Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

Written by: Martin Dale Bolima, Tech Journalist, AOPG

The fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the world of work has already been established.

The big question now is how much AI is shaping the workplace.

And, if Slack’s latest research, “AI at Work: Unpacking the Data on AI Use in the Workplace,” is any indication, AI’s role at the workplace is growing—and it is leading to wider adoption across industries.

Specifically, 1 in every 4 desk workers admitted to having used AI tools at work as of January 2024. This is in contrast to the 1 in every 5 desk workers who have used AI tools as of September 2023 and represents a 24% increase in just three months.

Rather unsurprisingly, AI use is more pervasive in tech-heavy verticals, like IT (where 43% of workers say they use AI tools) and software engineering (39%). But AI use is growing in other industries as well, according to Slack’s research, with desk workers in the marketing (37%), sales (23%), and customer support (22%) verticals starting to leverage AI and automation.

It also appears that those using AI are reaping some impactful benefits, with 80% admitting that AI is improving their productivity in the workplace. And it shouldn’t be surprising as AI can provide significant value in a variety of ways, including automating workflows, assisting with writing tasks, summarising reports, and learning about new topics.

AI—and the automation it enables—can potentially help employees refocus their attention and energy on higher-value work. The resulting ripple impact in this case figures to be huge, given how Slack found that desk workers, on average, spend 41% of their working hours doing “low value, repetitive work” or performing tasks that “lack meaningful contribution to their core job functions.”

So, imagine the amount of high-value work that employees can do if they can devote their time solely to these critical tasks.

Slack Finds Disparate Perspectives Between Executives and Employees

Surprisingly, though, there are mixed sentiments about the idea of AI and automation assisting workers in doing their jobs. While 42% say they are excited about working alongside AI, 27% expressed concerns about it and 31% admitted to being ambivalent to the notion of using AI. These concerns and the ambivalence of some are to be expected when juxtaposed with doomsday scenarios of AI potentially taking over jobs—even if evidence suggests it is not. At least not yet. Maybe never.

Despite these mixed feelings on AI at the worker level, it appears higher-ups are more welcoming of this innovation, with 81% of executives revealing to Slack a sense of urgency to integrate AI tools into their respective organisations. This sense of urgency is buoyed by expectations of AI increasing employee efficiency and productivity, enabling innovation of products and services, facilitating data-driven decision-making, and reducing expenses.

Unfortunately, in this haste to integrate AI into the scheme of things, executives might be leaving employees in the dark as to the proper way of utilising AI.

The “AI at Work: Unpacking the Data on AI Use in the Workplace” report by Slack found that nearly half of the workers surveyed (43%) have received no guidance whatsoever on how to use AI tools at work, when to use them, and for what tasks. A third (33%) said they have gotten limited permission to use AI at work, while 13% admit to having received blanket permission to use AI. The remaining 11% said there is a total ban on using AI in their organisation—a clear minority in this Age of AI.

An Enterprise-Wide AI Strategy Is an Imperative Now

These findings—particularly this lack of guidance on AI use—are worrying. AI is best implemented following a top-down approach where upper management establishes specific guidelines and use cases for employees to follow. This way, everyone is clear on how to utilise this innovation, thus guaranteeing that it is used correctly and responsibly—and without exposing the organisation needlessly.

Thus, according to Slack, there is a need for company executives to:

• Clarify guidelines. Upper management must let employees know what is expected of them vis-à-vis their use of AI, particularly which AI tools they are allowed to use and for what tasks—and the extent they can use it.
• Embrace experimentation. Employees must be allowed to familiarise themselves with AI and what it can do to grow their comfort level—and ultimately embrace it for work.
• Promote peer-to-peer and team-based learning. There will be leaders and laggards when it comes to using AI at work, and there should be a system put in place to enable the former to train the latter—or at least share with them best practices in using AI.

With all signs pointing to a continuing AI revolution in the workplace, as Slack found out, organisations will need to figure out the best ways to leverage this exciting, game-changing innovation. And it will have to start at the very top, where the urgency to integrate AI into business workflows must intersect with the implementation of clear, specific strategies on best practices, a culture of continuous learning, and the right platforms—Slack AI, for example—that will leverage AI and all its capabilities.

Otherwise, the full benefits of AI might prove elusive. In this Age of AI, that could mean the difference between leaping forward and getting left behind.

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