With the explosion in generative AI (GenAI) technology in recent years, observers have repeatedly been awed by the capabilities of this new technology, which can seemingly do just about anything humans can do, only much faster. That necessarily raises interesting questions about the impact of AI on human employment.
Interestingly, there can be a significant disconnect in the expectations of business leaders and workers. On the one hand, many business leaders see AI as having the potential to replace significant portions of the human workforce.
How Business Leaders View GenAI Impact
“Robots are likely to replace 50% of all jobs in the next decade, according to Kai-Fu Lee, founder of venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures and a top voice on tech in China,” reports Sophia Yan in an article for CNBC.
Yan reports that Lee has called AI the “singular thing that will be larger than all of human tech revolutions added together, including electricity, [the] industrial revolution, internet, mobile internet—because AI is pervasive.” It is, Lee says, “the decision engine that will replace people.”
This expectation—that half of human workers could be replaced by AI—contrasts markedly with data on employee expectations.
How Employees View GenAI Impact
Appcast, a recruitment marketing technology and services firm, recently announced findings from the “Decoding Global Talent 2024: Work Preferences in the Age of AI” report published by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), The Network, The Stepstone Group, and Appcast. The report found that American workers are largely unconcerned with the impacts of AI on their job security. Specifically, the data revealed that only 6% of U.S. workers are worried about their own job being eliminated due to AI.
This disconnect between business leaders and employees reveals a significant gap in expectations, meaning at least one of these groups is likely in for a rude awakening regarding the impact of AI. Either business leaders will find that they need to rely heavily on human labor for far longer than they had previously thought; or employees will find themselves rendered obsolete from a labor standpoint far earlier than expected.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
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