New Zealand SMEs widen AI adoption gap, MYOB finds

MYOB's latest Business Monitor found 36% of New Zealand SMEs are proactively using artificial intelligence, with adoption varying sharply by business size.

The figures point to a widening gap between smaller firms still testing AI tools and medium-sized businesses that have begun folding them into routine operations. Overall uptake rose from 32% a year earlier, but adoption remained uneven across different operators.

Among businesses with one to five employees, 30% said they were proactively using AI, compared with 64% of businesses employing 20 or more staff.

Sole operators stood apart from that pattern, with 36% of non-employing businesses using AI - a higher rate than small employing firms.

The study also suggested businesses using AI more deeply are becoming more dependent on it. Some 92% of medium businesses with 20 or more employees said they would feel workload, productivity or cost impacts if they stopped using AI immediately.

By contrast, 49% of small businesses with one to five employees expected such effects. Among sole operators, 64% said they would face workload, productivity or cost impacts if their AI use stopped.

Dean Chadwick, Chief Customer Officer at MYOB, said the survey reflected the pressures facing smaller operators.

"Small businesses are tight on time and resources, so any solution that can help take care of admin and deliver efficiency gains as they grow can make all the difference.

"Sole operators in particular recognise AI's potential to help them do more with less, and they're actively investing in AI solutions to achieve that. This is reflected in this year's Monitor, which shows a higher proportion of these owner-operator businesses had a dedicated budget for AI than other small employing businesses," Chadwick said.

How AI is used

Across the SME sector, AI use remained concentrated in content-heavy and administrative tasks. Social media and marketing content was the most common use case, cited by 38% of respondents using AI.

Copywriting for marketing materials and press releases followed at 28%. Another 26% used AI for technical documents, reports or training materials, while 25% cited market, trend and risk analysis.

These use cases suggest many businesses are first applying AI in areas where software can support drafting, summarising and routine analysis, rather than core production processes. The survey indicates this pattern is strongest among smaller firms.

Chadwick said the differences point to diverging levels of AI maturity.

"AI use among New Zealand businesses is still grounded in the practical, but a clear difference in AI maturity is emerging.

"Many smaller businesses are using AI to get through day-to-day tasks faster and, in the case of sole operators, to do the heavy lifting on work that lets business owners focus on the bigger picture. In medium-sized firms, AI use is more integrated across the business and built into broader people, risk and operational workflows.

"What our insights also show is that these differences in AI adoption and application are starting to show up in the commercial impact AI is having for businesses," Chadwick said.

Margin effects

The survey also examined how operators viewed AI's effect on margins over the past year. Across SMEs as a whole, 28% said AI had helped them maintain margins.

Just under one in five, or 19%, said margins had improved compared with a year earlier. For medium-sized businesses, the figures were materially higher.

Among businesses with 20 or more employees, 55% said AI had helped them maintain margins and 23% said margins had improved. That suggests businesses with broader adoption are also the most likely to report measurable commercial effects.

The findings add to evidence that AI adoption among smaller companies is not following a single path. While some businesses are using the technology for limited efficiency gains, others are beginning to incorporate it into staffing, risk and operational processes.

That divide may matter for competitiveness as well as day-to-day efficiency. Businesses that have integrated AI more widely appear more likely to say they would struggle without it, and more likely to report that it is helping protect profitability.

MYOB's Business Monitor surveyed 1,026 New Zealand business owners, managers and directors across sole traders, small employers and mid-sized companies. The sample was weighted by industry type, location and number of employees in line with national business demography data.

Chadwick said businesses considering AI should start with clear, practical uses and expand from there.

"As the data highlights, AI use among New Zealand SMEs is no longer moving at one pace. For smaller employing operators, it is still largely about saving time and easing admin pressure. For medium-sized businesses - and to some extent sole operators - AI is becoming a bigger part of how the business runs, and that is where the gains in productivity and margin resilience start to become more visible.

"For SMEs exploring AI, the key is to focus on practical use cases where the value is clear and immediate, then build from there. Crucial to this success, however, is enabling and empowering their teams along the way.

"While that journey will look different for every business, the direction of travel is becoming clearer. Used well, AI can free up capacity, strengthen confidence and give businesses and their employees more headroom to focus on customers, strategy and the work that moves the business forward," Chadwick said.