Regardless of headlines warning that synthetic intelligence poses a profound threat to society, employees are curious, optimistic, and assured concerning the arrival of AI within the enterprise, and turning into extra so with time, in accordance with a latest survey by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

For a lot of, their emotions are based mostly on sound expertise. Though ChatGPT, the poster baby for generative AI functions, solely launched in November 2022, already 26% of employees say they use generative AI a number of occasions every week, whereas 46% have experimented with it at the least as soon as, BCG discovered.

BCG requested 12,898 frontline staff, managers, and leaders in giant organizations all over the world how they felt about AI: 61% listed curiosity as one in every of their two strongest emotions, 52% listed optimism, 30% concern, and 26% confidence. A smaller BCG survey 5 years in the past noticed 60% itemizing curiosity, 35% optimism, 40% concern, and 17% confidence. Rather a lot has occurred since that final survey on attitudes to AI in 2018. Again then, “AI was nonetheless rising and was not one thing many individuals used or noticed,” mentioned Vinciane Beauchene, BCG’s world chief for expertise and abilities, on a latest convention name to debate the survey findings. However after the pandemic shook up the world of labor, generative AI has flourished. “It’s the brand new regular: 80% of leaders declare they’re utilizing it on a weekly foundation,” she mentioned. “What was hanging for me was how ill-equipped corporations nonetheless are to cope with that.”

Familiarity breeds content material

The research additional discovered that the extra employees used AI instruments, the much less they have been involved and extra optimistic about their influence. Simply 22% of normal AI customers and 27% of uncommon customers mentioned they have been involved, in contrast with 42% of non-users. Alternatively, 36% of non-users mentioned they have been optimistic about AI, in contrast with 55% of uncommon customers and 62% of normal customers.

Enterprises will help their staff make that transition from concern to optimism, in accordance with Nicolas de Bellefonds, world chief of AI at BCG X, the corporate’s know-how construct and design unit.

“What we’ve seen—and we now have been serving to corporations benefit from AI for the previous eight years now—is that AI acceptance by employees is instantly linked to their understanding of the way it will enhance and increase their job,” he mentioned.