Businesses urged to adopt AI deliberately, with oversight

Technology executives are urging businesses to adopt artificial intelligence more deliberately as companies mark Worldwide AI Appreciation Day. Senior leaders from Kore.ai, Ping Identity and Boab AI say the priority should be precision, governance and clear business outcomes.

The comments come as AI systems move deeper into day-to-day operations and decision-making. Vendors and advisers report growing concern over how organisations balance automation with human oversight, and how they manage the security and competitive risks of rapid deployment.

Cathal McCarthy, Chief Strategy Officer at conversational AI company Kore.ai, said boards and executives should draw clearer lines between work that can be automated and work that still requires people to stay in control.

"Appreciating AI doesn't mean applauding every use case. It means understanding where it delivers real value and where human judgement remains essential. Enterprise AI rarely falls short because of its capabilities. More often, it falls short in the small decisions where we automate something that still benefits from human oversight simply because it's faster or cheaper.

McCarthy said organisations that rush to remove humans from processes risk eroding trust and weakening outcomes in areas where nuance, context and ethics matter. He said the industry is moving from experimentation to a more selective deployment model that treats AI as one tool among many, rather than a universal solution.

"Over the next year, I'd like to see the industry focus on using AI with greater precision. The organisations that create lasting value will be the ones that make deliberate decisions about where people remain in the loop. As AI becomes more capable, one of the most valuable differentiators will be knowing there's still a human you can turn to when it matters most," said McCarthy.

Security leaders are raising similar concerns about how companies deploy AI agents inside corporate networks. John Cannava, Chief Information Officer at identity security specialist Ping Identity, said businesses often move faster on experimentation than on controls.

"Organisations are increasingly deploying AI agents across the enterprise, and the opportunities for innovation and efficiency are tremendous. These systems are doing more than responding to prompts. They're making decisions, taking actions and even spawning new agents with increasing autonomy and speed. That evolution is transforming how work gets done, and it is also reshaping the security landscape.

"The challenge is that many organisations are adopting AI agents faster than they can establish clear identity, accountability and governance for them. When you can't definitively answer what an agent did, why it did it or under whose authority it acted, you create unnecessary risk and uncertainty. This is why identity for AI must become a foundational priority. Every agent needs a verifiable identity with clear permissions and continuous oversight, just like any human user or service account. By building trust, visibility and accountability into AI from the start, organisations can unlock the full potential of autonomous AI while managing risk and strengthening security," said Cannava.

He said the rise of autonomous agents is forcing security teams to treat AI entities as first-class digital identities. That shift requires changes in governance, audit trails and access management, and is becoming a board-level issue in heavily regulated sectors.

Competitive pressure is also building in regional markets. Andrew Lai, Managing Director at investment and advisory firm Boab AI and SMEC AI, pointed to China's rapid adoption as a warning for countries moving more slowly.

"China's national generative AI adoption rate hit 42.8 per cent in December 2025, up more than 25 percentage points in a year, and AI penetration in Chinese industrial enterprises jumped from under 10 per cent to 47.5 per cent over the same period. While Australian SMEs are understandably asking whether AI is safe, the businesses they compete with internationally are quietly compounding 20 and 30 per cent efficiency gains.

"None of this means SMEs should leap into AI without thinking. The mistakes that come from rushing and buying tools without a use case are real and well documented. But there is a meaningful difference between cautious adoption and no adoption at all.

"The risk this country is running is not that it adopts AI too quickly. It is that we hesitate ourselves into irrelevance while the rest of the world keeps moving.

"Australian small businesses do not need to fall in love with AI on 16 July. They just need to understand it, test it deliberately and find one place where it genuinely improves the work," said Lai.

Lai said small and medium-sized enterprises face a choice between structured pilots and continued hesitation as overseas competitors expand their use of generative models across operations.