New research from Experian suggests Australian financial institutions are moving quickly to deploy AI in credit and fraud risk workflows, but many say their underlying data is not ready to support broader use in core decision-making.
The Australian findings from Experian’s “Connected Intelligence: Scaling AI with Trusted Data and Decisioning” report show 72% of surveyed financial institutions are using agentic AI to assist underwriters with recommendations or decision support. A separate 75% cited faster or real-time decision cycles as a key value they expect AI, data and software to bring to underwriting operations.
However, the report indicates a significant gap between adoption and readiness. Only 3% of Australian respondents said their data is fully AI-ready, while 67% said their data is not ready or only partially ready for AI-driven decisioning.
Most organisations also described themselves as being at an early stage of operationalising AI in these functions. More than seven in ten Australian respondents (72%) said their organisation is “emerging” or “early” in its use of AI across fraud and credit risk underwriting, while 11% said AI is widely implemented across underwriting processes.
Respondents pointed to operational constraints as key barriers to scaling AI. The most commonly cited challenges were fragmented data systems that do not provide a unified customer view (45%), poor data quality (42%), and a lack of trust in AI outputs (31%).
The research also links data readiness to governance and transparency as AI moves closer to making or influencing credit and fraud decisions. More than two thirds of Australian respondents (69%) agreed data quality and governance are among the reasons AI implementations fail, while 84% said transparency of analytics and insights is highly valuable for improving decisions. Experian noted that changes including Privacy Act reforms, the Scams Prevention Framework and the Consumer Data Right are increasing pressure for AI-driven decisions to be explainable and compliant by design.
The report indicates lenders remain cautious about giving AI full decision authority. Just over half of Australian respondents (51%) said they are comfortable allowing AI to make decisions without human review only for low-risk decisions, while 2% said they are comfortable with fully autonomous decisioning at scale across most use cases.
Mathew Demetriou, managing director, Software Solutions at Experian Australia & New Zealand, said: “What we’re seeing with Australian lenders is that AI is already in underwriting workflows with the research showing 72% are using agentic AI for decision support, but the harder question being asked is how to trust and govern it at scale, especially as regulators sharpen their focus on how data is used. The foundations underneath AI still need to catch up,”
“Data quality, integration, trust and governance may determine whether AI can move from contained use cases into core decisioning. Without trusted and well-governed data, there is a risk that organisations may struggle to operationalise AI at scale. With appetite for integrated AI enabled decisioning strong, the industry’s next phase may be defined by how quickly they can close the data readiness gap by connecting data, AI and governance into a single, trusted decisioning environment. It’s what we call connected intelligence.” Demetriou said.
Despite the constraints, the research suggests continued demand for AI-enabled decisioning tools: 92% of Australian respondents said they would pilot, test or adopt a vendor that could meet their data, software and AI needs for fraud and credit risk underwriting.
The Australian results form part of Experian’s 2026 global Connected Intelligence study of more than 800 senior decision-makers and more than 80 expert interviews across 12 countries, including 102 respondents in Australia and 51 in New Zealand.
You can read the full report here.
