95% of employees believe AI will have a positive impact in 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay – and it’s rapidly changing the world of work.

But although there’s a common misconception that AI will render many ‘human’ jobs obsolete, new research from AI-giant Avanade suggests otherwise.

In a recent global survey of over 3,000 business and IT leaders, Avanade found that 64% of respondents believe AI will either maintain or increase the number of human roles in their organization next year. Some expect their company’s headcount to increase by as much as 9%.

Employees were also found to have a somewhat shared optimism towards the future impact of AI, with 95% believing it will have a positive impact.

The research also stressed the importance for businesses to safeguard employees from the potential threats of AI. However, only 48% have implemented specific guidelines or policies to ensure AI is utilized responsibly.

Similarly, just under half the surveyed employees do not have complete confidence in how their organization’s risk management processes manage enterprise-wide technical integration of generative AI.

“It’s encouraging to see a large proportion of organizations are excited to seize the benefits of AI, however, we need to be cognizant that some employees still don’t feel ready for it,” says Florin Rotar, Chief AI Officer at Avanade.

“It’s also really interesting to see that so many employees are rejecting the notion that AI will replace human roles, and many are foreseeing potential headcount growth. While this is promising – and contrary to what’s being said in the media – our findings make it clear that leaders must invest in the support and skills needed to maximize employee comfort and proficiency with AI.”

Upskilling employees to leverage AI’s potential

Although employers are now exposed to a plethora of new tech, employees still do not have the right skills to utilize it properly to seize the benefits.

In fact, nearly two-thirds of the organizations surveyed said employees will need either some new skills or a completely new set of skills to work with generative AI in their day-to-day roles by the end of 2024.

Almost everyone agreed that additional support would be required to onboard and train employees.

However, 41% of CEOs disagreed, believing that AI tools – such as Microsoft Copilot – will cover a larger amount of employees’ work, requiring them to need fewer skills.

“With Avanade being an early adopter of using generative AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI, we’ve learned that targeted AI capabilities enablement needs to be built into the learning paths of all employees,” Rotar adds.

“That’s why we’ve recently established our school of AI, to provide relevant training for all of our 60,000 professionals, as well as to encourage the sharing of best practices for responsible AI.”

Although the study highlights a general optimism around the future of AI in the workplace, 92% of employees feel their organization must shift to an AI-first operating model. Ideally, this needs to be done within the next 12 months to not only ensure customer expectations are met but to stay ahead of competitors, too.