Mimic human interaction

However, it is in customer-facing roles that jobs may be noticeably affected first, with almost two thirds of organisations saying they intend to use cognitive computing for applications like chatbots, which mimic human interaction.

"AI intentions are running at two speeds in the Australian market, with businesses much more bullish about using automation technology than consumers," Mr Fadaghi said.

"There is an undercurrent of fear in the average consumer about the impact of AI on jobs and future prospects for later generations in a highly automated world. When we compare with consumer research, we see that mainstream Australians are cautious about technology, in particular automation.

"One in four Australians are concerned they might lose their job to a machine or robot in the future, and only 45 per cent think the future will be better thanks to the opportunities technology offers."

Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi says only 45 per cent of Australians think the future will be better thanks to the opportunities technology offers.

Elsewhere in the Telsyte study it found that organisations are rapidly adopting the internet of things (IoT), which means non-traditional connected devices like sensors and cameras providing vast amounts of data for analysis.

Almost 90 per cent of technology executives in the study said their organisation would be using IoT for important processes within five years, and 59 per cent of early adopters said they are already seeing cost savings from its introduction.

Meanwhile, over 60 per cent see value in smart wearable devices such as smart watches and smart glasses in their organisation, for internal operations, access control and customer-facing applications. More than half of organisations are investigating augmented reality applications and a quarter of tech executives believe that drones or autonomous flying vehicles will become useful.

Mr Fadaghi said this would include most sectors like agriculture and fishing with underwater drones, mining operations, security and surveillance, transport and logistics, warehousing and emergency services