Most workers would let a robot boss them around. Would you?
Despite reports of people fearing robots will soon take their jobs, a majority of people say they are ready and willing to embrace them and even take orders from them at work, according to a new study released on Thursday.
Oracle and research firm Future Workplace teamed up and polled more than 1,300 employees and human resource leaders about the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) at work and were surprised to find that most people are looking forward to embracing the technology soon.
“It turns out that workers see a lot of potential in AI making both their personal and professional lives better not worse,” Dan Schawbel, research director at Future Workplace and author of “Back to Human,” tells FOX Business.
Of those polled, many workers view AI as a way to eliminate routine tasks, increase their productivity and create a better employee experience overall.
Schawbel says the truth is that many people are getting accustomed to this type of technology at home, using virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri but then becoming frustrated when they come to work and have to do meaningless tasks again.
According to the report, 70% say they are using some form of AI in their personal life, while only 6% of human resource professionals are actively deploying it and only 24% of employees are currently using it throughout their daily job activities.
“The huge gap between consumer and enterprise adoption of AI was surprising. If the proliferation of mobile and digital technologies has taught business leaders anything, it should be that we all now expect the same experience when interacting with technology at work as we receive with services like Facebook, Apple and Google in our personal lives,” says Emily He, senior vice president of the human capital management cloud business group at Oracle.
He adds that she was also surprised by the disconnect between employees and business leaders about adopting AI.
“Employees were very enthusiastic about the potential of AI and saw a number of important benefits. In contrast, HR leaders seemed a lot more cautious,” she says.
Yet at the same time, while a majority of employees want more technology at work, more than 51% of them are concerned they will not be able to adjust to the rapid adoption of AI. What’s more, 72% of HR leaders said that their organization does not provide any form of AI training program currently.