Generative AI seen boosting entry-level career progress
Generative AI has the long-term potential to create new job roles, transform organisational structures, drive human-AI fusion teams, and make managerial roles more specialist, according to Capgemini.
However, adoption remains low and nascent. Findings show that most employees lack the training they need to develop generative AI skills.
Capgemini Research Institute conducted a global quantitative executive survey in May 2024 across 15 markets in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific, including Singapore, India and Japan.
The study covered 1,500 respondents from 500 organisations in 11 key industries, with annual revenue of more than $1 billion.
Findings show that the majority of business leaders believe that entry level roles could become more autonomous and evolve into frontline managerial roles within the next three years.
With this in mind, the proportion of managers in teams across functions could expand from 44% to 53% in the next three years; only 18% of leaders and managers believe that generative AI will reduce middle management.
Employees think that, over the next 12 months, generative AI tools could lead to an average time saving of 18% for entry-level workers, implying there could be significant productivity improvements for junior employees.
However, the cost of the generative AI tool must also be taken into account, cites the report.
Further, 81% of leaders and managers expect new roles such as data curators, AI ethics specialists and algorithm trainers to emerge at the entry level.
“Generative AI tools are becoming more adept at assisting with complex managerial tasks, which could challenge the status quo of organisational structure and ways of working,” said Roshan Gya, CEO of Capgemini Invent.
He said generative AI has the potential to shift from a co-pilot to a co-thinker, capable of strategic collaboration, adding new perspectives and challenging assumptions.
“This shift could unlock significant value when tailored to specific business use cases but is dependent on several factors, including organisations prioritising building the skills and readiness of employees, taking proactive steps around talent acquisition and development,” the CEO said.
The report finds that generative AI is transitioning the view of future leadership and managerial roles toward becoming more strategic, focusing on decision making and fostering innovation.
Almost two-thirds (65%) of the leaders and managers surveyed see high potential in generative AI for complex strategic tasks, and more than half of leaders believe managers will play a critical role as catalysts of generative AI-driven change.
For nearly half (46%) of teams, AI is used simply as a tool to enhance existing capabilities and workflows. However, human-machine partnerships are starting to be embraced.
One in three teams are currently using AI as a “team member,” for example by enhancing human performance or using AI agents to complete predefined tasks without human intervention.
Despite the potential of generative AI to boost productivity across job functions, adoption remains nascent. While almost two-thirds (64%) of workers already use generative AI tools for their work, only 20% of employees use them daily.
Employees also lack proficiency in key skills, with only 16% believing they are getting the support they need to develop generative AI skills.
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