Nearly 80% Workers Trust Autonomous AI Future, Humans Critical To Getting There: Research

Workers today already trust artificial intelligence to do almost half of their work tasks. While workers feel most comfortable when AI and humans work together, they are also beginning to trust AI to complete time-saving tasks autonomously, like writing code, uncovering data insights and drafting written communications, according to new research by Salesforce Inc. 

The survey of nearly 6,000 full-time knowledge workers, including from India, showed that workers aren’t delegating everything to AI just yet. They prefer tasks like onboarding, training and keeping data safe to be overseen by humans, but this likely won’t last long. Data also suggested that investing in knowledge and education builds trust in an autonomous AI future. 

Below are the findings from the research:

While enterprise leaders trust AI to do 51% of their work, rank-and-file workers trust the technology to do 40% of their tasks. Workers today already trust AI to do roughly 43% of their work tasks, indicating a shift to offload tasks to the technology.

According to the research, 77% of workers will eventually trust AI to operate autonomously. This number includes 10% who trust AI to operate autonomously today, 26% who will trust the technology to operate autonomously in less than three years, and 41% in three or more years.

More than half of the workers trust humans and AI to do most work tasks together. However, only some workers trust AI to do these same tasks autonomously.

Tasks they felt comfortable with offloading to autonomous AI included:

• Writing Code: 15% trusted AI to write code autonomously; this share was higher among Indian respondents at 16%.

• Uncovering Data Insights: 13% trusted AI to uncover data insights on its own.

• Develop Communications: 12% trusted AI to develop internal and external communications without a human; 14% Indian respondents trusted AI on this.

• Act As A Personal Assistant: 12% (13% Indian respondents) trusted autonomous AI to act as their personal assistant.

According to respondents, other tasks require having a human involved right now. Workers are most likely to trust humans alone to do the following:

• Be Inclusive: 47% trusted humans alone to be inclusive. 

• Onboard And Train: 46% trusted humans alone to onboard and train employees.

• Keep Data Safe: 40% trusted humans alone to keep data safe. 

According to research, 63% of workers said more human involvement would build their trust in AI. Concerns about AI may come from a lack of understanding, with 54% of workers saying they do not know how AI is implemented or governed in their workplace.

Workers who are knowledgeable about how AI is implemented and governed are five times more likely to say they will trust AI to operate autonomously within the next two years than those who are not knowledgeable.

Research also uncovered an AI knowledge gender gap, with males 94% more likely to say they are knowledgeable about how AI is implemented and governed in their workplace compared to females. 

Training may be another key to trusted autonomy, with 62% of workers saying more skill-building and training opportunities would build their trust in AI.