Senior leaders and younger workers appear to be embracing AI for productivity and workload reduction more than their counterparts, new data says.
A new semi-global report that looks at IT workers’ attitudes towards AI in the workplace has found that many believe the tech can help them save time. The time-saving benefits of AI are particularly noticeable when it comes to getting to grips with new and complex technologies in their tech stacks.
The research was done on behalf of business software provider Freshworks, which commissioned a survey of 2,000 adults who work full-time in IT. Data was collected from April 27 to May 17, 2023, and respondents were based in the UK, US, the Netherlands, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Germany, France, Spain, India, New Zealand and Australia.
The vast majority (95pc) of all the workers said they see the benefits of using generative AI to get things done. Benefits include spending less time on repetitive tasks, more time to spend on deep work and total time savings of up to five hours a week.
Commenting on the report, Freshworks’ CIO, Prasad Ramakrishnan, said that AI adoption could alleviate the burden of overwork for IT professionals. Close to half (44pc) of those surveyed said their tech stacks contained too many unnecessary features which hinder rather then help their productivity.
More efficiency, less faff
“The answer to sustainable business growth in today’s digital-first world isn’t more software. It’s more efficient software. Despite its best intentions, new technology and ever-expanding add-on features are often unnecessary and make life harder for IT teams,” Ramakrishnan said.
“Smart, simplified technology, paired with the power of AI, will do more to drive productivity and efficiency than legacy software has done in decades. IT leaders who embrace automation and technological agility to reduce complexity will be the ones whose teams come out ahead.”
The youth are leading the way
The report’s data indicated that a lot of IT leaders are already on board with this line of thought. Leaders are driving the push for AI adoption – 91pc of IT directors said they were using AI to support their workloads, whereas this declined to 66pc for team leads and managers and 33pc for individual contributors. With generative AI, 96pc of senior leaders say it is used across their organisations in comparison to 83pc of team leads and managers and 67pc of individual contributors.
It seems that younger workers are far more on board with AI than their older colleagues. Eight in 10 (81pc) of millennials and 75pc of Gen Z IT workers currently use AI to support their workload, compared to 57pc of Gen X and 27pc of boomers. But while older generations’ use of AI may not be that high according to this report, the data does indicate that workers of all ages do see the benefits of AI. More than three quarters (76pc) of boomers said they could see the pros of using the tech, while 93pc of Gen X and 97pc of both millennials and Gen Z workers agreed.
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