News
Even though generative AI is a newcomer to the digital workplace, its perceived effects on the workforce and productivity are already crystallizing, according to new research from New York City-based KPMG.
Based on a survey of 225 US-based executives, 66% said they believed it would change the way people work, while 62% expected it to spur on innovation.
The research also underlines some of the fears about the technology's potential impact.
Nearly half of respondents (47%) expected generative AI to have a negative impact on job security, while 41% said its introduction could also reduce development opportunities for workers.
More alarmingly, 39% believed it would increase antisocial behaviors as they expected its introduction to result in a fall-off in social interaction between employees.
In the related announcement, Felicia Lyon, principal for Human Capital Advisory at KPMG, pointed to two management challenges arising from the tech:
- The need to create an innovation hub to involve front-line workers in testing new AI technology.
- How to deconstruct the work to make full use of AI to get tasks done faster.
She also suggested that organizations would have to reconstruct new roles and jobs that tap into a higher power of employee engagement.
There are other implications too. Two-thirds of those surveyed said that to get the most out of generative AI, they would have to upskill existing talent and hire new talent too. For IT functions the figure is evening higher: 71% believe they will have to hire and/or train staff for the smooth implementation of generative AI.
Overall the survey reflects a positive outlook on generative AI, specifically in IT and software related jobs, creative jobs and customer service jobs. Unsurprisingly, jobs involving a high degree of repetition are expected to suffer the most, including administrative jobs, data entry and record keeping.
Lyon outlined the human resources strategy organizations should consider in light of these changes: “Organizations that win in the talent marketplace are those that look at their talent strategy and ask these questions: Are we creating a compelling value proposition to tech talent that we need to mature our AI practices? Are we recognizing and rewarding responsible generative AI usage? And are we thinking differently about the work itself to capture the positive impacts of AI .…”
As to why generative AI has caught on so fast, she points to the intersection of three slower moving trends:
- Dramatic drop in the cost of computing power.
- Huge amounts of available internet-based training data.
- A handful of companies willing to invest heavily to develop “AI learning factories.”
Freshbooks AI Research Finds SMBs Changing Strategies Due to Generative AI
The research from KPMG is echoed by other research, this time from Toronto-based Freshbooks AI. Its survey of 1000 US and Canada-based small-to-medium business (SMB) owners found nearly half (44%) stating they will hire fewer people because of the capabilities offered by AI. However, two-thirds of respondents were less convinced that AI would replace their jobs and/or the jobs of their employees.
Among the principal findings of the report:
- 46% said they weren't clear how generative AI could benefit their business.
- 66% said they’ll try generative AI for work within the next 12 months.
- 25% said they’re currently using or testing generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, Google Bard and Microsoft Bing.
Asked how they were using AI, a large number said they used it to generate text. Asked where that content was being used, most respondents said they were using it on their business websites and social media platforms.
The survey also queried non-adopters as to what was preventing them from using generative AI. In response, 46% said they were not yet clear on how generative AI could benefit their business while 32% said they were unsure about the best way to apply it.
One other figure worth noting is that 80% said they’re concerned about privacy, ethical and intellectual property issues associated with AI.
Generative AI Leaders Want AI Regulation
In fact, privacy is a widespread concern around generative AI, with many tech CEOs and business leaders publishing a letter calling for further regulation.
The letter from the Center for AI Safety states: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."
The list of signatories includes Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, Chris Olah, co-founder of Anthropic and Geoffrey Hinton, who recently left his post at Google.
The Center of AI Safety's mission statement states its goal is to reduce societal-scale risks from artificial intelligence. OpenAI has been pushing this agenda after Microsoft invested billions of dollars in it.
The statement only emerged this week so it’s early for end-user organizations to react, but we can expect some kind of regulation in the future. What form that will take is anyone's guess.
Teams Premium Offers Intelligent Meeting Recap
Meanwhile, as organizations and researchers study the impact on the workplace and the world, vendors in the space continue to push out new products, or new adaptations of older projects.
This week, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft announced the general availability of Teams meetings recap for enterprise customers with Teams Premium editions.
Microsoft indicated this was on the way at last October’s Ignite conference. Recap uses AI to provide an overview of what was said in each meeting, even for those who couldn’t attend. It also suggests possible follow-up actions based on the discussion and highlights suggestions that were mooted during the meeting.
For anyone working remotely, or in a physical location that makes attending a meeting difficult, the value of this cannot be overestimated. A lot of research has been devoted to the overwhelming nature of meetings, so a solution that frees people from having to listen to an entire recording to identify a few salient points would be welcome.
Webinar
Sep
25
CMS Briefing: A Live Look at What’s Next in AI-Driven Platforms
Learn how leading organizations are using AI‑driven tools to publish faster, personalize smarter and stay secure.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Ready or Not: How Data-First Organizations Are Unlocking Agentforce Potential
Learn how to cut through the noise, activate Agentforce and build a Salesforce AI strategy that actually delivers.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
AI in Customer Service: Faster Resolutions, Happier Customers
Don’t let rising demand burn out your team. See how to build a smarter, more resilient support org.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Hype to High-Impact CX Strategies That Actually Scale
Turn buzzworthy AI and outsourcing trends into measurable CX wins with fresh 2025 data.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Insights to Action Rethinking the Contact Center for Real Business Impact
Join our exclusive webinar to hear CX executives share their innovative strategies for transforming service delivery.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Accelerating Healthcare Ops with AI
Sign up to see how your peers are putting AI to work — and making it stick.
Watch Now
In a blog post about the release, Microsoft noted that 55% of people in its Work Trend Index 2023 reported a lack of clarity around what next steps were following a meeting, with 56% reporting that it’s hard to summarize what happened in a meeting. The blog reads: “Meeting overload, fragmented conversations, and the added coordination burden from hybrid work all make getting – and staying – on the same page as a team challenging."
What the report fails to note is better meeting practices could avoid many of these issues.
Recap is designed to help solve the problems of inefficient meetings. Different elements of the new Recap are already being rolled out as of the end of May with a lot more on the way over the coming months.
Sana Labs $28M for Knowledge Management
Meanwhile, Stockholm-based online learning and knowledge platform Sana Labs has landed another $28 million in funding.
The round was led by NEA with Workday Venture participating in the round. This latest round brings the total Sana has raised to $62 million in Series B funding.
According to a statement from the company, the platform blends enterprise search, a learning management system, meeting tools and a knowledge management system. The entire platform is underpinned by Sana AI, which the company describes as an “omnipresent assistant.” This assistant integrates with a company’s knowledge base and enables employees to learn and use knowledge faster than they currently do.
Joel Hellermark founded Sana in 2016 and it has raised $85 million to date, according to Crunchbase.
Alcion Raises $8M to Launch BaaS Platform
Finally, this week, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Alcion announced it received $8 million in seed funding as well as the launch in public preview of its AI-driven backup-as-a-service (BaaS) platform.
Alcion, which was founded in 2022, provides Microsoft 365 administrators with a platform to protect against ransomware, malware, corruption and accidental data loss, according to a statement from the company. The co-founders, Niraj Tolia and Vaibhav Kahmra were the team behind the Veeam acquired Kubernetes backup company Kasten.
CEO Tolia said in the statement that the funding would enable it exit stealth mode and start selling the product. The statement also explained that the data protection is supplied through a security-focused architecture and includes predictive Recovery Point Objective (RPO) reduction as well as integrated threat detection and response algorithms.
This is a key to Alcion’s offering as the company claims that traditional Microsoft 365 backup solutions are often unaware of ongoing security threats and are limited to reacting after an event has happened.