One way for companies to overcome AI doubts — just let people try it

Reading many of the headlines about generative AI, it’s easy to get anxious.?

?Just this month, a survey at the Yale CEO Summit found that 42% of leaders said AI has the potential to destroy humanity within 5 to 10 years. While “potential” is the important word here, it’s still a pretty high number. And that’s just one story of many sounding the alarm about how AI could destroy jobs or pose existential risks.

Given this type of coverage, it’s not surprising that many employees are nervous about the arrival of AI at their workplace.?

Interestingly, though, these concerns appear to ease once they actually start using AI tools and realizing the benefits, such as time savings and productivity increases.

That was one of the key findings of a recent wide-ranging survey on AI in the workplace by consulting firm BCG. The survey is one of the most comprehensive on AI adoption, covering 13,000 people in a range of positions in 18 countries.

Among regular users, 62% said they were optimistic about AI, a figure that falls to 36% for non-users. Concern is less prevalent among frequent users (22%) versus non-users (42%).

Considering the many gloomy headlines, it may be a surprise to find that “optimism” was cited by more than half (52%) of respondents as a sentiment about AI’s impact on work, up from 35% when the survey was carried out in 2018.

?To be sure, there is still a fair amount of nervousness about AI – 30% of respondents cited “concern” as a top sentiment. However, that number has fallen from 40% since 2018. More than a third (36%) said they think their job is likely to be eliminated by AI.

The survey suggested one big challenge for organizations is to narrow a wide gap in the AI perceptions of leaders and employees. It found that the most enthusiastic adopters of AI are leaders, 80% of whom say they use generative AI tools regularly compared with just 20% of frontline employees. That is reflected in attitudes towards the technology with 62% of leaders feeling optimistic about it compared with 42% on the frontline.

?To address this, employers could benefit from giving their staff more opportunities to experiment with generative AI tools. It’s becoming clear that one major benefit of AI is its ability to fuel human creativity and democratize innovation.

Among the respondents, 86% said they need upskilling to understand how AI will change their jobs. When it comes to those who say they have already gone through that process, there is again a big split between leaders and frontline employees, with 44% of the former and just 14% of the latter satisfied they have those skills.

?It’s maybe not surprising that a company’s leadership would be more savvy when it comes to new technologies than employees — after all, they have to familiarize themselves with it before they know how it should be deployed within the organization.?

However, the survey suggests there is a clear case for engaging with employees as soon as is practical about how their roles might change, what new skills they may need to develop, and how AI can enhance their work rather than threaten it.