Trust, built on measurable wins, lets businesses scale AI, Cisco report finds
Australian organisations seeing returns from AI are building trust in it first, proving its value in small, measurable steps before handing it more responsibility, according to a new Cisco report.
It comes as many businesses struggle to move beyond experimentation. Deloitte's 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise research, cited in the report, found only 28% of Australian respondents had moved at least 40% of their AI pilots into production.
Just 12% of those respondents said generative AI was already transforming their business or industry.
Cisco's report, Permission to Scale: The Critical Role of Trust in Successful AI Adoption, draws on a survey and interviews with leaders from 25 Australian organisations, including AustralianSuper, Flight Centre Travel Group and Culture Amp.
Its central finding is that trust lets firms scale AI beyond pilots, with each successful use producing evidence justifying the next step.
"They start where AI's value can be proven, make their safeguards visible and expand as the evidence builds. That's how they're turning AI investment into real returns," said Stefan Leitl, vice president and general manager of Cisco Australia and New Zealand.
Evidence builds trust
Respondents said confidence grew when people could see AI working in their own environment and compare the results with previous ways of working.
"We could see that the people using the tools were three times faster, while error rates were exactly the same. That gave us statistical evidence to back up the benefits, and that built trust around the adoption of AI," said Paul Keen, vice president of engineering at Culture Amp.
At Flight Centre Travel Group, chief technology officer Chris Locke said training helps turn those early results into momentum.
"Training, usage, and successful outcomes start to build a flywheel of trust. By training your people, getting them to use AI, and seeing good outcomes, you create the confidence for them to keep going," he said.
Measure value, not log-ins
The report cautions against treating usage as a sign of success. It recommends tracking how often staff challenge or override AI outputs, and whether they choose approved tools over unsanctioned ones.
"Blindly trusting these systems and their outputs is a huge risk. Trust has to include knowing when to challenge, when to check and when judgement still needs to sit with a person," said Sarah Carney, head of artificial intelligence at AustralianSuper.
The report also cites Deloitte's Asia-Pacific research, which found organisations with more mature AI governance reported 28 per cent higher staff use of AI and close to five per cent higher revenue growth. Two-thirds of the organisations Cisco consulted had an active AI governance committee.
Foundations lag ambition
More than half of respondents said their infrastructure needed moderate upgrades or a complete overhaul, and fewer than half were very or extremely confident their foundations were ready for more autonomous systems.
"Trust determines the autonomy you are prepared to give AI. The aim is bounded autonomy, where the agent can act on your behalf but cannot go beyond the boundaries you have established," said Devesh Maheshwari, chief technology officer at Lendi Group.
