AI overtaking humans in the workplace, reveals study

The report revealed that AI has overtaken humans in image classification, basic reading comprehension, visual reasoning, and natural language inference. However, it still comes short for more complex tasks such as visual commonsense reasoning, advanced mathematics, and planning.

It was also found that there is a notable uptick in staff performance working alongside AI, using it to support day-to-day work tasks such as data analysis. Although the report warned of the “over-reliance” on AI becoming a future issue, highlighting a dip in performance when workers become complacent and over-trusting of AI’s results.

The fixation on AI in the workplace was shared by CEOs, with a survey from AND Digital revealing that three-quarters of CEOs have launched AI training bootcamps this year to help themselves and staff stay on top of AI trends. While nearly half of CEOs are concerned that their job could be at risk in future due to AI technology.

Sheila Flavell CBE, COO of FDM Group, said: "In our ever-evolving digital landscape, AI is dominating how businesses operate in terms of efficiency and growth. Businesses must continue to upskill and train their staff in AI so they can experience the benefits of these resources and thrive at the same level as high skilled workers.

AI offers workers and organisations an opportunity to boost productivity and efficiency at a rate we haven't seen before, and this is something that needs to be harnessed, fuelled by AI skills training, so the workforce is equipped to master rapidly evolving technologies."

The US topped the list as the leading source of top AI models, followed by China, the EU and the UK, with 61 high-profile AI models originating from US-based institutions during 2023.

The UK, in particular, has been prioritising investment in AI research and development in an attempt to position itself as a global leader in AI, fuelled by the Chancellor’s lofty policy ambitions. However, due to growing fears around AI from regulators and the UK’s competition watchdog, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is currently considering introducing AI regulation to slow down its development and mitigate growing risks.

Scott Lewis, SVP, Ataccama, said: "The most successful companies in the future will be those which take full advantage of AI tools, using them to automate necessary yet repetitive manual work, such as data cleansing and transformation to produce the good quality, governed data that is critical for trustworthy AI outcomes, and reallocating employees to more valuable, meaningful work.

“Having already made such a strong commitment to AI investment and innovation, it’s important that the UK takes a balanced, measured approach to regulating AI's potential risks without stifling its clear benefits if it wants to achieve its vision to become a global AI leader” he said.