Firms deploying AI ‘creating more jobs’

Written by Anthony Strzalek

07/09/2017

Organisations deploying artificial intelligence (AI) are actually creating jobs and increasing sales, a new Capgemini report has found.

The study of nearly 1,000 firms who are using AI, counters fears that AI will cause massive job losses in the short term, as 83 per cent of firms surveyed said that AI has generated new roles in their organisations.

The research also highlighted the growth opportunity presented by AI, with three-quarters of firms seeing a 10 per cent uplift in sales as a direct result of AI implementation.

Specifically, organisations are producing jobs at a senior level, with two in three jobs being created at the grade of a manager or above. Furthermore, among organisations that have implemented AI at scale, more than three in five (63 per cent) said that AI has not replaced any jobs in their organisation.

Alongside the trend towards job creation at management level, the report provides further evidence that organisations see AI as a means of reducing the time employees spend on routine and administrative tasks to enable them to deliver more value.

The majority of respondents (71 per cent) have proactively initiated up-skilling/re-skilling of employees to take advantage of their AI investments. For those who have implemented AI at scale, the vast majority believe that AI will make complex jobs easier (89 per cent) and that intelligent machines will coexist with humans within their businesses (88 per cent).

Ron Tolido, chief technology officer for insights and data practice at Capgemini, said: “AI has the capacity to revolutionise every business in every market sector; its potential is broad and unlimited. However, we are seeing a large contrast between those who are rolling out applied AI solutions at scale and reaping tangible business benefits, versus those who are simply trialing the technology.

“It’s also quite revealing that organisations are focusing more of their efforts on the more complex AI projects and missing out on simpler projects that could drive quicker returns. Organisations, especially those not yet implementing AI at scale, should focus on those low-complexity, high benefit projects to quickly and better leverage the power of AI.”