AI improves work but puts skills at risk
According to a survey by the Fondazione studi dei consulenti del lavoro, those who use it benefit from it but fear consequences for their skills
by M.Pri.
greater productivity, more speed, but also awareness of not having enough training and risk of erosion of skills. These are the evidences highlighted by the research 'How AI is changing work: opportunities, risks and scenarios', presented on the second day of the Labour Festival, currently taking place in Rome.
Growing productivity
The survey, compiled by the Fondazione studi dei consulenti del lavoro, shows that artificial intelligence is increasingly being used in the world of work, especially by those engaged in intellectual, scientific, technical and managerial activities (around 80 per cent of those who use it). According to the answers provided by the sample, AI is used not only to process documents and reports, but also to organise ideas or generate new ones and to support decision-making.
This, on the one hand, results in reduced execution time and increased productivity (without, however, decreasing the time spent on the job), the ability to handle several tasks simultaneously and greater ease in learning new content. All this increases satisfaction and interest in one's work.
Error and Skill Fallout
However, the flip side of the coin is the awareness of being exposed to errors, not least because approximately nine out of ten workers have approached artificial intelligence without any specific training, but by practising first-hand in the field. This is compounded by fears concerning the misuse of sensitive data or information, dependence on the tool, reduction ofcritical skills and autonomy of judgement, loss of professionalism, standardisation and spersonalisation of work, but also potentially dangerous behaviour resulting from not fully mastering the tool (such as sharing confidential documents).
And since AI is used not only to retrieve information, translate or write texts, but also to make decisions, other side effects are a greater tendency to work individually, as certain tasks are less likely to be entrusted to collaborators or consultants, and there is also less discussion with other people in order to make decisions.
