How Deep into the Workplace is AI?

AI might not actually be taking your job, as new research shows less than half of U.S. workers use it in the workplace. Bret Burkhart and Veronica Carter learned more from vice president of Thought Leadership at Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM).

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It can feel like AI is everywhere, especially with the
constant concern that they're going to take our jobs. The
new research by the Society Human Resource Management SCHERM shows
only forty one percent of US workers say they use
AI for work purposes.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Joining us now on the Coco News Liveline is vice
president of Fought Leadership at SHERM, doctor James Atkinson, Doctor.
Thank you so much for joining us on San Diego's
Morning News.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yes, hiy, good morning. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, so we brought up that number, forty one percent
of people actually using it in the workplace. How much
has the adoption of AI changed the workplace over the
past year. Is there a way for you to encapitalize that.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, I think it's a great question. I think that
forty one percent is both surprising and not surprising. If
we go back just a few years ago, it was
probably less than five percent are using AI in the
workplace because those tools weren't quite ubiquitous. But as we
see now, that has really changed lot. And there's actually
quite a bit of variation across occupations and industries. So

(01:05):
some places it's being used everywhere within the particular occupations.
In some places not as much.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Are there certain types of workers who are more hesitant
to embrace AI?

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Well, I think the big pieces whether or not it
really makes sense in your particular occupation. I mean, we
are seeing AI transforming tasks across the board, but there
are certain occupations, certain groups such as information workers, those
in finance, professional scientific services, those are using it quite

(01:42):
a lot in these information rich groups. And then certainly
as we think about broad categories of work like accommodation,
food services, more of the leisure industries, we don't see
nearly as much of that uptake.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Know that we have a it's basically a theme here
at Cogo, and that is guaranteed human and we included
every hour because we want to make sure people know
that this is not We're not robotated exactly. But what
I'm as we talked about go ahead.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
I just said, I'm not a robot either.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
We're speaking with Vice President of Thought Leadership at SHERM,
doctor James Atkinson. What industries do you see this catching
more steam than other industries?

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yeah, so we definitely see this a lot in finance, insurance,
those particular industries. More than three and four workers are
leveraging these AI tools quite regularly, and again this makes sense.
These are the types of industries that often have a
lot of information that they're trying to sort through, and

(02:56):
AI tools are really helpful in kind of cutting through
all of that and looking for key themes and helping
to automate some of that work.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
We have to talk about AI taking jobs. We have to.
I mean, we were just reporting that Visa cut twenty
six hundred jobs in San Francisco this week.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Google cut jobs for AI.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yes, is this part of the reason that some workers
are hesitant to embrace AI?

Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yeah, So it's really kind of interesting as you look
at it. There is this fear that AI is coming
for your job, and there is a reality that there
will be some jobs displaced by this technology, just like
there have been in other technological transformations. But we have
some research to show that only about five percent of

(03:46):
jobs total are at that highest risk for displacement due
to AI, and what that means is that for the
rest of those jobs, AI is much more about that
job transfermation rather than job displacement, and so it's really
for employees, it's about understanding how this technology is being

(04:08):
leveraged in your job and figuring out how you can
use it within your job to improve your own efficiency
and productivity.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, very very good point, especially for people who are
driving into work on a Friday and wondering how they
need to embrace AI or not. Doctor, thank you so
much for joining us on San Diego's morning News.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yes, well, thank you so much for having me today.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
All right, Vice President of Thought Leadership at Sherm, Doctor
James Atkinson