New online research from YouGov into the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace has revealed that only one in ten office workers surveyed in the health sector believe AI will reduce the number of people in their team - the lowest count of any industry surveyed.
The research surveyed 2,010 UK office workers to unveil exactly what they think about the advances in AI technology in relation to their jobs, and also looked at how business leaders think AI will change roles, to see if employers and employees have the same expectations.
The research found that 85% of office-based workers surveyed in the medical and health services industry say they don’t currently use any kind of AI in their current role, and that surprisingly almost half of the workers in this sector (49%) believe their employers wouldn’t be prepared to roll out any new AI technology in the next year.
Also surprisingly, less than half of the people surveyed (44%) said they would be more likely to trust decisions made by humans over technology, despite 62% admitting they don’t feel prepared for a wider roll out of AI as part of their current role within the next year.
Commenting on the results, Headspring’s CEO Gustaf Nordbäck says: “With much talk of how the ‘age of AI’ is set to take over the workplace, it’s interesting to see how this technology is being adopted in various industries in reality.
“Despite some common misconceptions about AI replacing human jobs in the future, those in the health and medical industry encouragingly see AI as an opportunity for growth and investment, with 39% believing their employer should invest in people and development before rolling out the technology, and 43% believing they should create a new role to manage it.”
Beyond the healthcare industry, around half (51%) of office workers surveyed nationally say they would be more likely to trust decisions made in relation to their current job by humans more than AI, with just over a quarter (26%) claiming to be likely to trust decisions made by both AI and humans equally.
Gustav continued, “In terms of the priorities, the workforce believe their leaders need to focus on before implementing AI, processes to manage the ethics of AI are high on the list, alongside effective communications.
“There is a high level of apprehension from the changes AI could bring, and therefore successful implementation of AI will require the business leaders to properly prepare their organisations and educate their staff before rolling out any changes”.
