Leaders expect job displacement from AI

New Delhi: A whopping 94 per cent of business leaders in India expect Artificial Intelligence (AI) to change some office jobs, with over 83 per cent expecting such roles to be replaced, finds a new report.

The report by the British Standards Institute (BSI), a business improvement and standards company, comes amidst widespread optimism about the positive impact of AI tools on productivity and recognition.

The report examines AI’s prospective impact on work, based on 932 business leaders across nine countries. It showed that 86 per cent of people in India believe that companies will be at a competitive disadvantage if they don’t invest in AI.

About 78 per cent in India believe that AI tools should be embraced even if some jobs change or are lost as a result and about 80 per cent agree that innovation is more important than protecting existing jobs.

“AI alone will not replace jobs, but AI paired with robotics or other technology may have a sizeable impact in the long term, potentially reducing reliance on people for repetitive, labour intensive and often risky tasks on construction sites, in factories and warehouses or even restaurants,” said Theuns Kotze, Managing Director, BSI Group India Private, BSI.

Notably, 98 per cent of business leaders in India were more inclined to see AI as an opportunity than a risk, while 65 per cent expect AI to be used in the next five years to improve productivity and efficiency.

“AI-powered technologies have the power to transform the way we work across all sectors, and we can expect them to shape how companies recruit staff, manage performance, train employees, and more. At the same time, it is vital that we consider how to retain human creativity, ingenuity, critical thinking, and collaboration,” Kotze said. “We can use AI to enhance efficiency and productivity, and if we pair it with human insight, empathy, and compassion, we can strengthen organisational culture and foster greater innovation,” Kotze added. Manual roles are also expected to be shaped by AI, with 82 per cent expecting some to be replaced, likely by AI and robotics together.

The report looks at the prospects for AI to be used in management, job redesign, training, and recruitment, finding that even now 83 per cent of people in India say their organisation is using AI tools to support the candidate recruitment process and a higher proportion (89 per cent) are aware of their business using AI to support any aspect of performance management.

Despite this, HR is not one of the functions expected to be most impacted by AI, with only 33 per cent saying they anticipate this, compared with 67 per cent for marketing, 65 per cent for Finance, and 57 per cent for operations.