Dive Brief:
- Employees don’t fully trust enterprise AI as quality and accuracy concerns mount, according to a September Udacity survey of 2,000 workers.
- Three-quarters of employees say they abandon AI tools mid-task, according to the report. Of those workers, more than half cited accuracy and quality concerns and nearly 40% said it was too time-consuming to refine or correct the AI-generated output.
- Almost half of workers said they don’t trust colleagues’ work when the technology is used to assist. More than 1 in 3 respondents thought less of colleagues who use AI at work regularly.
Dive Insight:
Despite C-suite enthusiasm for AI, not all workers are as thrilled about adopting the tools. Employee pushback and uncertainty can derail AI deployment efforts.
The push to adopt generative AI has created conflict and sown division among employees at some businesses. Workers have even admitted to sabotaging their company’s AI strategy, including 41% of Gen Z and Millennial workers, according to a Writer report published in March.
As CIOs craft implementation strategies, engaging employees and securing buy-in is more important than ever.
Helping to familiarize workers with AI tools is how organizations get the most bang for their buck, according to Raymond George, CIO at Clearview Federal Credit Union.
“There’s always this resistance or trepidation with any new technology,” George told CIO Dive. “As a human, you have to bring something to the table: If you get something out of AI, it’s your job to read it and make sure it’s accurate.”
George said employees need to understand the technology and know how to use the tools if AI is going to prove useful in their workflows
“If I get you an AI license, and you’re not saving the amount of time that the license costs, then you’re not using it right,” George said. “It’s not like Google, where you ask it a question and you get a bunch of hits. It’s an iterative process and you keep asking questions to refine what you’re doing.”
Enterprises have found training and upskilling initiatives to be helpful in bringing teams together. Others, like AstraZeneca, emphasize expectations of employee AI use, taking a carrot-and-stick approach to garnering worker commitment.
