AI automation-Australian real estate companies lag their global counterparts in adopting productivity-boosting measures such as automation, saying the hurdles are greater and expressing more doubt that they will make a difference. While an estimated 50 per cent of all job tasks will be impacted by automation by 2030, Australian respondents to a global survey conducted this week said they were hiring fewer AI experts such as data scientists and less convinced it would benefit them than respondents from Europe, the Gulf States and the US. The sample space was limited – Australians accounted for just one-quarter of the 400 global respondents to an online poll conducted by consultancy EY and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Real Estate Innovation Lab – but the problem pointed to a lack of competitiveness, said Selena Scott, EY's global real estate and construction innovation leader. "Australian real estate companies are slightly behind their global counterparts when it comes to hiring AI and automation specialists," Ms Short said. "The fact that 23 per cent of Australian companies were unsure whether automation or AI would change their businesses is a worry."