Commissioned by MYOB, a survey of 500+ leaders and decision-makers of mid-sized businesses assessed local firms’ progress toward business autonomy - the ability to manage routine processes with minimal human effort, freeing people to focus on higher-value work.
Mapped against a new MYOB Business Autonomy Maturity Model (BAMM), the research measures business autonomy ambition and readiness across five key pillars – core processes, data landscape, AI strategy, AI governance, and workforce capability – to understand how equipped they are to scale AI-enabled automation and where the biggest gaps remain.
Two-thirds of mid-market firms say they have strong digital processes (66%) and good data foundations (68%), but workforce readiness (56%) and having proper governance in place (61%) and meaningful process autonomy (55%) are tracking behind.
MYOB Executive General Manager – Mid-Market, Paul Voges, explains that while the numbers look solid individually, together they tell a different story.
“New Zealand’s mid-sized businesses have consistently shown real ambition and appetite when it comes to lifting performance with technology. What the data shows is that unlocking real productivity gains requires all the foundational elements to combine. At the moment, the engine is firing on only half its cylinders.
“A business with solid data but low workforce capability, or AI tools without the appropriate governance, is not future-ready, it’s partially prepared and still heavily constrained. Too many mid-sized firms are being held back not by a lack of appetite for AI, but the work to improve the foundations that sit underneath.” says Paul.
Alex Hooper, Associate Director at Oxford Economics Australia, adds: “In a period where productivity is such a central focus on both sides of the Tasman, it is encouraging to see that 75% of mid-sized businesses are reporting productivity benefits from AI.
“However, the results also show a divergence in maturity across the two markets. While New Zealand businesses show strong ambition, Australian firms are more likely to have translated that into deeper operational integration, suggesting a faster pathway to realising productivity and commercial benefits.
“Across both markets, businesses appear to be converging on a similar set of priorities for scaling AI and automation. Workforce skills, core system upgrades and data quality are coming through strongly, although New Zealand businesses are more likely to report a need for greater to improve workforce skills and training,” she explains.
Barriers and challenges capping performance
However, the data also shows that reported barriers to greater business autonomy align with the key readiness pillars many local businesses are missing. Cybersecurity and data privacy concerns are the most common hurdle (43%), followed by skills and change capacity (40%) and governance, risk and compliance (32%). Additionally, 30% say cloud and integration readiness is a barrier, and 29% say a lack of standardised processes is holding them back.
The state of core business systems adds another dimension to the challenge. Just 36% of local mid-sized businesses are operating on a modern, cloud-based ERP, while 30% are running their core operations across multiple systems and spreadsheets and another 30% are still on desktop or on-premise ERP solutions.
“A well-integrated data landscape is a key enabler of AI-driven productivity. What we’re seeing across the data from an overarching A/NZ view is that those businesses using legacy systems appear to be getting less out of AI, with these businesses overwhelmingly reporting time savings as the key benefit,” explains Paul. “Those with AI embedded in core systems are reporting stronger and more commercially significant impacts, like revenue growth and improved profit margins, alongside significant time savings.”
The size of the prize
For the local mid-sized businesses that have invested across more of the key pillars, the commercial returns are already showing up in the numbers.
In addition to time saved (46%), almost a third (30%) of decision-makers polled believe AI has contributed to increased revenue or sales growth and 27% report improved profit margins, however the proportion enjoying such financial benefits grows with business size.
More than one-in-three (37%) businesses with 100+ employees report improved profit margins, compared with just 11% among firms with 20-49 employees. The revenue gap is similarly sharp, with 36% of the largest mid-sized firms reporting revenue uplift versus just 16% of the smallest.
The same divide also shows up across broader performance measures with improved quality of outputs being reported by 44% of the largest firms, versus 19% of the smallest.
“This points to a productivity split opening up within the overall mid-sized business segment,” Paul says. “Larger businesses continue to pull ahead because smaller firms haven’t built as robust a foundation across the key pillars that strengthen the gains from AI, such as integrated data systems, digitised core processes, structured training, and clearer guardrails.
"The opportunity now is to enable more of New Zealand's mid-sized businesses to close the gap, access those same gains and drive true productivity. These businesses are a vital part of New Zealand’s economy and if we can help more of them get the foundations right, the flow-on benefits for the wider economy could be significant."
ENDS
Notes to editors
Analysis and research support for this study was provided by Oxford Economics.
Insights are based on responses for MYOB’s latest survey of mid-sized businesses, polling a representative sample of 1000+ business leaders and decision-makers (*with between 20-500 FTEs and $5m+ annual revenue) in Australia (518 respondents) and New Zealand (502 respondents). Research for this survey took place from 13th February – 16th March 2026, with fieldwork conducted by independent research agency, Dynata. Respondents were sampled randomly from the Dynata online panel and screened to ensure they met the qualifying criteria. Quotas were maintained on industry sector and business size/FTEs to ensure a reliable and diverse cross-section of business opinions from mid-sized businesses were obtained.