<h3>New research suggests senior leaders&rsquo; distrust of AI is driving inefficient implementation and widening Australia&rsquo;s AI skills gap.</h3> <p>&nbsp;New research by&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com%2F&amp;esheet=54516553&amp;newsitemid=20260419677094&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Amplitude%2C+Inc.&amp;index=1&amp;md5=c8e38a940c5f504a292626a2b780409b" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amplitude, Inc.</a>&nbsp;(Nasdaq: AMPL), the leading AI analytics platform, has revealed a generational divide in how much business leaders and their employees trust artificial intelligence (AI), a trend that may be limiting the benefits of the technology to Australian businesses and hampering the development of much needed AI skills across the country.</p> <p>Just 4% of workers aged 55&ndash;64 say they trust AI recommendations over their own judgement, compared to 31% of 18&ndash;24 year olds, according to Amplitude&rsquo;s study. At the same time, 39% of those aged 18&ndash;24 use AI tools daily in their job, compared to just 20% of those aged 55&ndash;64. These figures highlight a stark gap in trust between older professionals, who are more likely to be in leadership roles, and younger professionals who are most likely to be in more junior positions.</p> <p>Yet despite the propensity for younger professionals to use AI tools more regularly at work, only 13% of respondents aged 18&ndash;24 years and 9% of those aged 25&ndash;34 indicate that AI is core to their organisation&rsquo;s work. Comparatively, close to half (48%) of respondents say their organisation is getting better at AI but still has a way to go, while 24% say their organisation rarely uses AI at all.</p> <p>This lack of AI direction at an organisational level is reflected in the development of AI skills among professionals, especially among younger generations. There are more professionals aged 18&ndash;24 who primarily upskill in AI outside of work hours (40%) than those who upskill during work hours (32%). Only 5% of respondents across all age groups say they upskill in AI through mentorship or peer learning.</p> <p>These figures suggest that, although AI tools are being actively used for work among younger professionals, there appears to be a lack of strategic AI guidance from the senior ranks. Without leadership-led AI frameworks, businesses may run the risk of experiencing a mismatch between the latent potential of AI tools and the outcomes of their implementation &ndash; whether official or unofficial.</p> <p>&ldquo;The age-based discrepancy in trust around AI means senior decision-makers may inadvertently downplay its potential, limiting the value organisations derive from these tools,&rdquo; said Mark Drasutis, Head of Value, Asia Pacific and Japan, Amplitude. &ldquo;Without strategic implementation, AI is more likely to fall short of its goals. At a national level, this generational trust gap risks creating a structural adoption ceiling that restricts skills development and exacerbates Australia&rsquo;s existing AI skills shortage.&rdquo;</p> <p>The research also revealed:</p> <ul> <li>AI use is widespread but not universal:&nbsp;27% of respondents use AI tools daily and 33% a few times a week, while 24% say they use AI tools only occasionally, and 15% report not using AI at work at all.</li> <li>AI use is concentrated in content and information tasks:&nbsp;The most common use cases are writing or editing documents, emails and reports (44%), summarising information (38%), and supporting data analysis or reporting (31%).</li> <li>A high avoidance of AI for judgement-heavy tasks:&nbsp;28% avoid using AI for decision-making or strategic planning, 25% for data analysis or reporting, 22% for coding, debugging or technical work and 20% for scheduling or meeting preparation.</li> <li>Top reasons for avoiding AI in higher-stakes tasks:&nbsp;Prefer own judgement/creativity (34%), lack of trust in accuracy (32%), outputs feel generic (30%), and confidentiality leakage risk (29%).</li> <li>Self-assessed AI skill levels are low:&nbsp;One-third (33%) describe themselves as beginners or not skilled, another 34% say they are somewhat skilled &ndash; able to use AI tools but not expertly &ndash; and only 6% consider themselves highly skilled and ahead of the curve.</li> <li>Overall trust in AI outputs is limited:&nbsp;On a scale of 1&ndash;5, the mean trust score for AI outputs at work is 2.59, with 50% trusting their own judgement more than AI, compared with 15% who trust AI more.</li> <li>Perceived productivity gains are modest:&nbsp;While 12% say AI has transformed how they work or somewhat helps (54%), 23% believe it adds more work than it saves, and 11% say it actively slows them down.</li> <li>Organisational AI maturity remains low:&nbsp;Only 8% say their organisation is AI-driven, while 65% spend either no time or less than an hour per week learning or experimenting with AI tools.</li> <li>Career impact expectations are mixed:&nbsp;Over half (58%) believe AI will meaningfully change demand for their role in the next 5 years, while 32% do not believe it will change the demand for their job; 16% say AI users already have a career advantage.</li> <li>Personal AI use affects its use in the workplace:&nbsp;Nearly half (48%) strongly agree or agree the personal use of AI has influenced how they use it at work, while just 23% disagree or strongly disagree it&rsquo;s influenced their use at work.</li> <li>AI is creating uneven team dynamics and quiet tension at work:&nbsp;While 45% say AI hasn&rsquo;t changed team dynamics, 18% report colleagues competing to prove they are more AI-savvy and 11% say non-users resent those who rely heavily on AI. Perceived tension is concentrated among younger workers, with only 23&ndash;25% of 18&ndash;34 year olds reporting no AI-related tension, compared with 64&ndash;66% of workers aged 55+.</li> </ul> <p>For more information about the research, contact&nbsp;<a href="mailto:amplitude-syd@archetype.co" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">amplitude-syd@archetype.co</a>.</p> <p><em>Note: all percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.</em></p> <p>About Amplitude</p> <p>Amplitude is the leading AI analytics platform, helping over 4,700 customers&mdash;including Atlassian, Burger King, NBCUniversal, and Square&mdash;build better products and digital experiences. With powerful AI Agents embedded across our platform, teams can analyze, test, and optimize user experiences faster than ever. Ranked #1 across multiple categories in G2&rsquo;s Winter 2026 Report, Amplitude is the best-in-class solution for product, data, and marketing teams. Learn more at&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Famplitude.com&amp;esheet=54516553&amp;newsitemid=20260419677094&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=amplitude.com&amp;index=2&amp;md5=e327aea269e05d8ef4c6c539196e58fa" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">amplitude.com</a>.</p>