Despite the fears surrounding AI affecting the job market, it seems that businesses still prefer the human touch.
A new survey from HSBC has found that rather than replacing workers, businesses want to see how AI tools could aid them instead. 86% said they were looking into cutting-edge tech, such as AI, as a means of improving employee skills. A further 83% also said that they planned to re-train their staff to use such tools.
The threat to jobs from automated technology has long been a constant, and with the recent boom in generative AI, this worry has only deepened. But according to the survey, it seems that firms want humans and machines to work together, rather than compete for the same jobs.
Working together, not against
The survey results echo sentiments recently voiced by Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England.
He claimed that AI would not be a “mass destroyer of jobs” – instead, workers will learn to work with the advanced technology rather than against it. He added that throughout history, “economies adapt, jobs adapt, and we learn to work with it. And I think, you get a better result by people with machines than with machines on their own.”
Businesses in the UK allege that AI investment has been “containing recruitment and labour costs.” The recent House of Lords Communications and Digital committee also urged the UK to focus on the positive impacts of AI and not “miss out on the AI goldrush.”
The chair of the committee, Baroness Stowell, also warned that the UK should not become “the safety people” in the realm of AI. She added, “no expert on safety is going to be credible if we are not at the same time developers and part of the real vanguard of promoting and creating the progress on this technology.”
The UK was the first country to hold an AI Safety Summit, warning of the dangers of the technology and suggesting how to manage the risks associated with AI. These include risks to data privacy, copywrite infringement, and cybersecurity, since cybercriminals can harness its power to create more dangerous scams and malware.
