Confident yet cautious: Australian family businesses facing the future

Confident yet cautious

The KPMG Global family business report 2026 captures the views of 1,927 family and founder-led business leaders across 41 countries. Within that cohort, 129 Australian respondents offer a distinct regional lens; one that sits as a mirror to, but at times diverges from, both the worldwide average and the broader Asia-Pacific (ASPAC) peer group.

The picture that emerges is that Australian family businesses are strategically confident, values-driven, and clear about their direction, but increasingly aware that the operating environment ahead will test that confidence.

Comparing Australia against global and ASPAC benchmarks reveals where local family businesses lead, and where they face a steeper climb than international counterparts.

Family businesses in Australia are entering the next decade with strong strategic intent, but confidence alone will not be enough to sustain growth. The leaders who succeed will be those who pair long-term ambition with disciplined governance, sharper talent strategies and a clear view of how emerging risks — particularly AI — are reshaping the business landscape.

Robyn Langsford

ASPAC Private Enterprise Lead

KPMG Australia

What the Australian numbers say

83% have a clear growth strategy

but 60% expect growth to be harder to sustain over the next decade.
50% name AI adoption and governance as their top short-term challenge

versus 38% globally, the largest gap of any major concern.
29% are worried about regulatory complexity

against 20% across the rest of Asia-Pacific.
19% see macro-economic disruption as a near-term risk

well below the 31% global average.
24% flag succession as a short-term issue

ahead of the 17% recorded across the rest of Asia-Pacific.
36% say attracting outside talent is their biggest long-term worry

above the 30% global figure.
Just 11% are concerned about family cohesion in the short term

below the 15% global reading.

Detailed analysis: Australian family businesses

Strategic priorities
Growth drivers
Short-term challenges
Long-term challenges

Strength in the model

Australian family businesses, like their global counterparts, have a clear growth strategy (83%) and report strong internal alignment (79%) around that strategy. They express genuine confidence in their business model and firm commitment to family ownership as a source of advantage.

Australian family businesses have earned the right to be assured. They’ve come through mining booms and busts, drought cycles and interest-rate shocks that have tested their resolve. That history shows up in the data: strong belief in the family-ownership model, and real conviction that the business is pointed in the right direction.

But when six out of ten leaders say growth will be harder to sustain, it’s a business community that has been through enough cycles to know that confidence and easy growth aren’t the same thing and a realisation that the world is now being shaped very differently, politically and economically.

The combination is revealing: having a clear conviction in the family-owned model’s capacity to endure but recognising that outpacing competitors will take more deliberate effort than before.

How growth will be driven in the next decade

Australian family businesses’ growth strategies sit somewhat opposed to their global peer group. Australian businesses see benefits in diversification, across customer segments, industries and markets (23%) rather than offshore expansion (22%).

Globally, geographic expansion is the most frequently cited top growth driver (26%), narrowly ahead of diversifying products and services (24%), with digital and AI transformation third (21%).

This focus on local markets is consistent with a country that continues to benefit from its closeness to its most significant trading partner with continued demand for its product. It talks to a country where ‘home bias’ offers the lowest ‘risk’ and at the same time sufficient momentum to remain heavily invested in its local economy.

Challenges in the short term

Australian businesses’ short-term risk profile is shaped as much by local conditions as global megatrends. AI adoption and governance is the standout concern for 50% of Australian respondents, well above the 38% global average, pointing to a gap between how quickly AI is being deployed and how confidently it is governed.

Regulatory complexity also weighs more heavily on Australian leaders (29%) than ASPAC peers (22%), suggesting a sharper local sense of layered government interference. By contrast, Australian businesses report comparatively low concern about macro-economic disruption (19%, against a 31% global reading).

Family cohesion and alignment likewise rank as a low short-term worry (11%, versus 15% globally). Business succession, however, is felt more acutely in Australia (24 percent%) than across ASPAC (19%), a sign succession planning is coming into sharper local focus even as most peer countries remain more preoccupied with family cohesion.

Challenges in the long term

Looking to 2035, talent attraction emerges as the dominant long-term concern for Australian family businesses (36%, against 30% globally), reinforcing a theme running through the global report. As family-run operations shift toward professional management, attracting external talent becomes a real existential concern. As with global peers, the gap between AI adoption and the talent to manage its implementation and governance, is a major issue.

Regulatory complexity is expected to keep weighing on Australian businesses through 2035, while macro-economic disruption, though muted short-term, persists as an indirect, longer-horizon pressure. ESG expectations rank among the lowest concerns across the horizon, consistent with the global finding that ESG is often treated as implicit within a family business’s values. Ironically, a low-level sense of ESG as a challenge is countered by the expectation of increased regulatory complexity.

Key takeaways

The headline from the research isn’t that Australian family businesses are worried. It’s that they know exactly what to be worried about – AI implementation and governance, workforce readiness, red tape and succession – while everything else (the economy, family unity) holds surprisingly steady. It is not a business community losing confidence it’s one focusing clearly eye on the challenges ahead.

Australian family businesses head into the next decade with high confidence (83%) and clear strategic direction (75%), built on solid foundations. Yet growth is far from guaranteed in a more uncertain economic environment, with 60% acknowledging the path ahead will be harder.
Growth priorities skew toward diversification across customers and markets, with less emphasis on expanding geographic footprint than global peers.
AI adoption and governance is Australia’s most pressing short-term challenge, well beyond the global average, underscoring the need to move AI planning from pilots toward governed scale.
Regulatory complexity continues to weigh on local leaders and is expected to loom larger in the long- term.
Business succession concerns intensify further out, while ESG concerns remain comparatively muted, even as climate impacts, and the regulatory response, are likely to remain prominent through to 2035.

See how KPMG Mid-Market & Private can help you thrive

Have a question or want to explore how we can support your business? Complete the form to submit your enquiry to KPMG Australia – Family, Private & Mid-Market. One of our team will be in touch as soon as possible to help you take the next step.