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Diving overview:
- Employees who regularly use artificial intelligence experience a “paradox of pleasure,” with 67% reporting increased job satisfaction, but 41% also reporting increased cognitive load, according to a new study from Boston Consulting Group.
- The study found that AI can both improve and make jobs harder, with 42% of regular users in the field saying that AI saves them a full day of work time each week. However, 47% of respondents also reported spending more time processing AI than actually doing their job.
- Meanwhile, 72% of respondents said AI has significantly changed the skills expected on the job, and 30% said AI agents are already integrated into their workflows, more than double the number who said so last year.
Dive Insight:
The study found that AI is changing the workplace faster than companies have been changing it in the past. As a result, most companies don’t know how to turn the time saved into value for their organization.
“The first wave of AI was focused on personal productivity,” said Vinciane Beauchene, managing director and partner at BCG and co-author of the report. “The next wave will require us to transform collective work. Everyone is talking about AI replacing jobs, but in reality, it’s really about rethinking the added value of insiders.”
When it comes to adoption, 74% of non-managerial white-collar employees are now regular users, but 66% said they have not received meaningful guidance on how to use the time saved by using technology. More than half say they are not converting their time into meaningful work, meaning companies are not doing anything strategic with their extra time.
“Our research reveals a true management revolution in the AI era,” she said. “65% of managers and leaders now believe that agents will take over at least half of their jobs in the next three years, and frontline workers believe their jobs are evolving to empower AI management and guidance.”
The report found that even though the pace of AI adoption is accelerating, 52% of respondents said they still have a “limited understanding of what an agent is.” Additionally, oversight and accountability for AI has not kept pace with technology adoption.
“The joy equation will be rewritten within a year of using AI,” said Sylvain Duranton, global leader at BCG X and co-author of the report. “While the novelty of AI and enhanced cognitive capabilities stimulated excitement in the early days, that ‘AI honeymoon’ fades when strategy is not clear.”
He said employees will be successful if their AI strategy is clear and they understand it.
“Business value and employee enjoyment are not trade-offs,” says Duranton. “The organizations that capture the most business value are the ones whose employees enjoy their work the most.”
Still, managers and employees don’t always agree on AI timelines, according to a recent survey from Adecco Group. The study found that 45% of leaders expect to have AI agents in the workplace within a year, but only 30% of employees agree.
Meanwhile, the pressure is on. Nearly half of U.S.-based HR leaders recently surveyed by D2L in partnership with Morning Consult say AI is raising expectations for entry-level employees.
