In May this year, British Safety Council (BSC) commissioned YouGov to undertake two research projects. The goal of this research was to capture the views of employers and employees around technology and the future of work, with particular regard to people’s jobs and safety.
To capture attitudes towards artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) in the context of workplace safety, 2006 respondents in employers were surveyed and 2012 employee respondents.
AI, the future of work and its impact on workplace culture, employee health and wellbeing were hot topics at our sister event The Watercooler in April and it’s an issue we’ll be revisiting at the Leaders’ Summit at MAD World too.
Topline findings
- 63% of 2000 employers and 41% of 2000 employees report optimism about the impacts of AI on their workforce and workplace respectively.
- Over a quarter (26%) of employers and employees alike reported a belief that AI would make the workplace less safe over the next decade.
- 26% of employers also believe that AI could make workplaces safer, a belief shared by only 13% of employees.
- 48% of employers feel optimism about the impacts of augmented reality (AR) on their workforce and 33% of workers report optimism about the impacts of AR on their workplace.
- When asked what proportion of workers would be replaced, by AI, over the next decade, 20% of employers foresaw that less than 10% of their workforce would be replaced by 2034.
- 6% of employers foresaw that over 50% of their workforce could be replaced by 2034 and 19% of employers foresaw no role replacement, at all, by 2034.
Differing opinions
Responses reflect differing degrees of uncertainty about what the future will hold and what role technology will play in shaping the safe workplaces of the future. Whilst the findings support a general optimism around the role that technology will play in improving workplace safety, clear concerns about role replacement and whether new and developing technologies will contribute to safer or less safe workplaces are clear throughout the dataset (and from both audiences).
Attitudes towards AI
Both the employer and the employee panels report similar findings around the possible impacts of AI on the workplace/workforce respectively. 26% of both audiences report that AI could make workplaces less safe. 26% of employers report that AI could make the workplace safer, and this is compared against 13% of employees reporting optimism around AI and workplace safety.
While the collected data is unable to explain the reason/s for this divergence, wider inferences can be drawn around the impacts of role replacement and the prevalence of public and media discourse around AI, which leans heavily towards extreme scenarios (e.g., mass job displacement due to AI) rather than a more nuanced view of the future.
Objectively speaking, employees are more likely to be impacted by role replacement and this may contribute to the greater presentation of negative views reported in the dataset. As employers are less likely to be replaced by new and developing technologies (certainly within the parameters of the question) employers may be able to take a more nuanced and balanced view that weighs risk alongside anticipated reward.
Change
Employers are more likely to be drivers of change, rather than passive actors and are more likely to display a greater awareness of the pace and impacts of change. Typically, employees are not involved in the strategic process of change and are likely to be unaware of the pace and/or possible impacts (on micro and macro level). This can fuel uncertainty and could be a contributing factor to responses in the dataset.
Optimism/Pessimism around new and developing technologies
Employers and employees report having less optimism about the safety impacts of AR and VR, than AI. This, again, may be a result of the place of AI in public and media discourse. Divergence can again be found within the dataset, which shows net employer optimism 15% and 12% higher for AR and VR respectively.
Both panels displayed some degree of optimism about the potential impacts of AI on the workplace. Net optimism was greater with employers (at 63%) than for employees (at 41%), reflecting earlier commentary.
Gaps in the data
Questions to both our panels did not ask whether respondents had experience with the introduction of new and developing technologies into their business/es. Employers may have experience (both positive and negative) of introducing new and developing technologies into their workplaces, particularly with AR and VR, which have a longer history of use in the workplace than AI.
You might also like:
