Kiwi businesses recognise AI as revolutionary tool, despite ethical concerns

A recent survey, which featured more than 300 respondents, released by payments provider Pin Payments, has revealed the state of play for New Zealand business owners and artificial intelligence.

July 16 marked the global day of recognition for Artificial Intelligence to celebrate its positive impact on society and technology, whilst also shining a light on the ethical concerns surrounding AI.

The results of the NZ survey provided an insight into small business sentiments surrounding AI, with just 7.3% of business owners seeing AI as a threat, and most viewing it as a revolutionary tool that will change business for the better.

Pin Payments' Co-CEO Chris Dahl says the results gave the business a greater understanding of NZ small business attitudes towards AI.

He says, "In today's digital landscape, AI presents an exhilarating opportunity for small businesses to level the playing field and unleash their true potential. With AI, small businesses can transform their operations, streamline processes, and make data-driven decisions like never before.

"However, given the many ethical and workforce concerns regarding AI, it was important for us to understand the full picture as businesses see it."

Job security, the loss of human roles and the changing nature of work were some of the biggest concerns regarding AI for businesses. On the other hand, many respondents claimed AI will reduce time on tasks, enhance efficiency, create better tech, streamline processes and free up individuals for more creative strategy-driven work.

Dahl says, "Businesses across the globe are starting to, or have already, begun implementing AI into their services, and this is true of payments providers too.

"Payments providers across the world use AI to enhance payments performance and reduce fraud by combining advanced AI, global network data, and deep payment expertise to increase conversion and maximise revenue."

He continues, "This is a perfect illustration of the true power of AI to improve business outputs and performance."

Earlier this year, the payments provider Pin Payments, expanded its services to New Zealand and since then has begun exploring new ways to address the needs of the small business community in the region.

Dahl concludes, "We are starting to explore how AI could improve our services and help our customers, but are yet to integrate it into our business before we truly understand the wants and needs of New Zealand business owners.

"However, these survey results truly reveal the excitement around the possibilities of AI and how it might improve business for the SME community in New Zealand."

Pin Payments is an online payment platform designed for small businesses. The company builds simple software to help customers accept card payments, whether they run an online store, sell subscriptions, invoice their clients, or process card sales manually.