Contrary to its reputation, a new report found that artificial intelligence in the workplace is likely to confirm employees’ expertise, potentially clearing the way for greater career and work-life balance autonomy.
A just-released report from the Transamerica Institute, the research nonprofit offshoot of the insurance company, found that while everybody is worried about how AI will transform work, bosses are also stressing about employee mental health, productivity and how their staff manage the intersection of professional and personal responsibilities.
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The study concentrated on employer retirement benefits and supports, including expectations for career paths and the nature of employment. Even as AI infuses enormous career uncertainty, one thing is clear: AI requires human-installed and maintained guardrails, Catherine Collinson, CEO and president of the institute, told Straight Arrow.
Perhaps ironically, AI elevates workers’ knowledge — of the jobs they do and of how they can best manage the spectrum of all their responsibilities, at home and at work — to the level of expertise. AI can speed and streamline existing processes, but it requires a human reality check to manage actual decisions, risk and to identify opportunities for corporate, career and personal growth, Collinson said.
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“Workflow and process are central to this success,” she said. “If you’re really going to leverage this technology, you have to understand workflow.”
She hasn’t found any employer actually deputizing decision-making responsibility to AI tools. This means that employees who can extract real-life direction from the flood of AI information are the ones who will make the most of the evolving workplace, she said.
Still, many employees are worried: 45% of people in the middle class who are not retired are concerned that AI and robotics are making their job skills no longer needed. The fear is most pronounced in women: 48% of women and 41% of men say they have these concerns, and 16% of women and 13% of men reported they are “very” worried.
“For companies, a lot of damage can be done in a short amount of time” with supercharged AI, Collinson said. “That’s where the whole observing, auditing and quality assurance is so critical.”
The Transamerica report found that employers are less debating return-to-office mandates and instead are flummoxed as to how to grant power to employees to craft their own work schedules and locations. Combined with the need to guide AI-produced material, it’s possible that employers will recognize that employees are best positioned to design their own work arrangements, rather than squeeze into corporate molds.
The report also reinforced findings by tech research firm Gartner, released earlier this year. Gartner’s Chief Human Resource Officer report found that organizations are not rising to the need to set guidelines and clear expectations around the use and productivity gains of AI, terming the daily chaos “symptoms of disordered AI.” Organizations are not differentiating the skills of using AI for particular tasks from the skills of using AI to further team and corporate goals, Gartner found, undermining bosses’ goals of using AI to work smarter and faster.
Employers have a heavy lift to actually translate their productivity aspirations to measurable gains, said Collinson, given that, so far, the noise about AI is sparking productivity-dragging fear and confusion.
“It’s not that you have to work harder and faster” to outrun AI, she said. “It’s about implementing the technology to make people more efficient so they can produce more in the same time without heroic efforts.”
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