Survey of Over 10,000 Workplaces: The Almighty AI in the Eyes of Bosses Makes Workers Feel More Frustrated

“Why Do Bosses Love Using AI So Much?”
“Why Am I Even More Tired After Using AI?”
It’s almost been two years since the AI whirlwind, fueled by ChatGPT, began. In these nearly two years, the world seems to have been pressed by AI to accelerate, and workers have also been inevitably swept forward by AI.
Recently, a new survey covering over 17,000 respondents in 15 countries worldwide has revealed the complex and contradictory feelings of workers in the AI-dominated workplace: Bosses are full of expectations for AI, hoping to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and innovate. Meanwhile, workers, after silently embracing AI, have mixed feelings about it.
Bosses Are All In on AI, But Workers Are Losing Enthusiasm
According to the survey data from August 2024, 99% of bosses plan to invest in AI in the next year, and 97% eagerly want to apply AI to their businesses. “All in AI” has almost become a universal strategy for bosses globally.
Bosses envision numerous benefits from using AI: cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, work innovation, and decision-making support, making it a multi-purpose assistant.
However, while bosses are enthusiastically “All in on AI,” workers are losing their enthusiasm for it.
When AIGC first emerged, everyone imagined how great it would be to have AI help with work. The data shows that 76% of workers hope to become AI experts and aspire to enhance their AI skills. By August 2024, 36% of workers globally use AI in their work, an increase of 4% compared to March.
However, as more workers use AI, they gradually become disillusioned with it. In the past three months, the proportion of workers excited about AI helping them with work has decreased by 6% (from 47% to 41%). This is the first time since the emergence of AIGC that there has been a decline in AI enthusiasm in multiple surveys conducted by Slack Workforce Lab, the publisher of this questionnaire.
Specifically, varying degrees of cooling have occurred in France, the United States, Japan, and the UK, with French employees’ excitement about AI-powered work decreasing by 12% (from 53% to 41%).
Bosses Hope AI Will Empower Work, Workers Prefer Using AI for Leisure
Indeed, AI’s work skills, from text-to-text to text-to-image and text-to-video, continue to evolve, seemingly capable of helping replace humans in completing some daily tasks.
However, when it comes to using AI for work, workers consider not only whether AI can do it but also many practical factors in the workplace environment. They are uncertain about the collateral effects of using AI.
According to the survey, 48% of workers currently do not dare to tell their bosses that they have used AI in tasks such as writing emails, organizing data, and designing PPTs.
The reason workers secretly use AI but dare not disclose it is mostly due to their anxiety about their bosses’ opinions: On the one hand, workers worry that they may be perceived as incompetent and even anxious that AI might take their jobs; On the other hand, they also worry that their bosses might think they are slacking off.
Meanwhile, the head of Slack Workforce Lab said that workers also fear that after using AI to save time, their bosses might think they can complete tasks faster, leading to an increase in their workload and making them even busier.
When asked, “What do you most want to do with the time saved by using AI?” Workers don’t actually want to use it for work. But when asked the reverse, “What do they actually do with the time saved by using AI?” Workers’ answers involve handling more work-related content.
Undoubtedly, humans have entered the AI era, and AI has penetrated every aspect of our work and life. In these two years surrounded by AI, have you become busier and more tired, or have you become more focused on your life and your inner self? Welcome to leave your comments.