Main Street Macro: AI and the global workforce

Artificial intelligence—heard of it? Of course, you have. In the past year, advanced AI has made its presence known on Main Street and worldwide.

What we know as generative AI has been around in less-sophisticated forms for decades, but it only recently captured the public’s imagination with the release of inexpensive tools that create content on the fly.

In our annual global survey, the ADP Research Institute asked nearly 35,000 private-sector workers in 18 countries how they felt about artificial intelligence. Here’s what they told us.

Workers are ambivalent about AI

Eighty-five percent of workers believe AI will impact their job in the next two to three years. Those same workers are split on AI’s effect on the workplace. Forty-three percent think AI will help them; 42 percent think it will replace at least some of their existing functions.

Worker confidence plays a role

Among workers who say AI will help them every day, 70 percent say they have the skills they need to advance their career to the next level within three years. Of those who say AI will replace most of their existing functions, only 45 percent think they have the skills they need.

Younger workers believe AI will affect them

Only 5 percent of workers 18 to 24 believe AI will have no effect on their jobs, compared to 20 percent of workers 55 and older. But the younger the workers, the more evenly split they are on whether AI will help them or replace some of their job functions.

We don’t know yet what the future holds for AI and the workplace. What we do know is this: As technology develops workers, regardless of age, will need training, continuing skills development, and flexible work roles to keep up with the pace of change.

To learn more about worker sentiment and AI, see our two-part report released this week. 

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