Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The promise of generative AI tools is tantalising: a resource to free up time for more high-value work, streamline repetitive tasks and teach new skills. But survey data shows workers are not yet fully embracing the potential — and that employers are not doing enough to help them.Who uses ChatGPT?Emerging data on the use of generative AI chatbots suggests factors such as education, age and the industry someone works in can alter their attitude to AI. Knowledge workers are likely to be more affected by the new technology, according to a recent report from the Institute for Public Policy Research, a think-tank.A Pew Research Center survey last month showed that younger adults in the US were more frequent users of generative AI chatbots for work. Among those aged 18 to 29, 12 per cent used the technology every day or a few times a week, compared with 6 per cent of those aged 50 to 64.The same research also revealed differences depending on education level. Thirteen per cent of postgraduates and 12 per cent of those with a bachelors degree said they used AI chatbots every day or a few times a week, compared with 5 per cent of those with high-school qualifications or less. Workers aged 65 and older and those with high-school qualifications were also less likely to have heard of workplace AI chatbot use.In France, an Ipsos survey published in December 2023 showed that people under 35 (72 per cent), executives (83 per cent) and those with a degree (67 per cent) knew what ChatGPT was and also reported having already used it. Workers who are more familiar with AI tend to be more optimistic about it. Pew research published in July 2023 suggested that US workers whose jobs were more likely to be replaced or aided by AI, such as tech workers, were more likely to recognise its upsides. People in jobs less exposed said they did not know if AI would help or harm them at work. “Regular users of gen AI recognise it can improve their experience of work, and their expectations increase the more they engage with it,” said Emma Kendrew, technology lead in the UK and Ireland for consultancy Accenture. Its research shows that daily users of AI were more than twice as likely to expect it would improve creativity and fulfilment in work, compared with irregular users.Are workers being trained?A lack of trust may be made worse by a lack of training. Despite evidence that employers are investing in improving staff skills, employees still feel they are not receiving the support they need to be AI conversant at work.Recruiter Adecco’s latest Global Workforce of the Future report highlighted this gap. While 48 per cent of the 35,000 mostly white-collar workers surveyed reported using AI every day — up from 31 per cent the previous year — only a quarter had completed training. JC Townend, UK and Ireland president for recruiter Adecco, said that, historically, technology often advanced faster than companies were able to formally train people in it. “We’ve seen a lot of what people learn . . . come from self-teaching and experimentation.”In Slack’s Fall 2024 Workforce Index almost a third of workers reported they had no AI training. Even though generative AI is expected to account for 15 per cent of technology spend this year, fewer than half the organisations surveyed by Accenture had increased training on AI fundamentals or technical skills. “The benefits of gen AI can’t come from technology alone, but how organisations empower upskilled people and reinvent processes with it,” Kendrew said.Productivity gainsWorkers that are deploying generative AI are benefiting from improved productivity. Across the globe, Adecco found nearly 30 per cent of the workers saving time with AI were checking the accuracy of their work and doing more creative work. More than a quarter felt they could achieve a better work-life balance and engage in more strategic thinking. Louis-David Benyayer, associate professor at French business school ESCP, warned that, in some cases, adoption of generative AI had led to decreased satisfaction with work because creativity was reduced. Where it did save time it might just lead to employers finding more work to fill it. But AI should not just be used to do existing work more productively, said Carl-Benedikt Frey, professor of AI and work at Oxford university’s Internet Institute. “You can only get so much juice out of every lemon.” The big ask is whether it can do completely new tasks. “The companies trying to answer those types of questions, are more likely to be the innovators, and . . . employ human labour.”A global pictureThere are differences in how populations feel about AI. According to data from Ipsos’s AI Monitor 2024, which surveyed adults across 32 countries, more people in emerging markets believed increased AI use would have a better impact on their jobs in the next three to five years. This is driven by enthusiasm across age groups: in Indonesia for example, slightly more people aged 50-74 than the under 35s thought AI would improve their jobs.Japan and South Korea, meanwhile, have very low shares of people across all three age cohorts believing AI will make their jobs better.Research by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the US suggests that the adoption rate of generative AI seems quicker than previous digital technologies. But what impact AI will have on work is still an unknown — and many workers are yet to experience the technology’s effects. ESCP’s Benyayer suggested that attitudes could still shift because, despite the hype around generative AI and language learning models, there is a lag between the technology and how it spreads into day-to-day work.
