Australia leads APAC in AI ROI, despite widest confidence gap
Notion appoints Tom Karemacher as ANZ General Manager to close the AI confidence gap as 61% of decision makers express high confidence in their organisation's AI capabilities, compared to just 26% of knowledge workers
Australian businesses lead the Asia Pacific region in tying artificial intelligence (AI) directly to the bottom line. However, new data from AI-powered workspace Notion also reveals that executive enthusiasm surrounding AI is vastly outpacing employee sentiment.
According to Notion’s Global AI Transformation Study 2026, Australia tops the region for tracking AI’s measurable business impact at 76%, edging out Singapore (75%) and significantly leading Japan (55%). Yet, this certainty on ROI masks a stark internal hurdle: Australia carries APAC's widest internal confidence gap. While 61% of decision-makers feel highly confident in their company's AI capabilities, only 26% of knowledge workers agree, proving that tracking ROI is only half the battle if teams are left behind.
Data from the study reveals this massive 35-point gulf is driven by a mismatch in deployment speed and tool trust. While leadership is pushing ahead with capital deployment, 52% of APAC organisations admit they are investing in AI faster than their employees can actually adopt it — a friction point that intensifies to 63% among organisations that tend to be more mature in their use of AI.
This rapid tool introduction has collided with a major gap in trust on the ground. Knowledge workers are not fully using the technology because they do not trust the tools to deliver accurate outputs on critical tasks. In fact, 77% of APAC knowledge workers explicitly state they would use AI more if they could trust it not to make mistakes on important work. Tech investment is outpacing actual employee readiness, and tools are being deployed without the accuracy guarantees workers need, mirroring a bottleneck flashing across the broader Australian economic landscape.
The Tech Council of Australia (TCA) and Datacom’s 2026 Tech Leaders Survey warned of a dramatic readiness gap nationwide. While 78% of local tech executives identify AI as their defining focus, a staggering 90% state that Australia is not doing enough to address macro-productivity, and only 7% believe the country has the capability to meet future AI demand. Furthermore, 2026 data from the National AI Centre (NAIC) and CSIRO confirms that trust remains the single largest operational barrier to scaling the technology, with 65% of non-adopting businesses completely halting deployment due to distrust in AI decision-making. Notion’s findings connect these two realities, proving that when internal workforce trust stalls, broader corporate and national progress stalls with it.
Notion appoints new GM to bridge AI confidence divide
To help Australian organisations narrow this gap, Notion has appointed Tom Karemacher as General Manager, ANZ. In his new role, Karemacher will spearhead Notion’s growth across Australia and New Zealand, helping local businesses move up the AI maturity ladder by creating a collaborative environment where humans and AI agents work side-by-side to drive measurable productivity.
"Demanding AI ROI is easy. Building the workforce trust required to deliver it is where Australian companies are stalling. ” said Tom Karemacher, General Manager, ANZ at Notion.
Karemacher’s appointment comes on the heels of rapid regional momentum and global demand for Notion’s AI-first workspace. In the last year, 66% of Notion’s global ARR was AI-attached. The ANZ team has also doubled their headcount between August 2025 to 2026 to support its regions growth.
“Notion's strong local growth shows that Aussie teams are ready for true human-AI collaboration. My priority is to empower organisations of all sizes to move up the AI maturity ladder. By creating a collaborative AI-first workspace where humans and AI agents operate together, we give teams the context and accuracy they need to achieve meaningful AI ROI, ensuring no teams are left behind."
What AI-Mature APAC organisations do differently
The study shows that 15.2% of Australian organisations are at Level 3 or 4 of Notion's AI Transformation Model* — ahead of the global benchmark of 12%. This sits above Japan (11%), trailing only South Korea (15.7%) and Singapore (21%) across the region.
Rather than rolling out tools and expecting teams to catch up, the most AI mature APAC organisations are setting clear metrics, putting governance around AI outputs, and giving employees practical guidelines for responsible use. That structure matters because AI maturity is rarely uniform across a business. Some teams may still be testing basic chatbots, while others are ready to connect AI to company knowledge or automate recurring workflows. By mapping where different teams sit today, leaders can close trust gaps, strengthen readiness, and move AI from experimentation into measurable business impact.
Businesses like agri-tech pioneer Halter are already putting this mature model into practice.
“Many of our people work in the field across rural areas, so they need the most up-to-date information wherever they are. Notion is our company brain, giving teams and AI agents one place to find the latest approved decks, FAQs and talking points when they need them. Every document has an owner, and we’re alerted when information needs updating, so our teams can stay aligned with what they’re using as Halter scales,” said Ashleigh Gilchrist, Communications Manager, Strategic Relations at Halter.
When compared to less mature firms, advanced Level 3-4 organisations are successfully prioritising three key areas:
- Defined metrics to track AI's business impact (+17 pts)
- Implemented oversight or governance for AI outputs (+17 pts)
- Established guidelines or policies for AI use (+16 pts)
Interestingly, while the global top differentiator for mature companies is integration with existing systems, APAC's top differentiator is metrics — the exact area of discipline where Australia currently leads.
