36 percent of IT workers worry that AI will take their jobs

A new study finds that 36 percent of IT workers are very concerned that generative AI tools will take their jobs in the next five years, this is 17 points higher than for other office workers.

However, the report from Ivanti finds office workers are six times more likely to say that generative AI benefits employers than employees.

Perhaps unsurprisingly enterprise leaders are significantly more optimistic about the promise of AI, reporting that the top benefits of AI in the organization are automating mundane tasks (62 percent) and higher employee productivity (60 percent).

"Although companies are racing to adopt new use cases for AI, their employees are divided about what it means for their careers," says Dr. Srinivas Mukkamala, chief product officer at Ivanti. "Companies can't afford to shy away from this subject and preaching all the benefits of AI isn't enough. Executives need to be clear in their communication about AI strategy and how it impacts the future of the employee experience, productivity and career progression. Without employee support and oversight of generative AI, companies will be slow to leverage the gains, and may have unintended consequences without the needed human oversight."

The reasons why tech professionals aren't as enthusiastic include high levels of stress, a fear that AI will poach their jobs and concerns that generative AI will increase the bottom line at their expense.

Mukkamala adds, "All organizations need to ensure the security, safety and privacy of the data that is collected and fed into AI systems. It must be taken seriously, and it is non-negotiable to protect the data against misuse, threat actors or malicious intent. As guardrails are constructed for AI models, we cannot neglect constructing the guardrails that avoid AI bias, data bias, model/algorithmic bias -- and importantly human bias. As we've seen in the research, most users and employees are skeptical of AI, so it is important that we establish trust globally with proactive security and AI system resilience."

The full report is available from the Ivanti site.

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