Generative AI Talent, skills, HR Strategy:

A study of 2,500 workers suggests that current AI tools are not saving them time and has given them more to do, making many anxious that they can’t deliver on the productivity boosts expected by bosses.

Why the productivity problem matters

AI has great potential, but also many risks – balancing these two sides is key to using the technology effectively. Pressure to deploy the technology, whether or not another might actually do the job better, leaves employees in a tricky spot. In part, that’s because not that many time-saving, killer-app use cases are forthcoming; if they are, it would appear that many people would love to hear about them and how to put them into practice.

AI is meant to speed up work, but its output is fallible and it’s the employee on the line as the responsible human in the loop. Processes and systems have not caught up to a system that heaps risk onto the employee in the face of a technology that is expected to radically affect many professions.

What’s going on

A study from Upwork Research Institute, the research division of the talent marketplace – based on a survey of 2,500 global workers, freelancers, and executives – found that 77% believe AI tools have decreased their productivity and added to their workload. As the chart shows, employees have been asked to be both more productive and to learn the new skills to deploy a fallible technology, often at the same time.

What appears to be happening, according to the research, is that a push for productivity at the executive level – 81% say they have increased demands on workers in the last 12 months – has come before any real evidence of AI’s ability to increase it. Despite this, they are bullish on the technology, even though just 26% have put AI training programs in place; only 13% say they have a well-implemented AI strategy.

Some of the figures around employee sentiment are sobering:

• 47% of employees using AI say they have no idea how to achieve the productivity gains their employers expect.
• 39% report spending more time reviewing or moderating AI-generated content.
• 65% report struggling with employer demands on their productivity.
• 39% are required to use AI tools by their employers.

Analysis

Technologies take time to really change the way the world works. For instance, while Amazon began selling books back in the mid-90s, it was not until the 2020s that e-commerce reached the mainstream. Technology is just one piece of the puzzle; culture, meanwhile, is much harder to change.

This is especially true when the technology comes wrapped up in so many existential labour questions for workers and an existential threat potential for humanity. For many consumers, the term AI is something of a turn-off; for employees, even those under direct pressure to start using the technology, it’s possible that a similar sentiment is at play.

Recently, we’ve seen a spate of new advertisements from tech companies about the uses of AI. During the Olympics, its ‘Dear Sydney’ spot drew widespread derision – though as The Drum’s John McCarthy writes, this was largely a failure of the advertising basics as much as it was evidence that adland and the public do not see eye to eye on AI. In the UK, Google has the radio DJ and TV presenter Maya Jama fronting a campaign in which she asks Google’s Gemini assistant for tips for a trip to Barcelona with unconvincing results.

In short, a lot of the available examples show what this tech could be used for rather than how to use it in a business setting right now, without lots of additional reviewing work. From a productivity perspective, can the measures of success move beyond the quantity of work made and the speed at which it is produced and toward improved outcomes: more innovation, greater adaptability to resilience, improved client outcomes?

What next? 

How are you using AI? Is it making you faster and more efficient? Whether you’re using a company’s internal AI system or your own system, let us know how you’re using the technology.

Sourced from Upwork, WARC, The Drum. Image: Upwork