Alright, let’s dive right into the truth or dare, the fact or fiction of the AI in the workplace. Is it the genie we’ve rubbed out of a bottle or is it a Pandora’s box of woes? Does our future have us all morphed into AI handlers and operators?
Well, the jury is still out on this one. No matter how much AI has ballooned into our lives and workspaces, we’re left scratching our heads, seeking simple answers where there aren’t any.
AI in Workplace: A Mood Swing
Guess what? Turns out, our feelings towards AI have swung, like a pendulum, over the years. A recent mood ring, I mean, survey from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), shows us how the attitude towards AI in workplaces has changed from five years ago.
13,000 guinea pigs from 18 countries, ranging from bigwigs to frontline soldiers, were rounded up for the survey. Their emotional responses, ahem, data, were bucketed into five categories: Curiosity, Optimism, Concern, Confidence, and Indifference.
More Optimism, Less Caution Around AI
Did the curiosity kill the cat? Not really, as the general intrigue about AI hasn’t budged much from 60% since 2018.
Interestingly, despite the rapid leaps of AI in the past five years, more than half of the surveyed workforce is feeling sunny about AI’s impact on work. That’s a whopping 17 percentage point increase from 2018.
And the fretters? Well, their numbers have dwindled by 10 percentage points, now at 30%. Respondents’ confidence in AI has also seen an uptick (+5 p.p.) while indifference towards it has shrunk (-7 p.p.).
And why not? Given the blitzkrieg of generative AI — hello, ChatGPT with your 1.8 billion visitors a month — it’s no wonder workers are way more conscious about AI than they were a mere five years back.
Optimistic Leaders, Cautious Employees
Of course, the devil is always in the details. BCG points out that sentiments about AI differ significantly based on the altitude of your company perch. Optimism flies high among leaders, with two-thirds sporting a positive vibe about AI in 2023. This cheeriness, however, is shared by less than half of the frontline employees, who also form the largest worry group (nearly 40%).
More Use, More Optimism Around AI
Ever since ChatGPT snagged 100 million active users just two months after its launch, the writing has been on the wall. More folks are testing the waters with generative AI.
In BCG’s poll, those who are in a steady relationship with AI — meaning they use it at least once a week for work — are nearly thrice as optimistic than worried about AI’s impact on their work in 2023. The occasional users, too, are twice as optimistic than wary. Non-users, though, have the most concern.
So Is AI Coming For Jobs or Not?
No matter what your crystal ball tells you about AI’s job-snatching potential, the survey respondents concur that AI in the workplace will shake things up. More than one-third are already feeling the heat in 2023, while a staggering 86% believe they need some sort of training to keep pace with the AI-induced transformation.
As we stand on the edge of this brave new world, upskilling might be our best shot at navigating the revolution AI is likely to stir up.
