Time savings related to administrative or routine tasks

Employees who use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace are saving an average of 1.75 hours a day, underscoring the benefits of the technology despite divided perspectives on its uses. The findings were made by Censuswide after it surveyed over 3,000 respondents in the UK, USA, Canada, and Germany, as commissioned by people analytics company Visier. “Overall, employees reported an average of 1.75 hours saved each day, resulting in over a full day’s worth of work each week saved through the use of generative AI applications,” the report said.

A third of the respondents using generative AI said they are saving between 30 minutes to an hour of time each workday.

For others:

• Less than 30 minutes (1.69%)
• One to two hours (26.51%)
• One to three hours (20.31%)
• One to four hours (12.89%)
• More than four hours (0.73%)

Uses of generative AI

According to the report, time savings were related to administrative or routine tasks, such as data entry or research tasks. “But some employees were starting to find new use cases for generative AI in customer support, email drafting, project deliverables, and even during the creative process,” the report said. The findings come as more employees across the world start to embrace AI to be “more collaborative, creative, and productive,” according to a UiPath report. However, these potentials are hampered by growing privacy concerns surrounding AI.

There have been restrictions imposed on AI chatbot ChatGPT among workplaces, such as Samsung, Amazon, Verizon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Accenture. But there are also organisations, such as McKinsey and Company, Mizuho Financial Group, Inc, as well as Daiwa Securities Group, that are permitting some staff to use AI.

Job insecurity

With the expanding uses for generative AI in the workplace, 51% of Visier’s survey respondents said they are “genuinely concerned” that the skills they have could, or would, be replaced by AI. This comes following warnings that AI could put at risk 300 million full-time jobs, with 43% of CEOs revealing in an IBM survey that they have been reducing or redeploying staff because of generative AI.

Amid these threats to employment, 68% of Visier’s respondents said it was important for them to build AI-related skillsets to boost their career. And they’re expecting their organisations to lead in this reskilling. “Naturally, as with previous skills development training, employees are expecting their organisations to take on the responsibility of upskilling their staff,” the report said. It found that 86% of employees are expecting their employers to take some role in reskilling staff to ensure they’re not replaced by AI, including 63% who said this is “entirely the employer’s responsibility to do so.”

But training staff shouldn’t only be limited to developing their AI skills, according to Ben Harris, Director EMEA North at Visier. “By taking a skills-based view, organisations can rethink roles, and identify skills that can be combined with emerging technologies like AI to future-proof jobs, boost productivity, and enhance performance,” Harris said in a media release. “In a context of skills and labour shortages, combining AI with transferable skills will enable companies to fill gaps easily and stay competitive while minimising redundancies.”