85 percent of workers anticipate that AI will affect their jobs: survey

A vast majority (85%) of workers anticipate that artificial intelligence will affect their jobs in some way; they’re just not sure how. That’s according to a recent survey from the ADP Research Institute.

Respondents that expect some effect from AI are split on whether they think AI will help them in the workplace or replace some of their job functions. The data show that 43% of that 85% think AI will help them; 42% think it will replace at least some of their existing functions.

AI is increasingly used in long-term care for predictive analytics, scheduling, and anticipating workforce needs and automating tasks such as patient intake. 

ADP surveyed 35,000 private sector workers in 18 countries what role they think AI will play in their work over the next few years. Eight percent of the respondents said they believe AI will have no impact on their job over the next two to three years, and 7% said they don’t know enough about AI to form a response.

Responses varied based on location. For example, workers in Latin America were mostly to anticipate AI as a help in their work. Fifty-five percent of Latin American respondents expect AI to help rather than replace them (28%).

Among those that work remotely, 51% said they expect that AI will replace some or most of their existing functions; 50% for on-site workers and 47% for hybrid workers.

Younger workers surveyed were more likely than their older counterparts to foresee the impact of AI on their jobs.

“While 21%of workers 55 and older don’t know enough about AI to say whether it will impact them, only 3% of workers 18 to 24 claimed to be unaware of the technology. This group also was the most likely to think AI will affect their jobs,” ADP said. “Twenty percent of workers 55 and older say AI will have no impact on their job, compared to only 5% of the youngest workers.”

Gen Z workers — those born between 1997 and 2010 — are most likely to see the greatest impact of AI over time. 

“As a group, however, they’re the most likely to disagree on what that impact will be, and whether AI will augment their labor or replace it through automation,” according to ADP.

The good news, according to ADP, is that Gen Z workers are adaptable to changing technology.