Have you come up with a plan to provide generative AI training for employees?
According to a study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), 86% of respondents believe they will need training to sharpen their skills.
However, only 14% of frontline employees say they have gone through any upskilling to date, compared with 44% of leaders, the study results indicated.
The study, titled AI at Work: What People Are Saying, is based on a survey of more than 12,800 employees from the executive suite to the front lines across industries in 18 countries around the world, to understand how the evolution of AI has impacted the workplace, BCG said.
The 10-20-70 rule
The companies that capture the most value from AI follow the 10-20-70 rule, BCG pointed out.
“According to the rule, 10% of their AI effort goes to designing algorithms, 20% to building the underlying technologies, and 70% to supporting people and adapting business processes,” said Vinciane Beauchene, a BCG managing director, partner and coauthor of the research.
Upskilling is essential and must be done continuously and at the same time it should go beyond learning how to use the technology and allow employees to adapt in their roles as activities and skill requirements evolve, Beauchene added.
Responsible AI
While employees are concerned about their jobs being eliminated by generative AI, 71% of respondents believe the rewards of GenAI outweigh the risks, BCG said.
However, respondents also want the risks to be managed—79% of all respondents believe that AI-specific regulations are necessary, representing a marked shift in attitudes toward government oversight of technology, the firm pointed out.
Rather than waiting for government regulation to be enacted, many companies are developing and deploying their own responsible AI frameworks to manage this powerful emerging technology in a way that aligns with organisational purpose and ethical values, BCG noted.
Employee views on the effectiveness of these programmes vary widely, the study indicated.
While 68% of leaders feel confident about their organisation’s responsible use of AI, a mere 29% of frontline employees believe their companies have implemented adequate measures to ensure AI is used responsibly, BCG said.
Generative AI training for employees: The bottom Line for leaders
The BCG report also outlines the following three key recommendations for leaders as they navigate their organisation through the AI revolution and implement generative AI training for employees.
Ensure that there are spaces for responsible AI experimentation. Comfort levels with technology play a key role, and the more regularly employees use AI and GenAI, the more they recognise its benefits—as well as its limitations and risks.
Invest in regular upskilling. Given the pace at which technology is evolving, organisations cannot treat upskilling as a one-off effort.
They need to invest in training to help employees prepare for changes in their work and help them succeed in their evolving roles.
Prioritise building a responsible AI programme. Employees want guidance and reassurance that their organisations are approaching AI and GenAI ethically, and leaders want to be able to help frame emerging AI regulations.
Study result highlights
- When asked about AI’s impact on work, 52% of all respondents ranked optimism as one of their top two sentiments, a 17-point jump from 2018 when this survey was last conducted. Concern saw the steepest decline compared with five years ago, falling from 40% to 30%.
- Within organisations, senior leaders, who are more frequent users of generative AI, are more optimistic and less concerned about it than frontline employees.
- While 62% of leaders are optimistic about AI, only 42% of frontline employees share that view. And 62% of regular users of generative AI are optimistic about it, compared with 36% of non-users.
- A majority of leaders (80%) report that they use generative AI tools regularly, compared with just 20% of frontline employees. Further, frontline employees made up the largest percentage of nonusers (60%) of generative AI tools overall.
- Sentiments about AI in the workplace also vary by geography. The most optimistic are Brazil (71%), India (60%), and the Middle East (58%).
- Meanwhile, the least optimistic are the US (46%), the Netherlands (44%), and Japan (40%). The geographies most concerned about AI are the Netherlands (42%), France (41%), and Japan (38%), while the least concerned are the Middle East (25%), Brazil (19%), and India (14%).
