What role does artificial intelligence (AI) play in your daily working life? Have you embraced its use and incorporated it into everyday tasks, or is it something that you know you should look into at some point, but doesn’t yet feel particularly relevant?
Earlier this week, Shoosmiths announced plans to link its annual bonus to employees’ use of AI. The law firm has set an annual target of one million prompts, which will unlock a £1 million bonus pot to share with staff in its next financial year. According to its estimates, this target could be exceeded if every employee uses its AI tool four times during each working day.
Shoosmiths made the move in order to free up its people to spend more time on the human-to-human elements of their work.
Its motive addresses one of the biggest debates around the use of AI in the workplace, which has led to concerns for many individuals: that AI will, ultimately, take over many roles, leaving staff redundant. While such fear is understandable, as more organisations have begun to incorporate the use of AI into their business practices, the positive impact for employees has started to come to light.
According to research published by McKinsey in January this year, Superagency in the workplace: Empowering people to unlock AI’s full potential, 92% of the organisations surveyed plan to invest more in AI in the next three years, although only 1% said AI is already fully integrated into workflows and drives substantial business outcomes. This indicates there is still a great deal of as-yet-untapped potential.
The report also found three times more employees are using generative AI for at least a third of their work than their leaders imagine, with 70% of all employees surveyed believing that within two years, AI will change 30% or more of their work.
Whatever your personal view of AI, there can be no doubt that it is here to stay. Organisations and employees that embrace its capabilities, therefore, will inevitably reap the benefits. And, as AI tools become more embedded within daily working life, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more organisations following Shoosmiths’ lead and linking its use to bonus and incentive schemes.
Debbie Lovewell-Tuck
Editor
@DebbieLovewell
