Many organisations have great intentions to deploy AI for productivity but fail to adequately train workers.
A trio of recent surveys from Ireland, the UK and the US suggest that workers are still trying to wrap their heads around AI. Attitudes range from suspicious to overwhelmingly positive – but it’s fair to say that most respondents were on the fence.
Irish recruitment firm Prosperity Recruitment’s 2024 employment and salary report featured a survey of 400 Irish professionals. More than half (57pc) said they use tools like ChatGPT daily or weekly. Only 15pc claimed they never used it.
Mixed views
Of those that do use AI, a slim majority (51.6pc) believe it aids productivity, while the remainder are unconvinced or think of the tech as a “distraction”.
When asked what they think the main risks of AI in the workplace are, the majority said inaccuracy, plagiarism and deepfakes. Speed and productivity were seen as the biggest benefits that AI can offer workers.
The small sample size weakens the findings somewhat, but Prosperity Recruitment did gather testimonials from workers from different industries on how they believe their work is being impacted by AI. Interestingly, attitudes varied depending on the sector the respondent worked in. An educator said the tech “undermines the importance of institutional education and academic achievement”.
One UX and UI designer said they were much faster at doing data analysis, whereas another pointed out that creativity is being replaced by homogeneity due to AI.
Software developers, customer support specialists and digital marketers tended to be enthusiastic about AI’s productivity and speed advantages. One even proclaimed: “One developer can do the job of three.”
That loaded statement is the reason many other workers are so vehemently anti-AI. They worry they are going to be replaced by automation. Of the 400 people who were surveyed by Prosperity, the majority said they think their jobs will evolve but will not be lost entirely due to AI.
Not just job jitters
This sentiment was not shared by the majority of people surveyed by Pluralsight. The tech company polled 1,200 executives and IT professionals from across the UK and the US as part of its AI Skills Report 2024. The findings revealed AI anxiety, especially over adoption processes and skills gaps. As many as 81pc of respondents felt they could integrate AI into their roles right now, only 12pc actually have any practical experience using the tech.
While 87pc said they planned to increase AI spending over the next 12 months, only 40pc said their organisations have any proper formal training strategies in place to help them benefit.
“Even as organisations accelerate AI adoption, the majority don’t understand what, if any, AI skills their employees possess or have an upskilling strategy to develop them,” said the report’s authors.
Like the respondents to Prosperity’s survey, the majority of those Pluralsight polled said the main benefit of AI is productivity – but this is only pie in the sky if organisations aren’t training workers adequately. It may also be a contributing factor to workers’ anxieties around AI ‘stealing their jobs’ – not a concern to be trifled with. Pluralsight previously did a study on AI anxiety and the types of workers affected; most experiencing worries and doubts over the tech are minorities or working on high-conflict teams.
No blues for blue collar workers
Attitudes to AI tend to be less radical in the blue collar sector. The Knowledge Academy, a UK-based training and coaching company, asked 2,000 UK students whether they thought AI advancements would put jobs at risk. Less than a quarter said they were worried about job security due to automation.
Of that minority, around a fifth fear AI because they believe it will replace manual jobs, such as data entry or assembly-line work. Like Prosperity’s survey, The Knowledge Academy also broke down attitudes towards AI based on sector. It found that 100pc of students seeking work in the mining, energy and water supply, agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors are unconcerned about AI.
Those seeking careers in education, information and communication, public admin and social security felt the most threatened by AI.
Last week, we spoke to two experienced tech workers about the main risks and rewards of working in AI and analytics. Their views on the tech’s positives and negatives were balanced and well worth a read.
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