2024-04-16 22:00:00
More than half of employees using artificial intelligence plan to quit their jobs in the next three to six months. A management consultancy has now examined what really counts for them in their everyday working lives.
With the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), social factors are becoming more important in the job. This is shown by the new McKinsey & Company study “The human side of generative AI: Creating a path to productivity”, which surveyed almost 10,000 employees and more than 3,000 employers from 16 industries in the USA, Canada and Great Britain in the summer of 2023 have been asked. 88 percent of those surveyed work in non-technical professions and use GenAI primarily to support routine tasks.
Use resources freed up by AI to align the working environment with the needs of employees
The fact that GenAI can help increase the productivity of individuals and the workforce is hardly discussed anymore. McKinsey analyzes assume that up to 30 percent of business activities in all professions could be automated by 2030. “Managers should therefore concern themselves with how GenAI influences the work experience of their employees. There is now an opportunity to use the resources freed up in the company thanks to GenAI to align the working environment more closely with the needs of employees,” recommends Sandra Durth , associate partner in Cologne and co-author of the study. “A work environment that is tailored to people, not technology, can provide companies with a competitive advantage in the highly competitive job market – especially as more and more jobs are influenced by GenAI.”
AI talent on the move
51 percent of respondents who identify as developers and intensive users of GenAI say they plan to quit their job in the next three to six months. A sobering result, as the majority of managers (57%) rely on training and further education for existing employees in this area. “Even companies in Austria that have already started to build up AI capabilities internally must retain precisely those employees who have increasingly stated that they will quit in the next six months,” says Holger Hürtgen, partner and co-founder. Head of QuantumBlack by McKinsey, the AI consulting arm of McKinsey.
Flexibility and social factors are more important than compensation
The sought-after group of developers and intensive users of GenAI neither stay in the job because of the adequate compensation nor are they attracted to it. What counts for them is flexibility, meaningful work and empathetic managers as well as health and well-being in the workplace. This group is also convinced that in the future they will need more cognitive and emotional skills than technical know-how. These include skills such as critical thinking and decision-making. In addition, the need to take care of the family is increasing the most among respondents, while the importance of compensation is decreasing the most. Employees’ expectations have also changed when it comes to their own career development: development opportunities are now more important than traditional advancement.
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