Technically HR: Generative AI will transform the workplace, but employees need more education, new survey finds

Business leaders worry about a lack of technical acumen among employees when it comes to adopting generative AI tools in the workplace, according to a new report from Deloitte. Right now, many are weighing both their talent acquisition and talent development needs when it comes to AI skills within their workforce.

Deloitte surveyed more than 2,800 director- to C-suite-level leaders from different industries and countries to inform its State of Generative AI in the Enterprise report. Because of the rapid development and deployment of AI at work, the company announced a move to conduct this survey as a quarterly pulse rather than annually.

“The technology is unfolding so rapidly, you know, there is constant change in the constant best practices and lessons that’s coming out,” said Beena Ammanath, who leads Deloitte’s global AI Institute.

More than three-quarters of respondents said they expect generative AI to drive substantial organizational change in the next few years, but only 47% of respondents say their organization is “sufficiently educating employees on the capabilities, benefits, and value of generative AI,” according to the report.

“If you’re looking at completely new ways of doing business or new product ideas, you need a workforce that can talk the AI language, that understands the language, to have productive discussions,” Ammanath said.

Right now, much of the AI-powered progress has been in the realm of efficiency and productivity, she said. More skilling is needed to really see how the tech could upend the workplace.

Ammanth said that no matter the role at an organization, every employee needs to have a base-level knowledge of AI, and how to use it on the job.

“Why does an executive assistant need to know AI? It’s not necessarily to build the AI, to design the AI, but how to use it in a most effective manner,” she said, as an example. “How to make sure…he or she is using the AI tools [in] the optimum way. Balancing the work between what he or she can do—or needs to do—from a human perspective versus…[using] the tools that might be available.”

Ammanth said more employee training is also needed for knowing when to use publicly available large language models, such as ChatGPT, and when to use internal AI tools only available within an organization.

Zoom out. 2024 is set to be a big year for AI upskilling. Companies like EdX, Coursera, and Microsoft are developing tools for individual learners and enterprise organizations to understand what skills may be needed to best work in the new AI-empowered economy.

HR pros can help their organizations line up their people policies with best practices and ethical considerations for deploying AI at work.