Dive Brief:
- Half of enterprises that lack a comprehensive AI people strategy will lose their top AI talent to competitors by 2027, a Gartner study published last week found. Gartner surveyed more than 12,000 enterprise employees and managers during the first quarter of the year about AI’s impact on work and their sentiments about workforce changes because of the technology.
- AI productivity will not reach all levels of the enterprise without a strong strategy, the report found. Nearly three-quarters of highly productive AI users were managers or executives. And while 88% of employees surveyed said they have enterprise AI access, they also turn to shadow AI to complete work-related tasks.
- Leaders should stop seeing AI use as an automatic productivity win, the report said. “In the shift to an AI-powered workforce, most leaders are mistaking basic access or adoption metrics for transformation,” Swagatam Basu, senior director analyst at Gartner, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
An AI success gap is emerging among organizations that fail to fully integrate the technology into their daily operations, a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey published this month found. The disconnect is also threatening their ability to keep top staff on board.
Organizations that wish to see ROI on their AI investments must prioritize diversity of AI use and instill a wider understanding of applications for all employees, the Gartner report said.
Gartner suggested CIOs and CHROs work together to audit AI strategies and improve user experience of company-sanctioned AI tools. HR leaders should play a role in AI governance and decision-making to proactively manage people-related risks and workforce impacts, the report said.
While employees who use personal AI tools for work tasks report increased productivity, this hybrid approach can be detrimental, said Diana Sanchez, senior director analyst at Gartner, in a statement.
“While hybrid AI users are 1.7 times more likely to report significant time saved over those using only enterprise solutions, this behavior increases corporate data risk and also drives attrition risks with critical talent,” she said.
More than a quarter of CIOs recently surveyed by Logicalis said they see AI as a significant source of risk, on par with threats such as malware, ransomware and phishing. More than half of CIOs said AI misuse from staffers can compound risk, and only 37% of organizations said they have visibility into the AI tools in use.
As adoption efforts unfold, leadership should prioritize targeted training with managers who can implement AI into daily workflows, provide context for AI decision-making and encourage employee experimentation, the report said. Employees who are proficient with AI across multiple use cases were more likely to be highly productive, deliver high-quality work and drive effective process improvements, the study found.
Tech and HR leaders should also consider creating enterprisewide central repositories for AI use cases that allows them to capture lessons and organizational knowledge while minimizing duplicate tools or processes. Employees with a positive outlook about their AI knowledge and use are around three times more likely to be productive, the report said.
“The most effective drivers of positive AI adoption are employee confidence in their current and future roles, and transparent, ongoing communication about how AI will be used and its impact on jobs,” Basu said.
