Gen AI to drive a 50% productivity bump, but only if adopted strategically

The newest iteration of automation, Gen AI, could increase workplace productivity by a whopping 51% over the next seven years.

That’s according to new data from Hackett Group – the research also found that Gen AI could decrease HR operating costs by 44%.

These findings are confirmed by research from Pearson – the education company concluded that by 2026 Gen AI could save UK workers an impressive 19 million hours a week by automating and augmenting routine and repetitive tasks.

This figure was 78 million hours for US employees – the US population sits at 340,000 people, compared to 68 million for the UK.

The biggest productivity jumps in the next two years came from developing educational programs and policies (three million hours saved in the US, and 665,000 in the UK).

There are also efficiency benefits from using Gen AI to develop policies and procedures (1.7 million hours saved in the US) and explaining those policies and produces (380,000 hours saved in the UK).

But these huge productivity gains, according to Hackett Group, can only be reaped if Gen AI is implemented in a strategic way.

Here’s how to do that right for your organization.

Always have a plan for Gen AI at work

The first thing that HR teams need to do is “take the time to educate and inform the organization’s executive team regarding both the opportunities Gen AI presents as well as what is realistic for the organization” – that’s what Matthieu Forrest, Senior Manager, Human Resources Executive Advisory at The Hackett Group, told UNLEASH.

Only once HR has identified the enterprise-wide opportunities and readiness for AI, then the HR and the wider organization can jump in and experiment with use cases that works best for the business.

According to the Hackett Group, “key barriers to readiness that we typically see include outdated technology infrastructure, lack of an overall HR technology strategy, disparate data definitions across disparate systems, lack of data availability, and limited capacity and skills to implement the technology”, continues Forrest.

Sorting out these issues and challenges is essential before HR goes on to develop a strategic Gen AI roadmap and workplan for AI implementation within the workplace.

Pearson’s research delves into how learning and development needs to a core part of any Gen AI strategy.

Organizations need to invest in learning and development to enable employees to understand how they can use Gen AI effectively in their jobs, and what the benefits are.

To help here, it is essential for companies to develop a culture of learning and experimentation, encouraging employees to have a growth mindset when it comes to AI.

All of this mirrors the views shared by HR experts, like Josh Bersin and Ethan Mollick, at UNLEASH America just a fortnight ago.

HR, it is no longer good enough to just sit on the fence on AI – you have to take action, and be “a strategic advisor to the business”, if you want to reap the “truly plentiful” productivity rewards around Gen AI, according to The Hackett Group’s Forrest.