- Some CEOs count on at the very least a 5 % discount in workers in 2024 because of AI, PwC discovered.
- Leaders in media, banking, and insurance coverage are most certainly to count on AI job alternative, examine exhibits.
- Staff ought to learn to use AI on the job to scale back firm prices, PwC’s AI lead instructed BI.
CEOs appear to be warming as much as utilizing generative AI of their companies to avoid wasting time and earn cash this 12 months — although at the price of their workers, a latest survey suggests.
In PwC’s twenty seventh annual CEO report, the consulting large surveyed 4,702 CEOs who lead corporations large and small throughout a variety of industries in 105 international locations to know how they plan on reinventing their companies within the close to future.
Relating to generative AI, many CEOs stated they see adopting the know-how as a possibility to enhance revenues and enhance effectivity. However these so-called AI productiveness beneficial properties may additionally be what places their workers out of labor this 12 months.
“A few of these effectivity advantages seem prone to come by way of worker headcount discount — at the very least within the quick time period — with one-quarter of CEOs anticipating to scale back headcount by at the very least 5% in 2024 resulting from generative AI,” PwC stated.
The survey means that AI could affect corporations in sure industries greater than others. Out of the CEOs who count on the know-how to create a leaner workforce, 32% of them had been discovered to work in media and leisure, adopted by banking and capital markets, insurance coverage, and transportation and logistics.
That could be partly as a result of instruments like OpenAI’s ChatGPT might be able to carry out particular job duties associated to content material creation, customer support, and insurance coverage claims processing, Bret Greenstein, PwC’s generative AI chief within the US, stated.
AI may additionally remove the necessity for corporations to rent extra employees.
“It is arduous to rent, it is arduous to retain, it is costly to coach, and it takes months for individuals to develop into productive,” Greenstein instructed Enterprise Insider.”In case you can increase that workforce with AI, you possibly can scale quicker when that you must.”
The PwC examine on CEOs joins a rising physique of analysis pointing to AI’s disruptive nature within the office. A latest examine by The Convention Board discovered that fifty% of the worldwide CEOs surveyed consider it might result in job alternative. Final March, Goldman Sachs stated AI might disrupt greater than 300 million jobs.
Actually, Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, predicted earlier this month that AI will affect roughly 40% of jobs worldwide — particularly high-skilled jobs in superior economies.
“In the end, CEOs should embrace this as a brand new aspect of their function: understanding, explaining, and managing the inevitable tensions between short-term job losses and long-term job creation potential from AI,” the PwC survey stated.
Nonetheless, Greenstein would not essentially assume utilizing AI within the workforce will result in layoffs. As a substitute, AI will assist employees “dramatically scale back” their workload and release time on higher-impact duties.
Studying new AI abilities, he instructed BI, could also be what retains employees at their jobs.
“In case you can reimagine how workflow occurs, you possibly can you possibly can drive financial savings after which shift individuals and assets and abilities into increased worth work,’ Greenstein stated.
