How will AI affect work? Americans think it will, only it’s not theirs.

AI is likely to affect your work. We just don’t yet know when or how much — or how to feel exactly about it.



Most Americans agree that artificial intelligence will have a big impact on workers in the next 20 years and are more likely to say it will hurt more than help, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. But at the same time, most Americans think AI will have little or no impact on them personally.

In other words, AI will hurt you, but not me.

That’s a similar sentiment to what Vox heard talking to workers who have implemented generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Bing, and Bard at work. Knowledge workers said the software helps them save time and avoid drudgery, allowing them to write code faster or create business memos or marketing copy with just a few prompts. But to a person, these workers believe that while others’ jobs may be at risk of being taken out by AI, theirs is likely safe thanks in part to their mastery of these tools.

The refrain was often a version of this a tweet: “AI will not replace you. A human using AI will. While people certainly accept some forms of AI, they find some types, such as those that would hire, fire, or monitor them, distasteful. This could be a problem depending on exactly how AI is integrated into the workplace.

The truth is that while AI tools are showing a remarkable ability to replicate what has often been high-paying human work, we don’t yet know whether this will lead to less work for humans or simply a different—and perhaps even better— work. A recent study by OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT and its more advanced successor GPT-4, found that high-paying jobs that require degrees have the most exposure to the capabilities of these tools. The study does not say whether these jobs will be eliminated or increased by the technology.

Other forms of AI have been incorporated into various workplace applications in both manual and computer-assisted work over the past decade, according to Julia Dhar, managing director, partner and global head of the Behavioral Science Lab at Boston Consulting Group. In manufacturing, this means that AI decides when to start producing one good over another based on sales and other demand forecasts. In services, it shows up in call centers, prompting workers to suggest different responses based on how the interaction is going or even a person’s tone of voice.

But so far, thanks to the costs and technical capabilities required to scale AI in the workplace, the penetration of AI in the workplace is still weak. Dhar sees this as an opportunity to make sure the way AI is used at work benefits both companies and workers.

“I think we haven’t focused enough of the public conversation around trust,” Dhar said. “We’ve talked about trustworthy AI, but we’ve barely talked about trust between employers and employees and how it can be a trust-building opportunity, not a trust-destroying opportunity.”

The Pew survey, which surveyed more than 11,000 Americans, shows that trust is lacking. While people like certain types of AI at work, many drive them to the brink, especially when used in hiring, firing, and monitoring.

Seventy-one percent opposed the idea of ​​artificial intelligence making final hiring decisions (only 7 percent were in favor), and 55 percent opposed its use in firing decisions, according to the Pew report. The majority did not want it to be used at all to review applications or decide who gets promotions. Many felt that the AI ​​lacked the human touch that would allow it to see things like the potential in a candidate who didn’t quite fit the job description or how well a person might get along with colleagues.

The use of AI is now commonplace in the so-called applicant tracking software that most large companies use in the hiring process. This widespread technology allows companies to use keywords or criteria — such as whether or not they have a college degree or a gap in their resume — to automatically sift through the mass of incoming online applications. But many, including employers themselves, worry that these broad strokes could lead to the exclusion of people who would be perfectly good candidates.

Jason Schlotzer, associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, found that more than half of HR managers are either using AI-based hiring technologies or intend to do so very soon. He says AI is creeping into more advanced levels of the hiring process, such as the first round of interviews, where he says candidates answer the employer’s questions on a webcam, and employers use AI to analyze their answers and even the language of body to decide whether or not they make it to the next round.

“It’s common enough that our students are coached by career services on how to handle these interviews,” Schlotzer added.

In some ways, these practices have encouraged workers and candidates to use AI themselves. Many are turning to tools like ChatGPT to write their resumes or cover letters—partly to offload a tedious task, but also as a way to fight back in the bot-to-bot hiring process.

Not surprisingly, most people surveyed by Pew also oppose using AI in more sinister ways, such as monitoring their movements and facial expressions while they work or tracking when they’re at their desks and what exactly they’re doing. This kind of technology has become increasingly common in the workplace, from Amazon warehouses to the office, since the start of the pandemic, as bosses suspicious of remote work and quiet exits try to ensure productivity. But as the Wall Street Journal reported, there is little evidence that the technology works, and some evidence suggests it may even be counterproductive, making people demoralized and less productive. Such so-called productivity trackers have also led to a rise in people trying to outwit them, with hacks like mouse jigglers — devices that can physically move a mouse across a desk without a human being present — making it look like they’re working.

Vox spoke with a professional employee at a mid-sized marketing company that uses activity monitoring software to track the keystrokes and mouse movements of remote workers and takes random photos to check if she’s at her computer. The employee, who asked that we not use her name to avoid trouble at work, said that while she finds the software annoying, she has developed ways around it. She checks social media on her personal phone and makes sure she doesn’t hang out for more than 10 minutes at a time so the software doesn’t flag her in front of her bosses.

She’s generally ambivalent and doesn’t think it affects her productivity one way or the other. She really believes there’s a bright side to not doing any work that isn’t on her computer, so when she’s off, she’s really off.

“I hate that I don’t hate it,” she said, but added that she’ll probably choose a job next time that doesn’t follow her. As for watching the face, she said, “If they want to see how broke I am about my remote work, fine for them.”

However, BCG’s Dhar warns against such surveillance AI, saying it causes companies to “confuse activity with productivity.”

“It really sends a message to people that doing something that is visible is better than doing the very often unobservable hard work of human cognition or building relationships or spotting safety hazards,” she said.

For now, it’s impossible to predict exactly how the adoption of AI will affect the workplace.

Georgetown’s Schlotzer said that will likely mean some jobs will be lost, others will be added, but for the most part, many of the existing jobs will be reconfigured. What is certain is that eventually, widespread use of AI in the workplace will happen.

“I don’t even think it’s worth discussing these things,” Schlotzer said, “I think we just have to be prepared for it to come to market.”



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