AI will likely affect your work. We still don’t know when or how much, or exactly how we feel about it.
Most Americans agree AI will have a major impact on workers in the next 20 years, say AI will do more harm than help, according to new Pew Research Center survey At the same time, most Americans believe AI will have little or no impact on individuals.
In other words, AI hurts you, but I don’t.
It’s a similar sentiment Vox is talking about with employees who have introduced generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Bing, and Bard into their workplaces. This software allows knowledge workers to save time and avoid tedious tasks so that they can write code faster, create business notes and marketing copy in just a few prompts. It is said that it will be. But to some, these workers may be at risk of having other people’s jobs eliminated by his AI, but thanks to their familiarity with those tools, they can I felt that the job was likely to be safe.
The refrain was often a version of this Tweet: “AI won’t replace you. People who use AI will.” I feel uncomfortable with the type of AI that does. This could be a problem depending on how exactly AI is integrated into the workplace.
The truth is, while AI tools show an amazing ability to replicate high-paying human jobs, whether it will result in fewer human jobs, or simply lead to different, and possibly better, jobs. Still do not know. A recent study by OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT and its more advanced successor GPT-4, found that high-paying jobs requiring a degree were most exposed to the capabilities of these tools. The study does not say whether these jobs will disappear or increase with technology.
According to Julia Dhar, managing director, partner and global leader of the Boston Consulting Group’s Institute for Behavioral Sciences, over the past decade other forms of AI have been embedded in a variety of workplace applications, both manual and computer-assisted. work has been done. In manufacturing, that means AI deciding when to start producing one product rather than another based on sales and other demand forecasts. In services, it appears in call centers and prompts employees to offer different responses based on the progress of the interaction and the tone of the person’s voice.
But so far, the penetration of AI in the workplace remains low, owing to the costs and technical capabilities required to scale AI in the workplace. Dhar sees this as an opportunity to see how AI can be used in the workplace to benefit both businesses and employees.
“I don’t think we’re focusing enough on public conversations about trust,” Dahl said. “We’ve talked about trustworthy AI, but we’ve talked very little about trust between employers and employees, and how this can be an opportunity to build trust rather than destroy it. We hardly spoke.”
A Pew survey of more than 11,000 Americans suggests a lack of trust. People prefer certain kinds of AI at work, but a lot of AI is edgy, especially when used for hiring, firing, and monitoring.
According to Pew’s report, 71% opposed the idea of AI making the final hiring decision (only 7% agreed), and 55% opposed using AI to make firing decisions. Several said they never wanted to be used to review applications or decide who gets promoted. I felt that I lacked the human touch that would allow me to judge the likelihood of candidates not doing well, and the likelihood of a successful relationship with a colleague.
The use of AI has already become commonplace in so-called applicant tracking software that most major companies use in their recruitment process. This ubiquitous technology allows companies to automatically screen large numbers of online applications using keywords and criteria (do you have a college degree, are there gaps in your resume, etc.). But many, including employers themselves, fear that these broad strokes will weed out good candidates altogether.
Jason Schlotzer, an associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, found that more than half of HR managers are using, or soon plan to use, AI-based technologies in their hiring. He says AI is creeping into more advanced levels of the hiring process. For example, in the first interview, the candidate answers the employer’s questions on her webcam, and the employer uses her AI to analyze her responses and body language to decide whether to hire her. increase. They do not advance to the next round.
“Our students are so prevalent that they’re trained by Career Services on how to handle these interviews,” added Schloetzer.
In a way, these practices encourage workers and candidates to use AI for themselves. Many people use tools like ChatGPT to write their resumes and cover letters. This is partly to ease the chores, but it’s also a good way to fight back in the bot-to-bot recruitment process.
Unsurprisingly, most people Pew surveyed opted for more spooky methods, such as monitoring their movements and facial expressions while at work, or tracking when they were at their desks and exactly what they were doing. I am against using AI in This kind of technology is becoming more and more common in the workplace, from Amazon’s warehouses to its offices. Since the pandemic started, as a boss, I’ve been feeling uneasy about remote work and quietly quitting to try to be productive. However, as The Wall Street Journal reported, there is little evidence that the technology works, and some suggests it may even be counterproductive, causing people to become demoralized and less productive. . These so-called productivity trackers have also seen an increasing number of people try to outsmart them with hacks like the Mouse Jiggler (a device that allows you to physically move your mouse on your desk when it’s unoccupied). Connected.
Vox worked with professional services workers at a medium-sized marketing firm who used activity monitoring software to track keystrokes and mouse movements of remote workers and occasionally took pictures to confirm they were in front of their computers. I talked. An employee who asked not to be named to avoid getting in trouble at work said he found the software annoying but was developing ways to get around it. She browses her social media on her personal cell phone, never slacking on her for more than 10 minutes at a time, lest the software flag her boss.
All in all, she’s ambiguous and doesn’t think it will affect her productivity in any way. When she’s off, she’s really off because she believes she has a bright side of not doing any work other than her computer.
“I hate that I don’t hate it,” she said. It’s good for us,” she said.
But BCG’s Dhar cautions against such surveillance AI, saying it causes companies to “mistake activity for productivity.”
“It sends a message to people that it is often better to do the visible than to do the invisible hard work, such as human recognition, building relationships, and finding safety issues. I will,” she said.
For now, it’s impossible to predict exactly how AI adoption will affect the workplace.
Georgetown’s Schlotzer said it likely means that some jobs will be lost or added, but most likely many existing jobs will be reconfigured. What is certain is that significant use of AI in the workplace will eventually occur.
“I don’t think it’s worth discussing this,” Schloetzer said.
