Several factors can influence AI adoption in the workplace, including the technology’s complexity, concerns about job displacement, cost considerations, and the readiness of businesses to integrate AI into their operations. While artificial intelligence has shown great promise in a variety of industries, its full potential may not have been realized at the time. According to new research, the United Kingdom faces a growing divide between organizations that have invested in new, artificial intelligence-enabled digital technologies and those that have not.
According to a nationally representative survey conducted by the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit), only 36% of UK employers have invested in AI-enabled technologies such as industrial robots, chat bots, smart assistants, and cloud computing in the last five years. The survey was conducted between November 2021 and June 2022, and a second wave is currently underway.
The research was led by academics at the University of Leeds, with colleagues from the Universities of Sussex and Cambridge, and discovered that only 10% of employers who had not already invested in AI-enabled technologies planned to do so in the next two years.
Our findings suggest there is a need to focus on a different policy challenge. The workplace AI revolution is not happening quite yet. Policymakers will need to address both low employer investment in digital technologies and low investment in digital skills, if the UK economy is to realise the potential benefits of digital transformation.
Professor Mark Stuart
The new data also indicates a growing skills shortage. Despite the fact that 75% find it difficult to recruit people with the necessary skills, less than 10% of employers predicted a need to invest in digital skills training in the coming years. Almost 60% of employers said no one in their organization had received formal digital skills training in the previous year.
“A mix of hope, speculation, and hype is fueling a runaway narrative that the adoption of new AI-enabled digital technologies will rapidly transform the UK’s labor-market, boosting productivity and growth,” said lead researcher Professor Mark Stuart, Pro-Dean for Research and Innovation at Leeds University Business School. These hopes are frequently accompanied by concerns about job losses and even existential risk.
“However, our findings suggest there is a need to focus on a different policy challenge. The workplace AI revolution is not happening quite yet. Policymakers will need to address both low employer investment in digital technologies and low investment in digital skills, if the UK economy is to realise the potential benefits of digital transformation.”
“At a time when AI is shifting digitalisation into high gear, it is important to move beyond the hype and have a debate that is driven by evidence rather than fear and anecdote,” said Stijn Broecke, Senior Economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This new report from the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit) does just that, providing a nuanced picture of the impact of digital technologies on the workplace, emphasizing both the risks and the opportunities.”
The main reasons for investing were improving efficiency, productivity and product and service quality, according to the survey. On the other hand, the key reasons for non-investment were AI being irrelevant to the business activity, wider business risks and the nature of skills demanded.
There was little evidence in this survey to suggest that investing in AI-enabled technology results in job losses. Indeed, digital adopters were more likely to have increased their employment in the five years preceding the survey. As policymakers scramble to keep up with new technological developments, researchers are now urging politicians to focus on the facts of AI in the workplace.
As AI technology advances, businesses may find more ways to use it to boost productivity, efficiency, and innovation in the workplace. If you have access to more recent data or survey results, it is best to use them to gain a more current understanding of the current state of the workplace AI revolution.
