Dive Brief:
- Four in five employees think artificial intelligence (AI) will make work more empowering and engaging, but think employers' silence on the topic is creating fear and concern, a new survey by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated reveals. The "Engaging Opportunity: Working Smarter with AI" survey found that 58% of organizations haven't discussed AI's impact on the workforce with their employees. The survey polled 3,000 workers across eight nations.
- Although 82% of respondents said AI is an opportunity to improve their jobs, about 34% are concerned that the technology could someday leave them without work. That viewpoint includes 42% of Generation Z employees. Two-thirds of those surveyed said they'd feel more at ease if employers were more transparent about the future.
- Workers who responded to the survey said they would welcome AI if it simplified or automated time-consuming internal processes (64%) and helped better balance their workloads (64%), among other things. In the construction industry, University of Waterloo researchers in Ontario, Canada, also are using AI to gain insight as to how skilled laborers can reduce wear-and-tear injuries.
Dive Insight:
AI is already moving into all facets of the workplace, from robots in construction and manufacturing and retail to algorithms in employee data analysis. Employers need to walk workers through their own organizations to point out where AI is already in place and where it could or might be be expanded. Transparency is critical; employees aren't likely to be replaced all at once, but they should have an idea of which jobs AI is likely to claim, so that they can upskill or choose different careers.
Many readings on AI are only projections. A Gartner study predicts that AI could bring in more jobs, some 2.3 million, to offset the 1.8 million it replaces. But these new jobs are expected to require higher-level or specialized skills.
The construction industry is ready for disruption — and that disruption is at its doorstep. Recent reports point to automation displacing nearly 3 million construction workers in the next 40 years. And as more companies develop and hone robotics and AI systems geared toward easing the industry's well-documented productivity problem, that momentum is expected to hold for the foreseeable future.
