If you are unhappy taking orders from your human boss, you might be more inclined to take orders from robots, according to a new survey.
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There seems to be a large gap between the way people are using artificial intelligence (AI) at home and at work. Although almost three quarters of us use AI in our personal life, only six percent of HR professionals are deploying AI and only one in four (24 percent) of employees are currently using some form of AI at work.
The idea of AI revolutionizing the workplace and the possibility of “robots taking job” has been talked about for some time, but people are not afraid of AI taking their jobs and want to be able to take advantage of the latest innovations at work.
The figures come from a recent study by Oracle and Future Workplace. It wanted to understand AI implementation and usage in the workplace, surveying 1,320 HR leaders and employees in the US.
The study examined perceptions of the benefits of AI, the obstacles preventing AI adoption, and the business consequences of not embracing AI.
According to the survey, people are ready to embrace AI at work, and understand that the benefits go far beyond automating manual processes. Unfortunately, organizations are not doing enough to embrace AI, leading to reduction in productivity and potential job loss.
Every respondent said that AI will have a positive impact on their organizations, and when asked about the biggest benefit of AI, HR leaders and employees both said AI would increase productivity. In fact, at work, 93 percent of employees said they would trust orders from a robot.
So, why is there such a gap in AI adoption when people are clearly ready to embrace AI and employees can clearly see its potential?
Employees believe that AI will improve operational efficiencies (59 percent), enable faster decision making (50 percent), significantly reduce cost (45 percent), enable better customer experiences (40 percent), and improve the employee experience (37 percent).
HR leaders too responded that AI will positively impact learning and development (27 percent), performance management (26 percent), compensation or payroll (18 percent), and recruiting and employee benefits (13 percent).
Perhaps organisations are not doing enough to prepare the workforce for AI. Almost all (90 percent) of HR leaders and over half of employees (51 percent) reported that they are concerned they will not be able to adjust to the rapid adoption of AI as part of their job, and are not empowered to address an emerging AI skill gap in their organization.
Almost three quarters (72 percent) of HR leaders noted that their organization does not provide any form of AI training program.
Other major barriers to AI adoption in the enterprise are: Cost (74 percent), failure of technology (69 percent), and security risks (56 percent).
But a failure to adopt AI will have negative consequences too. Almost four out of five (79 percent) HR leaders and 60 percent of employees believe that it will impact their careers, colleagues, and overall organization.
Emily He, SVP of Human Capital Management Cloud Business Group at Oracle, said: “To help employees embrace AI, organizations should partner with their HR leaders to address the skill gap and focus their IT strategy on embedding simple and powerful AI innovations into existing business processes.”
Organizations need to be flexible if want to take advantage of AI by training their employees in AI. And if employees want to make sure that they are valuable across their career in organisation,s they need to embrace AI as part of their regular job roles.
The surevy reports that embracing AI will have a positive impact on directors and C-Suite executive in the organisation. Businesses could lose a competitive advantage if they fail to empower their leadership teams with AI.
