According to an economic report from the OECD, a slowdown in productivity has a lot of people worried. In the current economic climate, companies are in the difficult position of needing to consider layoffs and trying to retain the talent that will inject productivity back into the organization. Paradoxically though, talented workers can’t deliver better results with fewer resources.
This is where generative AI comes in – with its unique ability to intelligently automate tasks and fulfill almost the same role as a junior, human employee. At SnapLogic, we wanted to understand for ourselves how the average enterprise worker views and uses GenAI, so we commissioned a survey of over 900 mid-level office workers in the USA, UK and Australia.
With the insights we’ve gained from the research, we’ve revealed a Wild West of gen-AI adoption happening under our very noses. Let’s take a look at some of the findings.
Get the full survey report, “Generative AI: Revealing the Wild West Inside Your Own Organization.” Research was conducted by Censuswide with 904 mid-level office workers working in enterprise-sized companies with 250+ employees across the UK, USA and Australia.
How workers are using GenAI to speed up production
Generative AI tools have already started giving workers an edge. Of those surveyed, 67% of those who are using GenAI for work estimate they are saving 1-5 hours per week.
Survey says GenAI has been a helpful companion across departments as well. Half of respondents are using it for research, while creative functions like marketing and social media writing, translation, design and image generation make up many of the following percentages.
Technical functions are being transformed by GenAI as well, as 21% of respondents are using it to create code.
The implications of covert use of GenAI at work
We should say there’s no evidence from our survey that people are widely and deliberately misusing GenAI in the workplace. However, what we can see is evidence that, perhaps through lack of guidance or training, some workers are using GenAI in ways that could inadvertently create a risk for their employer.
For example, what kind of risk does it pose that almost half the workforce is using gen-AI without the company’s knowledge?
Is it time to embrace GenAI?
GenAI has gone mainstream. In fact, a whopping 81% of respondents believe using GenAI or growing their understanding of it will be essential to career progression. Enterprises looking to retain talented, ambitious workers should develop a strategy around GenAI that includes training and support, lest they risk employees taking their talents elsewhere, or make avoidable mistakes.
We are limited only by our creativity. You might say we are experiencing another Socratic Age; the skill of asking the right kind of questions (the Socratic Method) is enjoying a renaissance in the form of gen-AI prompt engineering.
Recognizing the transformative potential of GenAI, SnapLogic went all-in early this year. We launched SnapGPT, the industry’s first-ever generative integration solution that helps relieve IT and data teams by making the highly technical processes of data and application integration and business process automation just a prompt away.
For more insight from today’s workers on the impact of generative AI across roles and functions, and to find out how enterprises can wrangle the Wild West of GenAI, get our latest survey report, “Generative AI: Revealing the Wild West Inside Your Own Organization.”
