Workers aren't scared of AI taking their jobs, claims Oracle
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Robots enslaving humans is a common theme in science fiction, but it hasn't put people off having artificially intelligent bosses, according to research from Oracle.
The AI at Work study, conducted in partnership with research firm Future Workplace, found that most employees were ready to embrace AI at work, with 93% saying they would trust orders from a robot.
In fact, 79% of HR leaders and 60% of all employees believed that failing to use AI will have negative consequences on their own careers, as well as impacting their colleagues and their organisation overall.
“As this study shows, people are not afraid of AI taking their jobs and instead want to be able to quickly and easily take advantage of the latest innovations,” said Emily He, Oracle's senior vice president of marketing and human capital management.
“To help employees embrace AI, organisations should partner with their HR leaders to address the skill gap and focus their IT strategy on embedding simple and powerful AI innovations into existing business processes.”
Canvassing 1,320 respondents, a mix of HR leaders and employees, the research identified a large gap between the way people are using AI at home and at work. While 70% of people are using some form of AI in their personal life, only 6% of HR professionals are actively deploying the technology and only 24% of employees are currently using some form of AI at work.
Dan Schawbel, research director at Future Workplace, believes organisations need to take advantage of AI to stay relevant in the future job market.
“AI will enable companies to stay competitive, HR leaders to be more strategic and employees to be more productive at work. If organisations want to take advantage of the AI revolution while closing the skills gap, they will have to invest in AI training programmes,” he said.
“If employees want to stay relevant to the current and future job market, they need to embrace AI as part of their job.”
Gartner predicts that while AI will replace 1.8 million jobs by 2020, it will create 2.3 million jobs, while one in five workers will rely on AI to support their work by 2022. University of Oxford researchers estimate that 35% of UK jobs are at risk of automation over the next two decades.
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Keyword: Most employees would happily take orders from an AI boss