The rhetoric around AI in the workplace can be ambiguous, with automation, algorithms, productivity, efficiency, decision-making, skill-up and lists.
Between rapid technological advances and delayed adoption, there is continuing uncertainty about how AI will reshape the future of work.
For example, many employees are concerned about their worth. Executives are immediately fascinated by the potential for profit and are worried about catching up to their competitors. Investors and company boards are unhappy with the losses that have already been incurred from not moving fast enough.
Consulting companies are often at the heart of this. At least from the start, they have positioned themselves as go-to experts to help businesses understand and navigate this latest wave of technology.
But their work is often as unclear as the technology itself. To make that clear, Business Insider spoke to EY's new chief technology officer and American chief technology officer about what AI really means for workers in 2025.
First of all, are people always losing their jobs?
There are comments about the intense unemployment rate, which is what we intend to plunge into the next Great Fear pression. So I think it's interesting to think about these options. That's not what I'm seeing.
Broadly speaking, what will we see from next year's AI integration?
Next year, I think that tools like these capillots, ChatGpts, private and public models will increase, and will insert some AI features into existing enterprise applications to increase productivity and efficiency.
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How is EY helping clients integrate AI this year?
We have a lot to think about what we call the next generation of enterprise applications. The interface presents people what they need based on their role, providing important AI insights and making them act. AI agents generate proposals, humans validate and approve them.
We're piloting this with some major clients now and it has been an incredible success. That's how we think about convergence of the digital and human labor. Not only do they manage them together, but they also create systems where AI augments people in a seamless way.
Please give examples of these applications.
If I'm a cruise director on a cruise ship, there are many things that will affect how guests enjoy the ship.
Makeup, weather, how many days for people on the ship – if you are spending a day at the sea, or if you go to the harbor – all of that. There's data out there about what happens and how guests behave. I mean their purchasing activities, like that, they like to hang out.
This allows you to use AI agents and their information to understand and predict what will actually happen. For example, you know that tomorrow's weather will be bad. And it's a day at the sea. We know how it affects people's movements and product consumption, and how it historically affects whether it is a product, food or beverage.
Therefore, we recommend that you take half of the people in this venue and move to this venue. You know what demand will be like, so we recommend moving your product so you don't run out of use. In anticipation of this, we recommend rearranging people to do different things. AI turns and lists it, automatically constructs the process.
The person in the loop says, “Okay, that makes sense” or “I want to change this piece.”
This is through a very visual and lovely interface. They click and there is a chain of orchestration where people are notified, leadership is notified, and there are changes to the ship's supply chain.
What is the value of upskills here? How much do employees need to learn about AI?
They just know that there are screens and applications that say, “How much do you have about this now” and “How many things are you here to come inbound?” They don't need to know how technology works. This idea of upskilling the entire workforce to use AI – I think it's a bit ridiculous.
How do you help businesses think through these questions?
You need to see the function – reconsider it. It also dovetails on the people's parts, right? Not only are they providing AI-enabled technology, they are also beginning to rethink how they work and how they can become more efficient at work, allowing them to provide more value and capabilities.
