Survey: AI is more popular with employees than you might think

Judging by the continuing boom in AI adoption, corporations are deriving considerable value from the software. Yet what about their employees, the ones who are using it every day? Are they, as some claim, resentful of the intrusiveness of AI-enhanced tools and worried it will put them out of a job?

Not according to a new survey from MIT Sloan Management Review. The report, titled “Achieving Individual — and Organizational — Value With AI,¨ concludes that users are generally happy with AI, and the happier they are, the more the companies benefit from the technology.

 

Under the direction of MIT Sloan Management Review, Boston Consulting Group surveyed 1,741 respondents from companies that use AI software in more than 20 industries and 100 countries. The report interviews executives at companies including Land O’Lakes, Levi Strauss, LinkedIn, Estée Lauder, ExxonMobil, and Walgreens, and includes numerous mini case studies about AI deployments.

 

The survey found that 64% of respondents personally derive at least moderate value from using AI. These same respondents are 3.4 times as likely to be more satisfied in their jobs as employees who do not get value from AI. Only 8% of respondents are less satisfied because of AI.

AI is seen as more help than hindrance. (Source: MIT Sloan Management Review)

One of the key findings is that ¨personal value from AI happens when using AI leads to increased competency, autonomy, and relatedness.¨ AI tools ¨can help enhance individual autonomy in several ways: by helping individuals learn from past actions, by projecting the outcomes of current actions, by providing salient information about relevant past situations, and by offering feedback on the consequences of past actions that suggest ways to improve performance.¨

 

Another major theme is that positive individual perceptions of AI are critical for organizations to obtain value from AI. Organizations with employees who personally derive value from AI are said to be 5.9 times as likely to get significant financial benefits from AI compared with organizations where employees do not.

 

One interesting finding is that many users do not realize that many of the tools they use are enhanced with AI. Yet by determining the software used by each respondent, the researchers were able to clarify user perceptions.

 

Here are some other highlights from the MIT Sloan Management Review survey:

  • 60% of respondents consider AI tools to be ¨like a coworker.¨
  • Individuals who receive AI-based suggestions on improving their performance are 1.8 times as likely to derive value from AI as those who don’t.
  • Managers who lead by example, by using AI with their teams, are 3.4 times as likely to boost regular AI use. 
  • Use of AI to automate tedious work tends to improve job satisfaction.
  • Satisfaction with AI decreases if employees are required to add significant AI training duties to their workload.
  • Employees are 1.4 times as likely to get value from AI when organizations require them to use it.

AI-enhanced productivity tools such as the Leela AI video intelligence platform can help engage frontline employees in increasing productivity on the factory floor. Contact us to find out how.

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