The AI Push Begins… Now?
Experts say firms need to step up their AI game, but a new study finds only a small portion of them have a cohesive strategy in place. What needs to be fixed.
After more than three years of rapid advancements, massive spending, and numerous proclamations that the technology will change everything, experts say firms can no longer experiment with AI. Time to get serious, they are being told. The only problem: Almost a quarter of them still have no clear vision around AI.
In a new Microsoft survey of 1,600 C-suite leaders, mid-level managers, and individual contributors, one in six said that many of their coworkers were poorly trained in AI or that their firm was broadly unsupportive of AI initiatives. Another 10% said their coworkers did have good AI skills, but lacked the systems to use them effectively. “There’s a lot of undirected energy,” says Bryan Ackermann, Korn Ferry’s head of AI strategy and transformation.
Experts cite a variety of reasons to explain the high number of laggards. For one, the laggards have watched their peers spend—and spend—time and money on AI efforts, with no payoff. Only 5% of firms investing in generative AI (which drives most AI tools) say they break even or have a positive return on investment, according to recent research from MIT.
Many firms bought AI tools and infrastructure without asking themselves what exactly they needed AI to do, says Todd Blaskowitz, a Korn Ferry senior client partner in its AI Strategy and Transformation business. “You need to have a strategy around AI before making the big investment,” he says. Fewer than one-third can even effectively measure the return on their AI investments, according to research from IBM.
Other firms have pushed for AI use, only to give scant guidance on how it should be used. One study found that 75% of employees felt pressure to use AI or risk sanctions. This has created a class of employees who find themselves faking or exaggerating their skills. On the flip side, many employees worry that experimenting with AI could itself lead to negative repercussions. According to the Microsoft survey, 45% of AI users feel safer about continuing to focus on their current work goals than they do about incorporating AI into their process.
To be sure, not everyone is struggling. About one in five firms, 19%, said they had both a critical mass of highly skilled AI users and a good support system, according to the Microsoft survey. To truly flourish with AI, experts say, organizations likely will have to redesign how work is done, digging into each role and determining which tasks are best suited to AI and which to human ingenuity. This type of workforce transformation is difficult under any conditions, experts say, and the speed of AI’s evolution makes it even more challenging. In addition, there’s emotional resistance to AI itself, with some people fearful that AI’s chief contribution will be to reduce headcount. “Some people wonder, ‘If I redesign my job, am I redesigning myself out of a job?’” Ackermann says.
Companies need leaders who will try out AI tools themselves, then share their successes and failures with their direct reports. By personally experiencing AI pain points or epiphanies, these managers can insightfully coach their teams to improve performance using the technology. Taking time to understand AI can go a long way toward helping employees with their anxiety around it.
Learn more about Korn Ferry’s AI in the Workplace capabilities.
