More than a quarter (27%) of UK workers are worried their jobs could disappear in the next five years as a result of AI, according to a survey of thousands of employees.
Two-thirds (66%) of UK employers reported having invested in AI in the past 12 months, according to the international recruitment company Randstad’s annual review of the world of work, while more than half (56%) of workers said more companies were encouraging the use of AI tools in the workplace.
This was leading to “mismatched AI expectations” between the views of employees and their employers over the impact of AI on jobs, according to Randstad’s poll of 27,000 workers and 1,225 organisations across 35 countries. Just under half (45%) of UK office workers surveyed believed AI would benefit companies more than employees.
Younger workers, particularly those belonging to gen Z – born between 1997 and 2012 – were the most concerned about the impact of AI and their ability to adapt, while baby boomers – born in the postwar years between 1946 and 1964 and nearing the end of their careers – showed greater self-assurance.
Higher levels of concern expressed by young people entering the workforce could stem from the decision of many business leaders, highlighted by separate research, to invest in AI to plug skills gaps through automation instead of training up new hires. This is adding to the challenges facing younger workers at a time when the labour market is cooling.
Increased use of AI and automation in businesses is increasingly replacing “low-complexity, transactional roles”, the survey showed, which could help to address labour shortages in certain industries through boosting productivity.
About half (55%) of UK workers surveyed said AI had made a positive impact on their productivity, a view echoed by employers.
“AI is not a rival to labour; it should be seen as key to augmenting tasks and highlighting the importance of roles that only people can do,” said Sander van ‘t Noordende, the chief executive of Randstad.
“We must close the ‘AI reality gap’. While businesses race to embrace a new way of working, our data shows that one in five talent believe AI will have a limited impact on their tasks and nearly half perceive it as more beneficial to the company than themselves. This leaves them vulnerable in both their careers and the value they can add to organisations.”
The pace of adoption of AI in the workplace is also having an impact on workers around the world. Four in five workers believe AI will affect their daily work tasks, while the survey found that job vacancies requiring “AI agent” skills had risen by 1,587% over the past year.
Jamie Dimon, the boss of the US bank JP Morgan, told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week that governments and businesses would have to step in to help workers whose roles were displaced by the technology, or risk “civil unrest”.
