Majority of IT managers think AI is coming for people’s jobs

Two thirds of UK organisations say they are prioritising AI in their IT and customer service thinking, according to a new poll from 8×8. As a result they are starting to assess the roles and working hours of employees. The Future of Work: 2030 Vision Report [registration], surveyed the opinions of over 400 IT and Customer Experience (CX) managers. It looks into the projected makeup of the global workforce in 2030, organisations’ technological priorities between now and then, and the current and future challenges they may face.

According to the report, AI has swiftly risen through the ranks of UK business leaders’ priorities to be the joint first tech priority (65 percent) alongside cloud communications (65 percent). This stands in stark contrast to the priorities in the US where cloud communications is seventh (37 percent).

When it comes to the future of employee experience (EX), UK leaders rank AI (88 percent), big data (85 percent), and cloud communications (82 percent) as the most impactful.

Sixty-eight per cent of UK based managers believe AI will take more jobs than it creates and only 20 percent think AI will be a net job creator. The global average is 57 percent and 27 percent respectively.

Only 12 percent of UK organisation’s communications and contact centres remain on-premises. Two years ago, the global average was over two-fifths (42 percent).

The UK is leading the way in adopting single-vendor cloud-only environments. Twenty-four per cent of firms have fully migrated and consolidated, whereas the global average is 15 percent. Still, almost two-fifths globally (39 percent) say they plan to soon follow the UK’s lead.

A four day week

Sixty-four per cent of UK IT and CX leaders think that by 2030 the average number of days a full-time employee will need to work is either three (33 percent) or four (31 percent). Only 20 percent see a continuation of the current five-day week.

Hybrid working will continue to be the norm (68 percent), and in this environment, UK leaders expect video meetings (66 percent) to be the number one communication tool they’ll use –  as do all other regions (69 percent). The UK, however, places the use of virtual reality (61 percent) much higher than other regions (50 percent).

Get ready

Globally, IT leaders’ top three challenges and their preparedness for them are cybersecurity (68 percent), digital transformation (60 percent), and digital disruption (60 percent). For each, the UK is 10 percent above the average for preparedness, with 78 percent, 70 percent, and 69 percent respectively.

The UK is also above the average for preparedness for the top three CX leaders’ challenges, which are retaining talent (65 percent), adapting to customer expectations (75 percent), and reducing operational costs (62 percent). For all three, the global average is 60 percent.

Demonstrating its preparedness, 78 percent of business leaders report that they have a defined strategy in place for the future of work. This is much higher compared to North America, where 67 percent of US and only 48 percent of Canadian business leaders have a defined future of work strategy in place.