KPMG recently conducted a poll, and the results show that generative AI is having a significant impact on corporate processes and the workforce. According to the study results, a sizable 72% of participants think GenAI has the ability to greatly increase productivity within their organizations. Additionally, 66% of participants expect the nature of work to change in the future, and 62% acknowledge that AI may foster creativity and speed the creation of new goods and services.
The company thinks that these outcomes highlight the growing significance of GenAI in promoting organizational success and advancing innovation.
Felicia Lyon, principal of human capital advisory at KPMG, told that strategic tasks stand to gain the most from the use of AI. As more tactical jobs are automated, people will have more time to devote to them and will be better able to complete them thanks to the ease of access to the necessary tools and resources (namely, analytics).
Precautions with generative AI
Participants in the survey were aware of the benefits but were reserved about any possible drawbacks associated with the use of generative AI.
Particularly, 47% of those surveyed express concerns about job security, while 41% worry about little prospects for career progression. A rise in antisocial behaviour in the workplace is also predicted by nearly half (39%) of executives due to a decline in social interactions.
These results, according to Lyon, indicate the necessity for careful thought and preventative actions to deal with any potential difficulties in incorporating GenAI into organizational contexts.
According to Lyon, businesses are tackling these issues by breaking down jobs and adopting a skills-based perspective on the work. Companies can identify areas where their employees need to be upskilled in order to fill other jobs and functions within the organization. They can also identify areas where people have skill overlaps and can be moved into new roles.
Effects of generative AI on employment and talent
According to 66% of individuals surveyed and revealed by the study, integrating GenAI necessitates hiring new talent and retraining current staff.
In fact, 71% of these executives think that the IT/tech function will need to hire and train personnel in order to guarantee seamless integration. Executives therefore give top priority to those with expertise in text-to-speech, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and AI throughout the implementation phase.
However, just 12% of respondents think their workforce is competent enough to adopt, even while respondents recognize the need to hire and train employees for implementation.
Additionally, nearly a third of U.S. CEOs expect opposition from workers throughout the adoption and integration phases, and a quarter of them do not have a clear people strategy for incorporating generative AI capabilities into their workforce.
Developing responsible AI
When hiring and upskilling staff, Lyon emphasized the value of fostering a culture of responsible AI usage. She claimed that by helping employees understand the best ways to use AI for business goals, organizations can preserve market trust and improve internal employee branding.
According to Lyon, it’s critical to distinguish between the skills required for IT to safely create and maintain the technology and the skills required by the general workforce to adopt AI and recognize AI-enabled opportunities.
According to her, it’s essential to organizations to have a skills ecosystem that enables leaders to swiftly assess the workforce’s present and future skill sets (based on hiring strategies, attrition rates, and learning opportunities). Making educated decisions will also require a consistent method of gauging skill proficiency.
Using GenAI to create employment
The survey also looks at how generative AI might lead to the creation of new jobs. A strong 76% of American executives believe that widespread adoption will have a beneficial effect on IT and software-related positions. The top three job categories anticipated to profit are those involving IT and software, creativity, and customer service.
However, according to 64% of respondents, administrative professions including work like data entry and record keeping are anticipated to suffer the most across all industries and activities.
While 20% of respondents are optimistic about the benefits of generative AI for manufacturing jobs, 24% (including more than 33% of respondents from the consumer, retail, and industrial manufacturing sectors) are pessimistic about the impact of AI adoption on such occupations.
According to Lyon, AI-powered chatbots and synthetic speech solutions can now write code, mimic testing at scale, and produce graphics and videos in addition to handling a significant chunk of customer care. These jobs will have a significant percentage of their work performed by AI, which will boost speed, quality, and efficiency broadly.
Human expertise vital
The development of prompts that add value to the operating model, processing difficult requests, and the initial invention of creative ideas are all tasks that will continue to require human skill and input, according to Lyon, to ensure the proper integration and operation of AI systems.
According to her, businesses should address large disruptions pragmatically by proactive retraining or upskilling individuals whose positions might become outdated, enabling them to adapt to new requirements and promoting internal mobility.
According to Lyon, people in administrative positions typically have a thorough understanding of the company and how it operates. “That expertise will make it easier for the people to be reused in the organization when combined with up- or reskilling. Organizations should rethink career paths to accommodate these transitions and improve their learning environment to enable them in order to help people through this change. In the event that a position does not fit in the future, job replacement aid programs may be implemented.
New prospects in the future thanks to generative AI
According to Lyon, AI will profoundly change how businesses operate by opening up new opportunities for productivity, growth, and innovation—all of which call for proactive employee involvement. She predicts that embracing AI will quickly go from being a competitive advantage to becoming a necessity.
Data and AI literacy are essential for effective AI deployment, she said. Employees must therefore be motivated and trained to use the new technology, which they must then fully integrate so that experimentation becomes a structural instrument for continuously unlocking potential. There will be more jobs created that contribute to the ethics, data privacy, and cyber security associated with artificial intelligence solutions.
The use of generative AI, according to Lyon, is still in its infancy. In order to improve AI practices, she advises businesses to evaluate their talent strategy by creating a compelling value proposition for tech personnel. The use of responsible AI should also be recognized and rewarded by organizations.
The individual performing the work is the best person to know how to streamline it. remarked Lyon. Above all, it will be crucial for leaders to set the tone by sharing their vision for how they want to use AI to improve their organization and serve their clients. The leader can encourage trust in the team and assist the workers in developing a future vision by leading from the front.
