Although many organizations have invested significantly in artificial intelligence, workforce productivity gains have not kept up, a recent study found.
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Dive Brief:
- Although three-quarters of board members anticipate a productivity and savings return on investment on their company’s artificial intelligence spend, nearly every organization (97%) isincapable of cutting expenses solely through productivity measures, according to new research from Gartner, a business and technology insights company.
- “Thirty-eight percent of companies are over budget on AI and 85% report they are planning to spend even more next year,” CV Viverito, senior director analyst in Gartner’s HR practice, said in a statement. “Ultimately, organizations will not generate cost savings from AI at this point.”
- The report comes as many companies grapple with the gap between AI promises and actual outcomes. Recent reports found that about 95% of corporate earnings call discussions related to AI productivityfocused on future gains, suggesting that executives were optimistic about forward-facing impacts but had not yet seen results.
Dive Insight:
Gartner’s study found that 78% of leaders were not aligned in terms of how AI was helpful in their workplace.
“Without a shared view of where AI matters the most for the organization, there is a disconnect in how to position the workforce, and ultimately, how to capture value from AI investments,” Arj Bagga, vice president analyst in Gartner’s HR practice, said in a statement.
HR teams need to work with leadership to ensure AI strategies are bringing value to the workplace, the report said. In addition, HR leaders need to work towardreducing any potential organization riskassociated with the technology’s adoption.
HR also needs to “prepare for the employee implications of concentrating AI asymmetrically,” the report added.
“Many leaders see AI as a catalyst to work differently, but their approach is anchored in how work already gets done today,” Bagga said. “To imagine new possibilities, leaders must actively discover how work will get done in the future. They should start by considering the possibilities and then refining for reality.”
Gartner recently surveyed more than 1,800 employees and found that just 21% of time saved by AI actually got redirected into more innovative work. That means employees need to be upskilled in order to produce better quality AI-enabled work, the report said.
“There isn’t a struggle to create capacity; that’s happening already as organizations redesign work,” said Viverito. “What organizations are struggling with is how to make that capacity usable and redirecting it to what is valuable.”
Viverito added that the best case scenario for AI may be in how it works with existing employee frameworks, rather than how the technology functions independently.
“The greater opportunity is to use AI to do things that weren’t possible before, such as shifting employee time into new capabilities, outcomes, and sources of growth,” Viverito said.
Meanwhile,only 9% of CEOsin a recent study said AI agents had been transformational at their companies, with 43% reporting “moderate impacts with targeted use cases.” However, 84% still report that AI was a top investment priority over the next three years.
Filed Under:HR Tech & Analytics
