Executives have indicated that 40% of their workforce will need to be reskilled within the next three years in order to take proper advantage of artificial intelligence (AI).
Respondents ranked adaptability and time management over the need for STEM proficiency when asked to rank the most important skills for people across their workforce.
The results were highlighted by IBM as key to the changing workforce, in which people skills could be more important for employees than technical skills, and versatility will be crucial in order to embrace AI tools.
An average of 87% of executives indicated that roles will be augmented by AI instead of replaced by it, but this figure varied by role division. Almost all executives surveyed (97%) expected procurement roles to change but not be replaced by AI, compared to just 73% regarding marketing.
IBM’s Augmented work for an automated, AI-driven world study received responses from 3,000 C-suite executives from 28 countries between December 2022 and January 2023. It was carried out in collaboration with Oxford Economics.
While executives may see AI as a technology to augment rather than replace the workforce, employees may fear they will be replaced by AI systems in the long term.
The authors noted that executive respondents ranked impactful work lower than many other factors when asked what was important to their workforce, indicating a dissonance over automation and priorities that executives will have to correct in order to effectively reskill.
“If leaders don’t plan human-machine partnerships with impactful work in mind, they might miss opportunities that will help people work smarter and more strategically,” they wrote.
“As we embark on a future where AI becomes an integral part of the workforce, our task is to adequately equip our employees for this key technology shift,” said Andi Britt, senior partner, UKI Talent Transformation Leader at IBM Consulting.
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“Our research reveals that improving technology literacy for employees is a top talent issue, according to business leaders. With 41% of the UK workforce expected to be reskilled as a result of implementing AI and automation over the next three years, it is crucial that executives are able to lead their workforce through this shift and enable them to succeed in the new era of generative AI.”
The need for reskilling emphasized in IBM’s study contrasts with a new report commissioned by AMD and conducted by Edelman Data & Intelligence.
It considered responses from 2,500 IT decision-makers across May 2023, out of which 75% expressed hope that AI could help reduce work pressures and increase productivity.
The majority of these AI optimists (75%) stated that not investing in AI is a bigger risk than the challenges of its implementation, as firms that do not could be eclipsed by their competitors.
Of those that have already prioritized the deployment of AI, 90% also registered clear improvements in workforce efficiency.
“There is a benefit to being an early AI adopter,” said Matthew Unangst, senior director, commercial client and workstation at AMD.
“IT leaders are seeing the benefits of AI-enabled solutions, but their enterprises need to outline a more focused plan for implementation or risk falling behind. Open software ecosystems, with high-performance hardware, are essential, and AMD believes in a multi-faceted approach of leveraging AI IP across our full portfolio of products to the benefit of our partners and customers.”
Despite this, almost half (46%) of the respondents stated their organizations aren’t adequately equipped to implement AI, despite widespread enthusiasm for how much it will transform the workplace.
The majority of respondents also indicated that it will be more than a year until their organization prioritizes AI. Just 19% stated that they would do so within a year, versus 44% predicting it they will take between one and five years to properly implement AI.
Overall 86% of respondents stated that their firms would prioritize the technology in the next five years.
“There is a benefit to being an early AI adopter,” said Matthew Unangst, senior director, commercial client and workstation at AMD.
“IT leaders are seeing the benefits of AI-enabled solutions, but their enterprises need to outline a more focused plan for implementation or risk falling behind. Open software ecosystems, with high-performance hardware, are essential, and AMD believes in a multi-faceted approach of leveraging AI IP across our full portfolio of products to the benefit of our partners and customers.”
A mix of optimism and concern was also registered when it came to the potential for AI in the security space.
Seven in ten respondents said AI could help improve the automated detection of threats, but almost the same number (67%) registered concern that AI could also bring about new security risks.
