70 per cent of the work, they would say AI really accelerated the time-frame, it's the 30 per cent where they still felt like (they) still need human engagement in terms of building some hypotheses, making sure the quality is up to speed, tinkering with the customer feedback,'' she said.

''That is where they really still required a human in the loop.''

Small teams in which employees could be flexible about their roles and those who worked out ways for AI to review work were also more likely to succeed.

The findings came in contrast to the way many businesses were spending on AI, with the biggest investments made in the technology rather than training staff, mapping out processes, and establishing contextual rules, Ms Prabhakar said.

''In our research – internal, external and also my time with customers – I think they are getting it wrong because 85 per cent of the investment is still happening on the tools,'' she told AAP.

''I would have rather made 50 per cent investment in the tools and (the) remaining 50 per cent in everything else.''

The lopsided investments meant many companies were overspending on AI token usage, while failing to achieve returns on their investments, Ms Prabhakar said.

The National AI Centre's adoption tracker recently found 38 per cent of Australian businesses were using AI, with the technology most popular with service, construction and distribution companies.