Accenture: Survey shows companies are reluctant to spend money on AI training for employees

Most corporate executives expect artificial intelligence to significantly change the way their companies operate in the coming years. But despite the technology’s growing role, few companies have begun training their employees to adapt to the changes.

The above conclusion comes from a survey of more than 1,200 CEOs and senior managers by international professional services giant Accenture PLC (ACN), which released the survey report at the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland last week.

Almost all respondents, who come from a variety of industries and work for companies that currently use AI in at least some form in their daily operations, said they plan to use intelligent tools to enhance their employees’ work capabilities.

74% of respondents expect that various tasks at work will be automated to a large or very large extent through artificial intelligence in the next three years; as many as half of the respondents said that previous job descriptions have become obsolete as certain office jobs are automated.

Still, only 3% of executives surveyed said they planned to significantly increase spending on training to help employees adapt to new AI-driven technologies, an investment Accenture researchers call “re-skilling.”

This disconnect can cause many employees to panic, fearing that their jobs will be replaced by automation technology, and those who feel the most insecure are those doing routine or repetitive work.

Most executives surveyed by Accenture expect their companies to see a net increase in jobs over the next three years driven by artificial intelligence, but just over half believe that humans and machines working together is a key component of their growth strategy, according to the survey.

Accenture researchers warned that if companies are less willing to invest in employee training, their ability to adopt artificial intelligence on a large scale may be affected.

From: wsj