Digital Lives of Australians 2024

auDA is pleased to present the Digital Lives of Australians 2024 research report. It marks the fourth report in auDA's annual Digital Lives of Australians study, which began in 2021. Through the research, we seek to gain an in-depth understanding of the online challenges and opportunities Australian consumers and small businesses face, to support improvements to economic and social outcomes for Australians through the internet.

The research is informed by a survey of 1,500 Australian consumers and 400 small businesses.

Key findings include:

• Value of the internet – Nine of ten (88 per cent) working Australians rely on the internet to perform their job and eight of ten (78 per cent) small businesses would struggle to function without it.

• Growing interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Two of five (39 per cent) working Australians believe being able to use AI tools will increase their employment prospects and 48 per cent of small businesses believe AI tools will increase business efficiency.

• Majority of Australians impacted by cyber threat or attack – Four of five (77 per cent) consumers recall experiencing a cyber security threat or attack in the past year, including receiving a scam message or falling victim to a hack.

• Additional cyber security support required - Two of five consumers and small businesses would like to strengthen their online security but are unsure how (43 and 40 per cent respectively) and many do not know where to report a data breach (48 and 35 per cent).

• High expectations of companies – Four of five consumers and small businesses (83 and 79 per cent) believe companies should be doing more to protect the personal information of customers from cyber attack.

• Cyber security skill gap - Consumers (62 per cent) and small businesses (77 per cent) consider cyber security skills the most important digital skill for their future, yet only 13 and 24 per cent respectively feel they have high capability.

The full report including an outline of the key findings can be found on the auDA website.