AIR APACAI Readiness Index · Powered by Exeter Labs

AUSTRALIAQ2 2026

Australia is easy to find.

115 companies here reach the published APAC top 1,000.

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Executive summary

Found first, and proven

Readiness 55 of 100, range 50-60. Visibility 45.5 of 100 across 275 scored companies.

A low score here reflects the public record, not a company’s capability. Australia is among the discovery leaders: of the five signals the index reads, its record leans hardest on discoverability and thinnest on freshness and authority. The conditions companies here operate under score 55, and what those companies publish scores 45.5. Of the two, the second is the one companies here control, and the quicker to change: 82% of the 275 companies with enough of a public trail to score publish no proof of capability at all.

Companies in Australia are found, and 49 of them back that with proof of capability averaging 65 of 100.

Exhibit 1. Tier mix in this market
Tier mix in AustraliaEmerging 160, Findable 75, Building 29, Proven 11, of 275 listed companies in Australia. 2026-08-02T21:45:07.517333 image/svg+xml Matplotlib v3.11.1, https://matplotlib.org/

Source: AIR APAC AI Readiness Index, APAC 5000, Q2 2026. Scores measure public evidence, not verified capability.

115 companies in Australia reach the published APAC top 1,000.

160 of 275 are scored already, next in line for the published list.

55Readiness score for Australia. Range 50-60.
45.5Average visibility score across 275 scored companies. Public evidence only.
115Companies here that reach the published APAC top 1,000, of 275 scored.

Why visibility is the asset

Invisible is not the same as absent

Buyers, investors and partners treat it that way. Most decisions about a company are shaped before anyone is contacted, from what they can find. The record is the only version of it most people ever meet. and here most of the market already leaves one, which moves the question from whether a record exists to what it says about capability. In Australia, 135 of 417 companies screened leave too little behind to assess, which is the addressable group rather than the verdict.

Capital and customers screen before they call

Investors, corporate buyers and procurement teams build a shortlist from public material long before a meeting exists. A company absent from that material is not rejected on the merits. It never reaches the shortlist.

Partners and talent read the same record

Prospective partners, joint-venture counterparties and senior candidates all check what an organisation says about its own AI work. Silence is read as inactivity, which is often wrong and rarely without cost.

AI assistants now answer the question first

When someone asks an AI system what a company is doing with AI, the answer is assembled from public sources. A company that publishes nothing cedes its own description to whatever else the model finds.

Most companies we look at are doing more with AI than their customers, investors and partners can see. The work is real, the evidence of it is thin, and people decide on the evidence.
Indhran SegharFounding Director, AIR APAC
Proof concentration in Australia
Proof concentration in Australia49 of 275 ranked companies publish capability evidence, averaging 65 of 100. 82% publish none yet. 2026-08-02T21:45:07.585470 image/svg+xml Matplotlib v3.11.1, https://matplotlib.org/

Source: AIR APAC AI Readiness Index, APAC 5000, Q2 2026. Scores measure public evidence, not verified capability.

Evidence quality mix in Australia
Evidence quality mix in AustraliaShare of ranked companies in this market on each evidence grade A to D. 2026-08-02T21:45:07.603084 image/svg+xml Matplotlib v3.11.1, https://matplotlib.org/

Source: AIR APAC AI Readiness Index, APAC 5000, Q2 2026. Scores measure public evidence, not verified capability.

115Companies here reach the published APAC top 1,000.
71%Of 275 scored rest on grade A or B evidence.
160Scored already, and next in line for the published list.

Where the signal is strong

Australia’s strongest and weakest public signals

The five signals are not on one scale. Nearly every company in the index is discoverable and nearly none publishes proof of what it can do, so the longest bar below is a property of the index before it is a property of Australia. Read against its own other four signals, this record leans hardest on discoverability and thinnest on freshness and authority. The first is where companies here have already shown they can publish; the second is where the same effort has not yet gone, and it is the clearest place to start.

Exhibit 2. Average score by signal in this market
Average score by signal in AustraliaDiscoverability: 70.0 of 100. AI & Digital Evidence: 48.9 of 100. Platform & Data Footprint: 36.4 of 100. Freshness & Authority: 47.2 of 100. Capability Visibility: 11.6 of 100. 2026-08-02T21:45:07.533470 image/svg+xml Matplotlib v3.11.1, https://matplotlib.org/

Source: AIR APAC AI Readiness Index, APAC 5000, Q2 2026. Scores measure public evidence, not verified capability.

Signal shape, Australia’s five signals
Signal shape, Australia's five dimensionsDiscoverability: 70 of 100. AI & Digital Evidence: 49 of 100. Platform & Data Footprint: 36 of 100. Freshness & Authority: 47 of 100. Capability Visibility: 12 of 100. 2026-08-02T21:45:07.569339 image/svg+xml Matplotlib v3.11.1, https://matplotlib.org/

Source: AIR APAC AI Readiness Index, APAC 5000, Q2 2026. Scores measure public evidence, not verified capability.

The lean is discoverability. 49 companies in Australia publish capability evidence, averaging 65 and well clear of the market. It works where it exists. The other 82% have yet to publish it, against 83% regionally.

Work published only in Australia’s own language is understated here, not absent.

Four tiers of visibility

Four tiers, and where companies in Australia sit

A tier is a position in the published regional ranking, not a grade anyone awards. It says how much of a company’s AI work a buyer or an investor can verify, and nothing at all about whether that work is any good.

TierAustraliaWhat it means
Tier 1Proven11Region rank 1-100. Publishing enough, recently enough, and across enough of the five signals that the public record alone establishes an AI position.
Tier 2Building29Region rank 101-400. A consistent public trail, usually strong on two or three signals and thin on evidence of hiring.
Tier 3Findable75Region rank 401-1,000. Credibly active and possible to verify, but sparse enough that it takes a deliberate search to find.
Tier 4Emerging160Ranked beyond 1,000. Clears the evidence threshold but does not reach the published list. Real companies, scored and unlisted, and the largest group in almost every market.

11 of the 275 companies in Australia that clear the threshold reach tier 1, and 160 are emerging, 58% of those scored. Emerging is the normal state of the region, and the group standing closest to the tier above.

Moving up a tier is a disclosure decision, not a technology one, because every signal this index reads is something a company already controls.

The visibility ladder in Australia
The visibility ladder in AustraliaScreened 417, scored 282, listed 275, published 115. 2026-08-02T21:45:07.621260 image/svg+xml Matplotlib v3.11.1, https://matplotlib.org/

Source: AIR APAC AI Readiness Index, APAC 5000, Q2 2026. Scores measure public evidence, not verified capability.

Sector strengths in Australia
Sector strengths in AustraliaProfessional Services: 45 companies, mean 48.6. Tech/Fintech: 67 companies, mean 48.1. Financial Services: 57 companies, mean 47.7. Retail/E-commerce: 45 companies, mean 43.5. Manufacturing: 36 companies, mean 41.2. 2026-08-02T21:45:07.635700 image/svg+xml Matplotlib v3.11.1, https://matplotlib.org/

Source: AIR APAC AI Readiness Index, APAC 5000, Q2 2026. Scores measure public evidence, not verified capability.

National champions in Australia, top ten by visibility
National champions in Australia, top ten by visibilityMantel Group 79. Commonwealth Bank of Australia 78. Bendigo Bank 77. Cover Genius 76. National Australia Bank 76. Employment Hero 73. AMP Limited 68. Emote Digital 67. Westpac Banking Corporation 67. Worley 67. 2026-08-02T21:45:07.658806 image/svg+xml Matplotlib v3.11.1, https://matplotlib.org/

Source: AIR APAC AI Readiness Index, APAC 5000, Q2 2026. Scores measure public evidence, not verified capability.

55CERS (0 to 100)triangulated market signal
50-60CERS band
BConfidence grade
271Domestic signal entities
45.5Mean raw RPScompany visibility

Source: AIR APAC AI Readiness Pulse, Q2 2026. CERS is a market-level signal, not a company readiness score. View sources.

Market context

Macro, state, and enterprise benchmarks for Australia.

BenchmarkValueRole
Country Readiness Prior (CRP v0.1)74.8Macro and state readiness prior
CRP v0.2 (three-block)71.0Full triangulated prior
Oxford Government AI Readiness 202476.5Macro input to CRP
IMF AI Preparedness Index 202372.7Macro input to CRP
Enterprise adoption (Salesforce 2023)38.7%Business AI adoption block
Exhibit 3. Australia's readiness score and published range
Australia's readiness score and published rangeAustralia 55, range 50-60. 2026-08-02T21:45:07.555804 image/svg+xml Matplotlib v3.11.1, https://matplotlib.org/

Source: AIR APAC AI Readiness Index, APAC 5000, Q2 2026. Scores measure public evidence, not verified capability.

Australia carries the enterprise-adoption block. CERS triangulates the macro prior, public company signal, and enterprise adoption with a coverage-based shrinkage; the precise integer is indicative, so a band is also published.

Public company signal

What the indexed companies in Australia show.

SignalValue
Mean raw RPS visibility45.5
Sector-stratified signal44.3
Supplier-readiness signal47.6
Domestic-adopter signal48.4

Top organisations

The highest public-signal organisations in Australia.

RankOrganisationSectorRPSEvidence
3Mantel GroupProfessional Services79.0B
4Commonwealth Bank of AustraliaFinancial Services78.0B
5Bendigo BankFinancial Services77.0B
6Cover GeniusFinancial Services76.0B
7National Australia BankFinancial Services76.0B
11Employment HeroTech/Fintech73.0B
46AMP LimitedFinancial Services68.0B
59Emote DigitalProfessional Services67.0B
61Westpac Banking CorporationFinancial Services67.0A
62WorleyProfessional Services67.0B
69Fluent CommerceRetail/E-commerce66.0B
114Woodside EnergyProfessional Services65.0A
147Morningstar AustraliaFinancial Services63.0B
148MYOBTech/Fintech63.0B
165Chemist WarehouseRetail/E-commerce62.0C
167ClearView Wealth LimitedFinancial Services62.0B
179HUB24 LimitedFinancial Services62.0B
188Macquarie GroupFinancial Services62.0B
210TPG TelecomProfessional Services62.0B
220ALS LimitedManufacturing61.0B

Ranked by raw public signal (RPS), a visibility measure. Open any organisation for its evidence profile.

Limits and what this is not

What this report does not claim

Printed with the findings rather than in an appendix at the back.

Known blind spots in this market

Australia carries 2 this cycle: evidence is gathered from English-language search, likely undercounting local-language activity; below the full three-source-block coverage standard. Each is a direction we know the number leans in. The country evidence behind the readiness score is graded B on source coverage of macro=1, enterprise=1.

A high score means published, not proven

A high visibility score means a company publishes a lot that can be found about its AI work. It does not mean the work is good, in production, or making money. A company here running serious AI quietly will score low here, and it should: this index reads the public record and nothing else.

What would change these numbers

Three things, all scheduled and all documented on page 21. Fuller source coverage per market, which is what currently sets the width of every readiness range. Validating the coverage weighting behind those ranges, which is a stopgap in this edition. And merging companies that operate several web domains, so one group cannot appear twice. Nothing here was audited inside a company, and no verified-readiness score is published this cycle. Next edition: Q3 2026.

english_web_undercoveragebelow_full_crp_v02_coverage

What to do with a visibility score

A visibility score is something a company here can move, because every signal behind it is something it already controls. Three steps separate it from a record that shows what it is actually doing.

Start with the company’s own row

Every scored company in Australia appears in the dataset with its five signal scores and an evidence grade. A grade C or D row is usually a company that has not said much, not a company that has not done much.

Then measure what this cannot see

This index reads the outside only. Leadership alignment, governance, data quality and workforce capability are invisible to it by design, and that is where the real answer sits.

Correct the record on purpose

Proof of capability is the region’s weakest signal, because companies announce intent faster than they show work. Job posts, named leads and dated case studies move the score honestly.

None of this requires a new AI programme. It requires publishing the one that already exists.

The full Australia dossier, as published.

115 of the 275 ranked companies in Australia reach the published APAC top 1,000.

Macau has no benchmark block and is reported as contextual. The dossier counts companies on a wider definition than this page does and the two reconcile: how the company counts fit together.

Assess readiness