The new CIO’s mission: Champion employees’ use of AI

2024.05.05

While many businesses are already adopting or experimenting with AI and AI-enabled phones are starting to appear on the market, employees have mixed feelings about AI entering their workplaces, according to a new survey from IT solutions integrator Insight.

There is good news for companies deploying AI: According to the survey, 41% of employees said they are curious about AI, 31% are excited, and another 31% are hopeful, but at the same time, 35% said they are cautious about AI. , 26% are skeptical and 25% feel uncertain.

Nearly 75% of employees surveyed said they believe AI devices will make them more efficient, but 45% also expressed concern that AI will make their jobs less important to their employers, and 43% are worried that AI will make their jobs less important to their employers. And lose their job.

Workers worried about losing their jobs can take some comfort from the 2024 Stanford AI Index report, which found that while AI's capabilities are increasing, it cannot match humans in many complex cognitive functions, noted Daniel Barchi, CIO of CommonSpirit Health.

"This supports an almost 10-year-old adage that AI will not replace workers, but workers who use AI will replace those who don't," he added.

Reports emerged earlier this month that global banks and investment firms were considering replacing junior financial analyst positions with AI.

CIOs as AI enablers and coaches

The concerns expressed by employees in the survey indicate that CIOs need to be advocates for AI within their companies, said Arun Chandrasekaran, emerging technologies analyst at Gartner. CIOs should be "change agents" who "embrace the art of the possible." "They need to have a culture of experimentation," he said.

Barchi agreed, adding that one of the CIO's roles is to demystify AI, show how it will be helpful, and explain how organizations can adopt it safely and appropriately.

"CIOs are company executives and change agents first and technology experts second," he said. "As CIOs, our responsibility is certainly to fund and empower the development and safe implementation of AI tools in the workplace."

But IT leaders also have a critical role behind the deployment of AI tools and AI-powered devices, Insight's survey shows. Nearly half of respondents said they want their employers to provide training on AI devices, and 46% want their employers to develop guidelines and policies about the use of AI devices.

Chandrasekaran suggested that CIOs should work with their company's human resources department to provide AI training. He added that good CIOs will have a vision for the technology skills their company will need over the next three years or so.

Sam Ferrise, chief technology officer at Trinetix, said training employees on AI is critical. CIOs and chief technology officers must also set rules for using AI and address or mitigate potential risks and ethical issues.

He added: “Integrating AI in the workplace requires a flexible approach, especially when it comes to aligning technological advancements with the well-being and development of employees.”

More than half of employees surveyed cited potential security vulnerabilities when asked if they had concerns about AI. Nearly half raised privacy or ethical concerns, and 40 in 10 were concerned about their employer spying on them while they use company-issued AI-enabled devices.

Opt-out options

Employees are also worried that their employers will force them to use AI-enabled devices. When their employer offers a newer smartphone, one-third of respondents want the option of a non-AI-enabled device.

Investigative questions about AI-enabled devices are timely. AI-enabled smartphones containing chips powerful enough to run AI applications have already entered the market. In its IT spending forecast released in April, Gartner predicted that 22% of all smartphones shipped this year will be AI-enabled, rising to 32% by 2025 and 56% by 2026.

The same Gartner forecast, using survey results from late 2023, found that 55% of companies plan to deploy AI or machine learning tools by the end of the year. Gartner analyst John-David Lovelock believes this timeline is ambitious for most companies.

Rob Green, chief digital officer at Insight, said the survey results, which show employees are both excited and worried about AI, appear to reflect attitudes toward the new technology over the years. For example, he points out that the dot-com bubble went from tremendous hype to post-bubble cynicism to proof of the viability of online business models.

"Every new cycle like this comes with enthusiasm and apprehension. With GenAI, there's even more enthusiasm. This is something we're going to leverage to drive productivity," he said.