- Artificial intelligence is picking up in the workplace. But even with the potential threat of unemployment on the horizon, white collar workers are just happy that they’re less stressed out. New research reveals 4 in 10 say it has provided better work-life balance, reduced stress, and better decision-making.
What would you do if you believed your job was going to be taken by AI in 3 years?
For some, it’s to keep using it.
White collar workers like the short-term gain of work-life balance that AI brings, despite the long-term pain of it possibly taking their jobs by 2028.
Ironically, recent data shows that about 60% of 2,500 white collar tech workers believe their jobs and their entire team could be replaced by AI within the next three to five years, but they’re still using it at least once per day.
Around 7 in 10 workers say it has helped them increase their creativity and productivity, while 4 in 10 say it has provided better work-life balance, reduced stress, and better decision-making.
“Just like the advent of computers, the Internet, or any new kind of transformative technology, I think folks in general tend to kind of lean into learning the tools, and they’re discovering some great benefits,” Dallin Hatch, Head of Communications at Udacity, tells Fortune.
More productivity, creativity, and flexibility
Though AI may come for jobs in the long term, right now, employees are enjoying getting more of their time back.
Philosopher and psychology researcher Frank Martela previously told Fortune, A.I. can be good for the meaningfulness at work, because it makes room to be more creative and efficient in other tasks if it does the mundane ones. “The more A.I. takes care of the boring routine stuff, the more we can concentrate on the exciting, creative, and challenging stuff,” he said.
Reports consistently highlight that Gen-Z is more focused on work-life balance, purpose-driven tasks, and flexibility. So as AI picks up in the workplace, it could be an attractive benefit for the Zoomer generation, who typically try to avoid repetitive tasks or mundane projects.
The shift towards flexibility is already gaining traction among business leaders and could be where the future of work is headed. Microsoft’s Bill Gates says AI may soon automate almost everything, and workers could begin a 2-day work week in less than a decade. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, has also expressed his view that AI will make working less of a priority—placing his bet on a three-and-a-half-day workweek.
But don’t forget the long-term risk
The truth is, nobody knows how AI will affect their job until it happens.
Blue-collar CEOs like Ford’s boss Jim Farley predict that technology could wipe out half of white collar jobs, while emphasizing the “essential economy”. Last month, Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, echoed that sentiment when he said the company’s corporate workforce will shrink as a result of AI.
Already, AI has led to mass layoffs in tech, and workplaces are shifting how they’ll position their staff in the future accordingly.
But, Hatch argues, it could also open the next generation to a whole host of new skills and jobs.
“It’s really hard to know what the future looks like,” Hatch says. “There’s one path right where, you know, it does create more opportunity for people who learn those skills to do more.”
“They may be seeing a path where more of their opportunity to make an impact on the creative and guidance side with an AI tool is now at their fingertips, where before maybe they were so heads down, surface-level work that they weren’t always able to pop up.”
