Six in 10 workers are excited about the possibilities of generative AI in the workplace, while four in 10 still have concerns. This is the result of a large survey by Salesforce.

60 percent of employees are optimistic about generative AI and the role of technology in the workplace of the future. Salesforce comes to this conclusion after surveying 11,035 employees in 11 countries, including the Netherlands but not Belgium. ChatGPT or the integration of similar technologies into the software from Microsoft, Google and Salesforce arouses positive curiosity among the majority of those surveyed.

Great help

In theory, the technology has great positive potential. We have already seen in numerous demos how generative AI can support employees in their daily tasks. No more sifting through emails, chat histories, and notes to determine the current status of a project: just ask an AI to go through that data and display a summary. And why wouldn’t the AI ​​also create a first version of a PowerPoint on the subject?

In order to derive added value from this, digital skills are required above all. 87 percent of those surveyed believe that such skills are more important today than a degree. That’s a bit of a problem today: AI skills aren’t that relevant right now. In the technology sector, 27 percent already say they need some form of AI skills. In healthcare and the public sector, this drops to eight and six percent, respectively. As the importance of AI grows in the future, it will be important to provide employees with a path to the right skills.

A large minority are afraid

AI will impact jobs and that also worries 42 percent of respondents. They fear that generative AI could make their job obsolete. On the one hand, that fear will be unfounded: those with the right skills to hone their own skills with AI will be able to deliver more and better work in less time.

On the other hand, it is clear that AI will indeed change in various industries how many people are needed to handle a given workload. When AI can write near-perfect social media posts with little extra input, it’s no surprise that a team of social media copywriters gets a little suspicious.

The numbers in the survey are hopeful, as a majority are currently ready to get started with AI themselves. However, there is a very large minority who fear for their jobs, and not without reason. In the future, it will not only be important to enrich such profiles with the right skills, but also to recognize that fewer people are actually required for certain tasks. A (social) solution is needed for this.