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Key Takeaways
- More than eight in 10 companies are expanding their use of AI, with most leaders betting on productivity and innovation gains.
- Three in four employees are fine with AI as a coworker, but just 30% are okay with it acting as their boss
- However, they don’t want to be managed by AI or for the technology to make decisions about recruitment, pay, and compliance.
- The consensus among employees is that the technology is best served helping humans to do a better job rather than telling them what to do.
People have accepted working with artificial intelligence (AI) and sometimes even welcome it, provided the technology doesn’t become their boss or make decisions about pay, recruitment, and compliance, research commissioned by Workday has found.
The enterprise software company, with the help of Hanover Research, reached out to 2,950 decision-makers and software implementation leaders worldwide. The responses revealed that adoption of AI systems capable of performing tasks, making decisions, and interacting autonomously or semi-autonomously within a defined scope is widespread and gradually gaining support from staff. However, they were also clear about where to draw the line.
Widespread Adoption
It’s no secret that companies are investing in AI. According to Workday’s research, 82% of organizations are expanding their use of AI, or 96% if you include testing it on a small scale to determine its effectiveness. Just 1% of companies don’t have any plans to use the technology.
When asked why they were spending money on AI, the most popular response was to reduce workloads. Other key motivations included faster innovation and cutting costs.
Important
While Workday found that companies are impatient to see a return on their AI investments—over half the organizations surveyed expect AI investments to pay off within 12 months—recent MIT research reveals that 95% of generative AI pilots fail to deliver a measurable return on investment.
Where Employees Draw the Line
How do employees feel about the growing presence of AI in the workplace? That depends.
Workday found that three-quarters of humans are happy to work alongside AI agents and receive recommendations on how to improve from the technology. Interestingly, 63% of respondents even claimed they prefer working for companies that invest in AI, saying it gives them a competitive edge. This was particularly the case among younger people.
The positive vibes go away, though, when the topic shifts to AI acting as a manager or making certain decisions. Seven in 10 humans said they aren’t comfortable with AI managing them, six in 10 said they aren’t comfortable with AI making critical financial decisions, and 76% said they would be uncomfortable with AI operating in the background without their knowledge.
Meanwhile, the survey’s respondents claimed they trusted AI more to make decisions related to IT infrastructure, technology provisioning, and skills development. However, for recruitment, pay, resolving conflict, risk management, and legal compliance, they want humans calling the shots.
The Benefits and Challenges of AI in Management
Employers largely view AI as a means to do a better job and save money. Key benefits in management include analyzing vast amounts of data quickly, detecting issues in real time, and reducing subjective bias and poor decision-making driven by emotions.
However, the risks are also plentiful. Reasons AI wouldn’t make a good boss include a lack of empathy and understanding of human emotions, inheriting bad habits from historical data and how it was programmed, difficulties accounting for who is responsible for its mistakes, potential issues adhering to privacy laws and rights, job displacement, increased work pressure, and employee resistance.
The human employees surveyed were clear that they wouldn’t be happy about AI managing them. Ignoring those concerns would be bad for morale, potentially lowering productivity and prompting an exodus of talent.
Another theory is that initial skepticism will disappear. Workday’s survey also revealed that trust in AI appears to grow with exposure. Just 36% of employees trusted their employer to use AI responsibly when they first started experimenting with it. However, trust steadily builds as people get used to working with it, with the most accustomed having 95% faith in the technology.
The Bottom Line
The key takeaway from Workday’s survey is that organizations are increasingly relying on AI, and employees are generally okay with this, especially those with prior experience working with the technology, provided it doesn’t become their boss and start making decisions about recruitment and salaries.
The power of AI, the survey says, lies in its ability to amplify human capabilities, handle the heavy lifting, and essentially make it easier for people to make smarter decisions, offer creative suggestions, and help you do a better job—not be the boss of you.
