How Deep into the Workplace is AI?

It can feel like AI is everywhere, especially with a constant concern that they're going to take our jobs. But new research by the Society of Human Resource Management, SHRM, shows only 41% of U.S. workers say they use AI for work purposes. Joining us now on the COGO News Live line is Vice President of Thought Leadership at SHRM, Dr. James Atkinson. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us on San Diego's Morning News. Yes, hi, good morning. Thank you for having me. Yeah, so we brought up that number, 41% of people actually using it in the workplace. How much has the adoption of AI changed the workplace over the past years? Is there a way for you to, you know, encapsulize that? Yeah, I think it's a great question. I think that 41% is both surprising and not surprising. If we go back just a few years ago, it was probably less than 5% are using AI. in the workplace because those tools weren't quite ubiquitous. But as we see now, that has really changed a lot. And there's actually quite a bit of variation across occupations and industries. So some places, it's being used everywhere within the particular occupations in some places, not as much. Are there certain types of workers who are more hesitant to embrace AI? I think the big piece is whether or not it really makes sense in your particular occupation. We are seeing AI transforming tasks across the board, but there are certain occupations, certain groups such as information workers, those in finance, professional scientific services, those are using it quite a lot in these information-rich. groups. And then certainly as we think about broad categories of work like accommodation, food services, more of the leisure industries, we don't see nearly as much of that uptake. You got to know that we have a... It's basically a theme here at Kogo, and that is guaranteed human. And we even include it every hour because we want to make sure people know that this is not AI generated. Exactly. But what I'm, as we talked to, go ahead. I just said I'm not a robot either. We're speaking with Vice President of Thought Leadership at Shirm, Dr. James Atkinson. What industries do you see this catching more steam than other industries? Yeah, so we definitely see this a lot in finance, insurance. Those particular industries, more than three and four workers are leveraging these AI tools quite regularly. And again, this makes sense. These are the types of industries that often have a lot of information that they're trying to sort through. And AI tools are really helpful in kind of cutting through all of that and looking for key themes and helping to automate some of that work.

We have to talk about AI taking jobs. We have to. I mean, we were just reporting that Visa cut 2,600 jobs in San Francisco this week. Google cut jobs for AI? Yes. Is this part of the reason that some workers are hesitant to embrace AI? Yeah, so it's really kind of interesting as you look at it. There is this fear that AI is coming for your job. And there is a reality that there will be some jobs displaced by this technology, just like there have been in other technological transformations. But we have some research to show that only about 5% of jobs total are at that highest risk for displacement due to AI. And what that means is that for the rest of those jobs, AI is much more about that job transformation rather than job displacements. And so it's really for employees. It's about understanding how this technology is being leveraged in your job and figuring out how you can use it within your job to improve your own efficiency and productivity. Yeah, very, very good point, especially for people who are driving into work on a Friday and wondering how they need to embrace AI or not. Dr. Thank you so much for joining us on San Diego's Morning News. Yes, well, thank you so much for having you today. All right. Vice President of Thought Leadership at Shirm, Dr. James Atkinson.