A new survey commissioned by professional training firm STL has revealed that employees working in IT, finance, and business services are increasingly anxious about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. The study, which polled 2,000 employed adults, found that 56% of respondents were concerned about parts of their jobs being made redundant due to ChatGPT, a natural language processing tool. The research found that those working in education (58%) and human resources (63%) were particularly nervous about the impact of the technology. Those surveyed believed that writing tasks (49%), customer services (47%), and coding (33%) were likely to be the first roles replaced using AI platform. Almost a third of respondents said they were unsure about the skills they needed to stay relevant in their job. However, 83% believed that AI could never replace the “human touch” in the workplace.
The research also highlighted that candidates are concerned about the effects of AI on their future job prospects. Translation (37%) and web development (34%) were widely considered the roles most at risk from AI, while 26% of respondents warned that marketing, advertising, and PR professionals should take care about the capabilities of the technology. However, the survey found that nearly 60% of respondents would consider retraining for a role that was immune from automation. Interestingly, 39% of respondents confirmed that they were looking to use ChatGPT to improve efficiency at work.
Commenting on the survey findings, a spokesperson for STL said, “It really is remarkable just what this tech can achieve in such early stages of development – and what our research shows is that workers must really explore how they can stay ahead of the curve. With new tech always comes new opportunities, and it is just as important we learn how it can support how we perform certain tasks. The spokesperson added that while the research revealed that 29% of participants had not yet done enough to develop their skills to keep up with workplace automation, 67% of workers had attempted to learn a new skill in the last 18 months. Overall, 88% of respondents said they believed it was important to continually learn new skills for their job, with 74% willing to invest their personal time to upskill.
