When it comes to automating tasks with artificial intelligence, more U.S. companies are turning the switch “on.”
A survey of CFOs conducted by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found a sharp increase in plans to use AI in the next 12 months.
To be sure, businesses have been automating tasks for generations, and the survey found that 60% of businesses plan to use software, machines or other technology to automate tasks performed by employees within the next 12 months, little changed from the 59% who said their company had automated tasks within the past 12 months.
But when asked specifically about the use of AI, the responses showed a significant shift: Among companies that plan to automate in the next 12 months, some 54% said they would use AI tools to automate tasks currently performed by employees, while 27% said they would not.
This is almost the opposite of the 37% who used AI for automation in the past 12 months and 60% who didn’t.
“CFOs said their companies are using AI to automate a variety of operations, including supplier payments, invoicing, procurement, financial reporting and facility utilization optimization,” Duke University professor John Graham, academic director of the survey, said in a statement. “This is in addition to companies using ChatGPT to generate creative ideas and draft job descriptions, contracts, marketing plans and press releases.”
Large enterprises are leading the charge into AI, with 76% of companies saying they will use AI for automation in the next year, up from 55% who used AI in the previous year.
Yet small and medium-sized businesses also weighed in, with 44% saying they would use AI to automate tasks in the next 12 months, compared to 32% who said they would not use AI, and 29% saying they had used AI in the past 12 months.
Given that employees multitask in their jobs, the study doesn’t necessarily suggest that companies will completely replace human workers with AI.
But it does suggest that AI skills will become increasingly important in the workplace, sooner than people realise.
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman told CNN that in three to five years, humans will have an “agent co-pilot” to help them with tasks.
“It’s a transformation of jobs. Human jobs will be replaced, but they’ll be replaced by other humans using AI,” he added. “The whole idea is to become humans using AI, to learn, to do and to make AI happen.”
But in the longer term, AI is likely to have an even bigger impact on the labor market.
Earlier this year, venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee reaffirmed his 2017 prediction that AI would replace 50% of human jobs over the next decade.
At the Fortune Innovation Forum held in Hong Kong in March, luck Editor-in-chief Alison Shontell asked him if the timeline was still valid.
He responded: “It’s actually surprisingly accurate. In 2017, 2018, and 2019, I was criticized for being too aggressive, and I was a little worried at the time. But now that third-generation AI is here, I think everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and trusting that it’s the right pace.”
