Lack of education creates AI disconnect in the workplace
Less than one-quarter of employees indicated they feel completely educated and trained on AI.
Artificial intelligence is part of today’s workplace, but employees are using AI tools differently than employers expect, according to a digital work trends report from Slingshot.
While employers envision AI helping employers with initial research on tasks and projects and to help them manage their workflow and analyze data, nearly two-thirds of employees say they are primarily leveraging AI to double check their work, according to the report. Slingshot attributed this disconnect to a lack of transparency and education around AI in the workplace.
Less than one-quarter of employees indicated they feel completely educated and trained on AI, the report found. Nearly three quarter of managers said they think their employees are at least adequately trained on AI, but only half of employees agree. There is also a gender gap in perception of AI training, with two-thirds of men feeling they are adequately trained in AI while only 44% of women feel the same.
Employers are more optimistic about the productivity benefits of AI than employees. Sixty percent of employers believe AI is significantly increasing employee productivity, compared with only 44% of employers who say they are seeing a significant increase in productivity. Ten percent of employees say AI is not increasing productivity at all.
For those who are achieving efficiencies with AI, the majority (79%) of employees say AI saves them 1-2 hours per day and 37% say it saves 3-4 hours per day. However, about one-quarter of workers are spending that time savings on non-work-related tasks, the report found.
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Data readiness is a significant barrier to companies’ use of AI, with nearly half of employers saying they have not implemented AI tools because their data is not ready. For many companies, this lack of data readiness means their data is siloed across departments, platforms and channels, instead of one centralized location, and teams don’t have access to it, said Slingshot.
Employees largely don’t believe their company’s data is ready to support AI either. Thirty-three percent of employers say their company would be ready to support AI if their company’s data was combed through for accuracy, and 32% say they need more training around data and AI before their company is ready.