Worried AI will steal your job? New data shows it could increase headcounts by 9%

As the use case for artificial intelligence at work continues to grow, the workforce has been left to wonder what all of that innovation would mean for their future at work. But new data indicates that AI will not be the job-killer many fear. 

Ninety-two percent of employees agree that in order to stay competitive their companies will have to shift to an AI-first approach in the next year, according to newly released research from IT solution provider Avanade. But rather than AI replacing jobs, 64% of business and IT leaders actually believe that AI will maintain or even increase the number of human roles at their organization in 2024, with most expecting headcount to increase by up to 9%.

"This is not about job replacement, it's about task replacement," says Erik Barnett, North American digital healthcare and life sciences lead for Avanade. "There's been so much conversation around the notion of replacing people's jobs when the data seems to prove and support that we still need people, just in different ways." 

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Fifty-two percent of employees say they trust that their company has the proper safeguards in place to preserve jobs as they expand on AI. According to Barnett, roles that require a lot of coding, transcription and data entry will see the most AI-driven innovation in the months ahead, and the need for employees with the same skills and expertise that can fact check a chatbot's work will continue to grow. 

"While AI will take some of the workload off of people's plates, there will be an audit and risk piece that will be increased as a result," Barnett says. "There will be a need for all those technology pieces to come together and be transmitted in a certain way for review. Connecting all those dots behind the scenes is an area where we see potential job increase." 

But presently, fewer than half of organizations have put in place a complete set of specific guidelines or policies for responsible use of AI, according to Avanade's research. Forty-nine percent of employees are not confident  that their organization's risk management processes are adequate for an enterprise-wide integration of generative AI. Additionally, most employees recognize that they will need additional education and training to best utilize these new tools. 

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"AI is like a whole new language," Barnett says. "Employees will need to know how to ask themselves, 'How does this impact what we're doing today?' and 'How do we expect that to evolve over time?' There will be a continual change in elements, but that's a good thing as long as I have the right tools." 

The task of addressing the skills gap will differ from company to company, according to Barnett. Most likely it will take a team effort among IT leaders, HR departments and even executive leadership. Organizations should be prepared for trial, error and iteration. 

"We're going to be using AI significantly in the next couple of years until it becomes more commonplace," he says. "But first we are going to go through this period of iteration where there will be some challenges along the way. And we will learn and make it better, but we need to accept that and rally around that to find the most responsible way to manage it."