By Weston Blasi
Employees are as eager to bring AI to the workplace as companies, according to a new report from Microsoft
One of the main fears about the widespread use of artificial intelligence in the workplace is that companies will try to harness its power to reduce labor costs and therefore threaten workers' employment.
But a new report from Microsoft (MSFT) suggests that workers are just as eager to bring AI to the workplace as companies.
The 2024 Annual Work Trends Index Report found that 75% of knowledge workers, defined as employees who typically handle information at work rather than perform manual work, use some form of AI in their jobs. Among those who use AI at work, 90% say it saves them time, 85% say it helps them focus on their most important work, and 84% say it helps them be more creative.
โWorkers are secretly using AI at work to be more efficient, and that ties into this incentive for workers,โ said Dan Schawbel, author and managing partner of Workplace Intelligence, a research and thought leadership agency. "There is more pressure on workers. There is less job stability. The incentive for a worker to offset productivity demands using AI has never been greater."
โA big reason workers are turning to AI is because they are burned out,โ Schawbel told MarketWatch. "There are only 24 hours in a day, and you can only push someone so far before needing advancements in technology."
Some examples of using AI can be as simple as using the technology to create images, type text, scan emails, or summarize meetings.
The report, which uses the cheerful acronym BYOAI (bring your own artificial intelligence), found that 68% of people say they struggle with speed and volume at work, and 46% say they feel burned out.
"These findings align perfectly with how our brains manage trade-offs between performing routine tasks and innovation: different types of thinking supported by two distinct but interacting neural networks in the brain," said Michael Platt, a neuroscientist at the University's Wharton School. of Pennsylvania, wrote in the report. "When we constantly change, we don't work as well. AI can help free workers from menial jobs and allow innovation and creativity to flourish."
By trying to lighten their workload, employees who harness the power of AI can also make themselves more attractive to employers.
While many experts and the Microsoft report suggest that employees are interested in using AI in the workplace, this is not a unilateral initiative. Companies are also happy to see workers adopting AI.
"Companies are creating incentives for employees to adopt it," Schawbel said. "If you are adaptable and really good at using AI, you become more valuable because your performance is higher. If you have those skills, you are more likely to be successful."
He described an employee who knows how to use AI as being able to multiply his productivity. "You may be hiring one person, but that person has the productivity of two people," she said. "He is driving himself from the top down and from the bottom up."
According to the Workplace Trends report, 66% of leaders say they would not hire a worker without some type of AI skills, and 71% say they would prefer to hire a candidate with less experience and skills in AI. AI than one with more experience and no AI skills. .
See also: Here's how Apple could take AI to the next level
Microsoft uses AI as much as any company in the world and has invested more than $10 billion in OpenAI.
The study was conducted by independent research firm Edelman Data & Intelligence from February 15 to March 28, 2024 and included responses from 31,000 full-time workers or freelancers. The survey was conducted in partnership with Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, based on the report's methodology.
Read more: Biden covers $3 billion investment in Microsoft AI at Wisconsin site where Trump-touted Foxconn plant failed
-Weston Blasi
This content was created by MarketWatch, operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently of Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
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05-11-24 0917ET
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