In spite of the belief that employers derive value from artificial intelligence at the expense of their employees and that AI-powered automation leads to the displacement of workers, 60% of employees view AI as a coworker and not a job threat.
That is the conclusion of a study released recently by MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group.
The research also found that organizations where employees derive value from AI are 5.9 times as likely to see significant financial benefits than those where employees say they do not get value from AI.
AI use is so pervasive that individual workers may take some of its applications for granted. According to the findings, 66% of individuals report that they do not use AI or use it only minimally.
But when prompted with specific examples of AI-enhanced business applications, such as office productivity applications, calendar schedulers,and customer relationship management software, 43% of respondents acknowledge that they regularly or sometimes use business products with AI.
“When individuals don’t know that they are using AI, they naturally have a harder time recognizing its value,” said François Candelon, global director of the BCG Henderson Institute and report co-author.
“But our research shows that employees using AI knowingly are 1.6 times more likely to get individual value and 1.8 times more likely to be satisfied with their jobs than those who do not realize they use AI.”
The survey found that 64% of survey respondents personally derive at least moderate value from using AI. These workers are 3.4 times as likely to be more satisfied in their jobs than employees who do not obtain value from AI. Only 8% of respondents are less satisfied with their jobs because of AI.
They believe that AI has improved interactions with their team members (56%), with managers (47%), and with other people in their departments (52%).