Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh says Australia's AI adoption sits at 7%, concentrated in big banks and enterprise. The gap between large firms and SMEs is widening. For sales teams, that means the buyers with budget for AI tools are still mostly the majors: CBA, Macquarie, NAB, Westpac, ANZ.
SaaStr's flagship event lost 48 of its 2025 sponsors, nearly all legacy B2B SaaS companies. The trade show rebuilt with 63 new sponsors, mostly AI-native vendors chasing AI-first buyers. If your customer base still looks like 2023, here is your warning.
Atlassian fell off Australia's best tech workplace rankings after cutting 1,600 roles in May 2026, about 12% of its global workforce. The Sydney-based company also disappeared from LinkedIn's career growth list, marking a sharp reversal for the former employer brand leader.
Only 7% of Australian businesses broadly use AI, according to Federal Treasurer Andrew Leigh. For sales teams targeting SMB and enterprise segments, that is 93% greenfield opportunity with significant education friction. AI adoption remains concentrated among tech incumbents: Amazon, Optus, Telstra, Splunk.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced a 30% baseline tax on discretionary trust income in the 2026 Federal Budget. The measure hits 350,000 Australian small businesses currently using trusts for income splitting. Tax advisors predict a restructuring wave as businesses move away from trust structures.
Xero went down for five consecutive days during Australian tax return week, hitting 4.4 million subscribers globally. The outage exposed how software reliability issues impact the accounting software sales cycle, especially for teams selling into SMBs that depend on uptime during compliance deadlines.
Monday.com reported Q1 2026 revenue of $351M, up 24% YoY, and raised full-year guidance to $1.47B ARR. Net dollar retention hit 116% in customers over $50K ARR, reversing two years of compression across B2B SaaS. The $500K+ customer cohort grew 74% YoY to 99 accounts. Stock jumped 28% on guidance raise and enterprise momentum.
Five major B2B SaaS firms just posted acceleration: Twilio jumped from 4% to 20% growth, Datadog crossed $1B quarterly revenue for the first time, Atlassian hit 32%, Cloudflare 34% (while cutting 1,100 roles), and Palantir 85%. HubSpot and Shopify posted solid quarters but missed acceleration marks, markets punished accordingly. The signal: AI is driving real revenue for infrastructure plays, but the gains are selective.
OpenAI dropped its $50k ad minimum and launched a self-serve Ads Manager for ChatGPT with CPC bidding at $3-5. The move targets SMBs and puts conversational AI ads up against Google's search dominance. Beta is US-only, ANZ gets agency access through Dentsu and Omnicom partnerships.
Harvey's CEO shared April numbers: 50% DAU/MAU ratio, 12 hours monthly usage per user, 6x net new ARR growth. For B2B AI tools, daily engagement now predicts renewal rates better than traditional SaaS metrics. Here's what that means for sales teams selling into or measuring product adoption.
ASIC hit four Canva entities with $792k in penalties for lodging FY24 reports nearly a year late. This follows $571k in earlier fines for the same issue. For a $26 billion unicorn eyeing an IPO, the compliance breach raises questions about operational discipline during a leadership transition that saw their CFO depart suddenly in 2024.
Palantir reported Q1 2026 revenue of $1.633B, up 85% YoY, the highest growth rate in its public history. US commercial revenue hit $595M, up 133% YoY, with 47 deals over $10M in the quarter. Rule of 40 sits at 145%.