Office Workers 6x More Likely to Believe Generative AI Benefits Employers – Not Employees

Companies are racing to operationalize generative AI, but many haven’t addressed how AI-driven disruption will impact employees — who are torn between AI optimism and anxiety.

Ivanti, the tech company that elevates and secures Everywhere Work, announced the results of its Getting Employees on Board for the AI Revolution Report as part of Ivanti’s Digital Employee Experience series. While companies are racing to adopt AI, Ivanti’s research shows office workers aren’t fully bought into the promise of advanced AI. Yet, companies can’t power the AI revolution without employees on board as allies.

• Office workers are 6x more likely to say generative AI benefits employers than employees.
• 36% of IT workers are very concerned that generative AI tools will take their jobs in the next five years – 17 points higher than office workers.
• Company leaders report that the top benefits of AI in the organization are automating mundane tasks (62%) and higher employee productivity (60%).
• Just 1 in 10 office workers say AI will deliver “high improvement” in productivity.

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Enterprise leaders and tech workers aren’t aligned on the specifics of how AI will benefit the organization. Leaders are significantly more optimistic about the promise of AI. The report uncovers why tech professionals aren’t as enthusiastic – high levels of stress, a fear that AI will poach their jobs and concerns that generative AI will increase the bottom line at their expense.

“Although companies are racing to adopt new use cases for AI, their employees are divided about what it means for their careers,” said Dr. Srinivas Mukkamala, Chief Product Officer at Ivanti. “Companies can’t afford to shy away from this subject and preaching all the benefits of AI isn’t enough. Executives need to be clear in their communication about AI strategy and how it impacts the future of the employee experience, productivity and career progression. Without employee support and oversight of generative AI, companies will be slow to leverage the gains, and may have unintended consequences without the needed human oversight.”

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Additionally, since IT workers will be doing the day-in and day-out work to operationalize AI and automation, they should have an active role in setting the agenda for how companies will use AI — especially where it impacts IT operations and security preparedness. The report outlines steps companies can take to leverage generative AI while enlisting IT to help define the AI vision and agenda.

Mukkamala continued, “All organizations need to ensure the security, safety and privacy of the data that is collected and fed into AI systems. It must be taken seriously, and it is non-negotiable to protect the data against misuse, threat actors or malicious intent. As guardrails are constructed for AI models, we cannot neglect constructing the guardrails that avoid AI bias, data bias, model/algorithmic bias – and importantly human bias. As we’ve seen in the research, most users and employees are skeptical of AI, so it is important that we establish trust globally with proactive security and AI system resilience.”

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This report is based on two surveys conducted by Ivanti in the first half of 2023: Elevating the Future of Everywhere Work and New Imperatives for Digital Employee Experience. In total, these two studies surveyed 16,200 executive leaders, IT professionals and office workers.

[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]