It’s easy to say that the rise of generative AI is having a huge impact on the business world. But how accurate is this claim in reality, beyond the high-profile case studies and tech industry hype?
A useful place to look for a deeper level of knowledge is the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). Artificial Intelligence Index Report. The report, now in its seventh year, aims to provide a detailed picture of the current state of technology.
Big Think spoke with Nestor Maslej, editor-in-chief of the report and director of research at Stanford HAI, to find out what this year’s edition tells us about how the business world is adopting new IT technologies. AI.
Big thought: How would you summarize the current state of AI adoption by businesses?
Maslej: It’s slowly picking up, but I still don’t think we’ve reached a point where businesses have come on board en masse. That said, I think there is a lot of compelling data that organizations should consider doing this. There is a very good investigation This is what (consulting firm) McKinsey does every year by asking business leaders and business leaders if they are using AI. And that figure (reported by McKinsey in 2023) has increased to 55%, which is one of the highest numbers we’ve reported since 2017.
(The recently published McKinsey Global Survey 2024 reported that AI adoption increased this year to 72%.)
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We have a lot of really exciting data in the report that explains how AI is associated with more productive workers, higher quality work, and workers who can get their jobs done in less time. Some data also suggests that companies that integrate AI see their revenues tangibly increase and their costs tangibly decrease. And there’s a lot of really compelling data that suggests that AI is really doing good things for businesses, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see more AI companies adopting these types of technologies.
Big thought: If we see greater adoption of AI, what do you think are some of the implications for the business world?
Maslej: I think it’s an open question as to what effect AI is going to have. Will this cause people to lose their jobs? Will this lead to retraining within a company? When you look at the data on how business leaders expect AI to impact their organizations over the next three years, you’ll find that many of them say they expect a reduction in the number of jobs. Significantly more respondents expect decreases than increases.
Nestor Maslej, research director at Stanford HAI and editor-in-chief of the HAI Artificial Intelligence Index report.
It’s likely that you’ll see a bit of both to varying degrees, but I think the extent to which you see these changes will depend a lot on the decisions that policymakers and business leaders make. If AI makes you more productive, you could stay at the same level of productivity. But you could also eventually reach a higher level of productivity and accomplish even more. The question of which direction to take here will therefore be left to businesses and policymakers.
Big thought: Is there a disparity between the attitude of business leaders towards AI and that of rank-and-file staff?
Maslej: One of the interesting trends we profiled in the Index this year is public opinion on AI. (Market research company) Ipsos has been conducting a survey for several years in which respondents are asked to what extent they feel optimistic about AI and what are their perceptions of the impact that AI will to have. People with higher incomes appear to be much more optimistic about AI than those with lower incomes. Likewise, people with higher education levels are also much more enthusiastic.
People with higher incomes appear to be much more optimistic about AI than those with lower incomes.
And when looking at questions about the impact AI will have on current jobs and whether people think AI will change the way they do their jobs, the index indicates that policymakers and Organizations seem much more likely to agree that AI will change the way work gets done, compared to people who are not decision-makers.
So there seems to be some disparity. It’s hard to know how big the difference is on a quantitative level, but in many public opinion polls, one of the top fears people cite very often when it comes to AI, and why they’re nervous On this topic, is the fact that AI could potentially lead to the elimination of jobs, and this is certainly something that many people think about very critically.
Big thought: One of the key takeaways from the report is the potential for AI to close the skills gap between low- and high-skilled workers. What are the implications?
Maslej: AI could serve as a leveling force. A few studies gave one group of participants an AI tool and another group of participants no AI tool, and they compared their performance. In most of these studies, AI groups improved the performance of both high- and low-skilled workers, but the absolute improvement was higher for lower-skilled workers than for higher-skilled workers, even though lower-skilled workers more qualified ones always appeared. at the top overall.
If you look at the trends, the data indicates that AI is a game changer in the business world.
This suggests that the skills gap could potentially narrow, as AI helps many of these less-skilled workers reach levels they weren’t necessarily able to achieve before. This could therefore mean that businesses could potentially do more with less. They could take advantage of less skilled workers and allow them to do more meaningful work.
But it does suggest that more skilled workers still enjoy an advantage and still retain their relatively dominant position in the organizational hierarchy, in terms of what they can and cannot do.
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Big thought: Geopolitics is increasingly fragmented and AI is a technology in which countries want to gain an advantage. Could this burst of technological progress and governance lead to new competitive pressures on international companies when using AI?
Maslej: One of the main changes that will occur today compared to the current situation is the emergence of new regulatory regimes regarding AI. AI regulation in the US is very different from that in the EU. Many companies integrating these tools, particularly if they operate in international contexts, must therefore be aware of these different regulatory regimes.
And because the technology is so new and much of the law has yet to be written and perhaps still decided by the courts, businesses need to think proactively about some of the different challenges that might arise and some of the different regulations. obstacles they might encounter.
Many companies are doing very well right now in ensuring AI regulatory compliance. If you are a company with enough resources, you can get good AI models almost anywhere in the world, wherever you are. The question now is how to use them in your business, and does this use case comply with the new laws that are emerging?
Big thought: Do you think there is a risk that businesses will rush to adopt AI before knowing enough about the impact it will have on the business world and the wider economy?
Maslej: It’s not really the Index’s position to say how much risk there is, but I think it’s clear if you look at the trends, the data indicates that AI is a game changer in the world of business. And businesses are always looking to save money, make more money, and do things more productively. The data therefore indicates that companies will use AI more.
It’s not enough to jump headfirst into integrating these tools. Businesses need to think very critically about how to do this integration responsibly.
I think companies need to be conscious of how they’re using these tools and some of the implications that could come with them. And this goes back to the point I made about regulatory compliance. Obviously, AI is a tool that could really accelerate the work that you do in your business, but it’s also a tool that, if used incorrectly, can have a number of implications.
Companies, if they think about integrate AI toolsCompanies should not only think about this integration, but also how to do it responsibly and move their business forward without causing problems. The data we have from companies (in the third chapter, dedicated to responsible AI) suggests that many of them are thinking about these dimensions of responsibility. They just don’t necessarily act on it, but think about it.
It’s not enough to jump headfirst into integrating these tools. Businesses need to think very critically about how to go about this integration responsibly, and also be aware of the long-term impacts that integrating AI tools could have.
