The discussion about artificial intelligence in the workplace is dividing the German workforce: according to a survey of 511 employees conducted by the digital association Bitkom, half (51%) would like AI to take over boring routine tasks, while almost as many (46%) reject this.
Just under half (45%) of employees would like to have an AI as a personal assistant at work, but only 31% believe that an AI could actually take over tasks at their workplace. Conversely, 13% believe that an AI could completely replace them in their job in the future.
"In the coming years, artificial intelligence will change activities in practically all professions and reduce the workload for employees. AI will be integrated into existing technologies - in the office, for example. However, completely new applications will also emerge - for example in industrial manufacturing, healthcare or creative professions," says Bitkom President Dr. Ralf Wintergerst. "AI will primarily support people, for example by taking over repetitive tasks, pointing out possible errors or drawing important insights from large amounts of data."
Time savings and future viability are the biggest advantages of AI
Workers see the biggest advantage of using AI in the workplace as keeping companies fit for the future (50%). 47% say that it saves working time, 41% that it allows people to concentrate on more important tasks. Around a third believe that AI avoids human error (33%), enables faster and more precise problem analysis (31%) and increases employee motivation (30%). A quarter (26%) see cost savings as an advantage, while a fifth (21%) see lower resource consumption. Accelerated processes are cited as an advantage by 18%, while 12% hope that AI will bring expert knowledge to the company that would otherwise not exist. Only 9% expect AI to improve products and services and just 7% expect AI to enable completely new products and services. Almost a fifth (18%) of employees believe that AI has no advantages at all in the world of work.
Only one in ten sees disadvantages in the use of AI at work
In contrast, only 1% see no disadvantages to the use of AI in the workplace. Three quarters (77%) fear that AI will lead to job losses, 71% that the use of AI will make it unclear who is responsible for an error. And 66% are concerned that people will rely too much on AI in the future. Around two thirds (64%) also see the disadvantage of work losing its human dimension as a result of AI. And 63% believe it is unclear who receives the data that is used for AI.
Less widespread criticism is that AI is too complicated to use (24%) and that companies spend too much money on AI that is then wasted elsewhere (20%). 5% complain that AI mainly takes on the simple tasks that also offer a break from the workplace.
"Companies should enable employees to gain their own experience with AI. By teaching AI skills, the possibilities and limitations of the technology can be better understood," says Wintergerst.
Further information is available at www.bitkom.org.
