#98: more workers are using and benefiting from AI than they realise

Happy?Friday?and welcome to This Week in CX! We're bringing you our roundup of industry news summarised in an exclusive LinkedIn newsletter. For more detail on any news featured here, check out 'This week in CX' on the Customer Experience Magazine (CXM)?website.

This week, we’re looking at?how professionals are unhappy and lacking confidence in their sales forecasts, AI is having more positive effects on workers’ productivity and value than we realise, and cost-effective sustainable IT initiatives are underutilised.

1 in 4 Manufacturers Lack Confidence in Their Sales Forecasts???

In 2024, 77 percent of manufacturers are still relying on rudimentary tools such as spreadsheets for sales forecasting, which may be why 1 in 4 manufacturers say they have “no confidence at all” in their forecasts. ??

These are two key data points from a new research study sponsored by SugarCRM.

The study, produced by The Manufacturer, is based on a survey of manufacturing professionals and follow-up interviews conducted earlier this year. Respondents were managing directors and key executives of companies involved in the manufacturing sector.???

The study reveals that less than half are using the technology designed to unlock critical insights and actions that keep sales reps selling. Respondents cite that only 40 percent use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and 34 percent use Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to harness accurate sales forecasting insights. For those that do, 28 percent say their CRM/sales technology is inadequate or outdated. ??

AI Is Delivering Strong Productivity Gains and Unlocking Higher-Value Work for Employees???

Freshworks released its new?Global AI Workplace Report today, revealing how various workplace departments are interacting with AI since the new era of generative AI exploded into the market 18 months ago. The global survey of 7,000+ full-time employees, collected from March 9 to April 4, 2024, revealed how AI has become a tool commonly used among knowledge workers - more than half (55%) of workers surveyed said they are currently using software applications enhanced with AI at work.

Moreover, nearly three in four of all workers surveyed (72%) trust AI to bring value to their work processes—and 81% of employees trust AI because they believe its quality of work is good or it makes their team more productive.

Return on AI: Productivity gains equivalent to a month each year

Freshworks ’ survey found knowledge workers are achieving impressive productivity gains from using AI at work. Employees estimate that using AI helps them reduce their existing workload by 3 hours and 47 minutes in a typical work week, by helping them complete tasks such as summarising issues and suggesting the next steps to handling repetitive tasks. By freeing up nearly 24 business days—or just over one month of work per year— employees can take on higher-value work that delivers greater engagement.

“Surprise AI” is everywhere

Freshworks’ survey also revealed more workers are using—and benefiting from—AI than they even realise. Almost half (40%) of workers surveyed think they use AI at work but don’t know to what extent or how. This sentiment was confirmed by 47% of IT respondents who agreed employees are using software that incorporates AI but don’t realise they’re using it. For instance, AI is often embedded into existing popular software to enable email autocomplete, suggested meeting times or notes from meetings.

Most Cost-Effective Sustainable IT Initiatives Are Underutilised???

Some of the most cost-effective sustainable IT initiatives currently have less than a 30% adoption rate by organisations, according to a new survey by Gartner , Inc.

The survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2023 to assess the actions and impact of IT to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within IT and the enterprise. In total, 200 executive leaders across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific participated in the survey.

Evaluate Underutilised but Cost-Effective Opportunities??

The survey found 64% of executive leaders believe they do not receive the emissions performance data they need from vendors.?While the top two areas where executive leaders have accomplished the most sustainable IT initiatives are in data center (86% of respondents) and the digital workplace (79% of respondents), there are initiatives that are more cost effective and have low adoption in both categories. In data center, they include uninterruptible power supply (UPS) rightsizing and enhancing cooling.

Executive leaders should use device performance analytics and telemetry insights to replace devices on an as-needed basis. Gartner estimates that by 2027, PC as a service will grow to 50% of PC procurement, an increase from 20% in 2023.

• Shop price inflation has dropped to its lowest level since October 2021, with UK shop prices decreasing by 0.2% from May to June, according to new data from NielsenIQ and the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Food inflation fell significantly, driven by lower prices for essentials like butter and coffee, while non-food prices also saw a decline. BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson?attributes this easing of the cost of living crisis to retailers' investments in discounting, particularly during a period of global input cost shocks.
• Climate change is increasingly driving up food prices, causing concern among central banks worldwide. A recent European Central Bank study suggests that annual food inflation rates could rise by up to 3.2 percentage points within the next decade due to higher temperatures.
• Google's greenhouse gas emissions have almost doubled over the last five years, the company said. The tech giant reported that electricity consumption by data centres and supply chain emissions were the primary cause of the increase. Emissions hit 14.3m metric tons in 2023, up 13% on the previous year.
• German and French workers take the most days off per year, but they are the first to say they feel "vacation deprived", a?recent report by Expedia has found. The study, which surveyed more than 11,500 professionals in 11 countries, reveals that in Germany 84% of workers feel they lack sufficient holiday time despite taking an average of 27 days off per year.

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