There may be a growing divide in who benefits from and who is curious about artificial intelligence at work, according to Cypher Learning survey results released Sept. 18. And that divide can affect who gets trained on the tech.
While more than two-thirds of workers surveyed said they view AI as a “friend” rather than a foe, 38% said they expect to need to retrain because their jobs will become obsolete, and almost half are concerned about job security.
Notably, younger workers, men and senior management are more likely to say they use AI at work and experiment with it, compared to women, workers over 55 and clerical or physical workers. These same workers — women, older workers and clerical or physical workers — were also less likely to say AI is changing their work for the better.
Similar findings have been noted in other research. A Sept. 4 report from Slack outlined “AI personas,” or examinations into how workers approached AI. Women and older workers were far more likely to be “the Rebel” persona, saying they never used AI at work and that it would be unfair if their colleagues also used AI.
Several studies have also indicated that women tend to be more reluctant than men to use AI — and the explanations for this are myriad. One study cited in the Economist posited that women may have less confidence compared to men to use AI without any training; another proposed that high-performing women used AI less often because of a perception of needing to ban themselves from using it, perceiving it as a cheat or shortcut.
Slack’s data also indicated that it might be a trust problem, one expert said during a press event, and that women may be more worried about AI replacing their work compared to men.
These divides extend to who has access to AI training, according to Cypher Learning’s results. For example, only 11% of workers over 55 had AI training, compared to 30% of those ages 18-44. And while 36% of men reported exposure to training, only 18% of women said the same.
“As AI increasingly permeates the workplace, fostering a culture of continuous learning through training and education will be essential to boost worker confidence,” Graham Glass, founder and CEO of Cypher Learning, said in a statement. “Some workers may feel overwhelmed by technology when training is not delivered in a way that is relevant to them and their role. For example, helping people understand the purpose of AI, and how to assess and validate outputs, will be more useful to some workers than extensive training in prompt engineering.”
