Dive Brief:
- Worker sentiment reversed course from a year ago when it came to the benefits of artificial intelligence, according to the results of a survey released Wednesday by national nonprofit Jobs for the Future.
- Whereas last year, a greater share of workers said that AI does more good than harm, the opposite is now true, per JFF. Of the more than 3,000 people surveyed, 44% said the technology is a net negative related to finding a job, establishing wealth and achieving quality of life, and 38% said it was a net positive.
- “As it becomes ubiquitous in our working lives, AI still has the potential to help more people access quality jobs, practice new skills, and build sustainable livelihoods,” Ben Pring, vice president of JFF’s Center for Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work, said in a statement. “But the new survey shows growing concern about the pace of AI adoption and a clear gap in employer support.”
Dive Insight:
Access to AI training remains a sticking point for workers. While less than half of employees said they had the training and resources necessary to use AI at work last year, now even fewer do (36%), per the survey.
That access also is not universal. Employees without four-year degrees were less likely to have received AI training at work, even more so among women without four-year degrees, the survey found.
Yet three-quarters of early-career workers and 64% of more experienced workers said AI is changing their jobs.
As a result, workers say they need to learn new skills. Nearly half of employees said they need to upskill, while only 7% said AI hasn’t affected how important any skills are, according to JFF.
There’s an immediacy to the need for upskilling, too, workers said. Twenty-nine percent of those surveyed said they need to learn new skills within the next year, a number that climbs to 44% among workers of color.
Leaders now characterize AI skills as fundamental at work as the ability to write, a February report by DataCamp, a platform for data and AI skill building, found. At the same time, about half of the leaders surveyed said there are “significant” skills gaps within their company.
In fact, AI-related skills now are considered the most challenging for employers to find globally, passing traditional IT and engineering skills, according to a February report by Manpower Group.
