AI is now in most ASX 200 annual reports

In FY2025, 60% of ASX 200 annual reports mentioned AI. In FY2015 it was 2%. The count takes "AI" as a word on its own, and "artificial intelligence", "machine learning" and "generative AI".

What changed in ten years

A decade ago, AI turned up in a handful of reports. Now it sits in more than half of them. Automation rose too, from 21% of reports to 62%. Digital transformation, cloud and data came up in 45% of reports in FY2025, against 13% in FY2015.

The rise is not only Australian. AI came up in 8% of S&P 100 companies' annual filings in 2015 and in all of them in 2025. Each country's filings differ in length and purpose, so read each line over time.

What a count can and cannot tell you

The figures count words. A report that mentions AI may describe a working system, a pilot or a risk. It may mention it once, in passing. The count says the subject reached the board's annual account to shareholders. It does not say what the company did about it.

That gap is worth a question in any business, listed or not. If AI appears in the plan, can the leadership team say what it is for, what it costs and who owns it?

The question for your own business

Could your top five leaders write down the same answer to "what is AI for, here"? If they could not, the gap sits in the strategy, not the technology. The strategy check takes about ten minutes and shows where the plan is shared and where it is not.

The full counts, by theme and year, are on what ASX 200 companies write about.