Generative AI’s change management challenge

Despite headlines warning that artificial intelligence poses a profound risk to society, workers are curious, optimistic, and confident about the arrival of AI in the enterprise, and becoming more so with time, according to a recent survey by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

For many, their feelings are based on sound experience. Although ChatGPT, the poster child for generative AI applications, only launched in November 2022, already 26% of workers say they use generative AI several times a week, while 46% have experimented with it at least once, BCG found.

BCG asked 12,898 frontline employees, managers, and leaders in large organizations around the world how they felt about AI: 61% listed curiosity as one of their two strongest feelings, 52% listed optimism, 30% concern, and 26% confidence. A smaller BCG survey five years ago saw 60% listing curiosity, 35% optimism, 40% concern, and 17% confidence. A lot has happened since that last survey on attitudes to AI in 2018. Back then, “AI was still emerging and was not something many people used or saw,” said Vinciane Beauchene, BCG’s global leader for talent and skills, on a recent conference call to discuss the survey findings. But after the pandemic shook up the world of work, generative AI has flourished. “It’s the new normal: 80% of leaders claim they are using it on a weekly basis,” she said. “What was striking for me was how ill-equipped companies still are to deal with that.”

Familiarity breeds content

The study further found that the more workers used AI tools, the less they were concerned and more optimistic about their impact. Just 22% of regular AI users and 27% of rare users said they were concerned, compared with 42% of non-users. On the other hand, 36% of non-users said they were optimistic about AI, compared with 55% of rare users and 62% of regular users.

Enterprises can help their employees make that transition from concern to optimism, according to Nicolas de Bellefonds, global leader of AI at BCG X, the company’s technology build and design unit.

“What we’ve seen—and we have been helping companies make the most of AI for the past eight years now—is that AI acceptance by workers is directly linked to their understanding of how it will improve and augment their job,” he said.