Fear it or love it, there’s no escaping AI in the workplace

Artificial intelligence has infiltrated every part of our lives. Increasing numbers of businesses use AI to handle routine customer inquiries; craft job postings, emails, reports and PowerPoint presentations; evaluate candidate applications; and automate other tasks once performed by researchers and entry-level employees.

Many workers fear AI, voicing concerns about job displacement, unintended consequences and loss of control. AI fakes, known as deepfakes, prove difficult to distinguish from reality and spread disinformation. A recent report commissioned by the U.S. State Department warns “time is running out” for the federal government to avert disaster resulting from the “catastrophic” national security risks AI poses. The report describes a worst case in which AI systems could “pose an extinction-level threat to the human species.”

Meanwhile, employees seeking a competitive advantage use AI. Between Feb. 15 and March 28, Microsoft and LinkedIn surveyed 31,000 full-time employed or self-employed knowledge workers across 31 countries, sampled an additional 2,800 employees in the U.S. and analyzed trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals. Here’s what they learned:

Three out of four employees use AI at work. Given that 46% of those who use AI started using it within the last six months, this percentage will grow.

Several factors drive the increasing use of AI: 68% of those surveyed say they use AI because they struggle with the pace and volume of work, which has accelerated beyond their ability to keep up. Seventy-six percent of professionals say they use AI to remain competitive at work and in the job market. Increasing numbers of job candidates, particularly those applying for marketing, writing and designer jobs, include AI skills such as ChatGPT and Copilot on their profiles.

Those who use AI report it saves them time (90%); allows them to focus on their most important work (85%); enables them to be more creative (84%), and results in them enjoying their work more (83%) because it frees them from menial tasks.

Employees don’t always find their employers helping them access AI tools: 78% of AI users bring their own AI tools to work.

More employees use AI than employers realize. Of those who use AI at work, 52% are reluctant to admit using it for important tasks, fearing that makes them look replaceable.

Attendance at LinkedIn Learning courses designed to build AI aptitude has spiked 160% among non-technical professionals in the last six months, with project managers, architects and administrative assistants among those who most often attend the courses.

Those who “power-use” AI report it saves them more than 30 minutes daily and liberates them from mind-numbing work. AI can sift through thousands of pages of information in minutes and compile a list of documents that include key phrases. This allows the professionals using AI to focus on the relevant documents instead of spending hours searching them out for themselves.

Increasingly, professionals find advanced uses for AI. For example, physicians report using AI to leverage large databases and collect past successful treatment plans for patients with similar conditions. Those in the medical field who suffered from documentation burnout appreciate they no longer have to record patient information in medical charts and records. AI can “listen in” on patient visits and then update medical records and generate notes the physician can review. This enables physicians to focus directly on the patient instead of inputting information into the computer.

Other professionals use AI tools to draft documents they can edit, freeing them from the initial time-intensive writing. I recently interacted with an attorney who praised the legal brief his AI assistant created. Because the initial draft included citations for relevant case law, the attorney could spend his time analyzing rather than researching.

Should we fear AI? Possibly. Can we use AI? Yes. Can we overuse it? Yes, again.