Iron is hot, how much should you forge? There is a lot of interest and positivity in AI, even if challenges and risks are identified. It is not yet a one-size-fits-all solution, but understanding will grow through experimentation and piloting.
Text by Altti Lagstedt Photos by Altti Lagsted + artificial intelligence
In autumn 2024, TIVIA Association, the Association of Project Professionals (PRY) and Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences conducted an AI at Work survey. The survey was answered by 365 people, mainly project and ICT professionals; the answers seemed to be related to the use of AI applications.
The multiple-choice questions of the survey were already discussed in the workshop Ai² – From Plan to Practice, organised by the PRY. But what do we find if we go deeper and look at the open-ended responses?
A personal challenge
The main challenge was skills, which is not surprising for new technologies. Around a third of the responses dealt with a lack of skills or competences. This relates to concerns about the lack of appropriate tools and the benefits to the organisation: AI has been tried, but many have difficulty seeing where the beef is. Some respondents expressed mild disappointment and disbelief in the usefulness of AI. Security and reliability of responses also emerged as concerns. However, resistance to change and negative attitudes were in the minority (less than 10% of respondents). There are challenges in the use of AI, but there is also an attempt to improve the situation and find solutions – AI is still in its exploratory phase.
Organisational capacity
Organisations seem to have a positive attitude towards AI: positive attitudes were seven times more common than negative ones, although some organisations banned AI altogether. The need for skills also emerged here, with around a quarter of respondents citing a lack of resources and almost as many citing unclear policies. In many organisations, the potential of AI is not fully understood, making it difficult to move forward and to train people, which in turn makes it more difficult to grasp the potential. So it’s a bit of an egg-and-chicken situation. Some organisations want to follow the experience of others before moving ahead. Pilots or experiments were mentioned in about one sixth of the replies, strategies and training in almost as many. This suggests that a significant amount of mobilisation has taken place.
For and against
The introduction of AI seems to have sparked a wide-ranging debate in organisations. While there is a lot of hype, there are almost three times as many arguments of concern as of opportunity. Concerns are mainly related to reliability, security, job losses and ethical issues. Although concerns were highlighted, negative attitudes were expressed in less than a quarter of the responses. There seems to be a tendency to keep one’s feet on the ground when it comes to AI and to look for useful applications, taking into account the risks.
Organisational development over 1-2 years
A similar positive attitude towards the potential of AI was also evident when assessing the development of their own organisation in the coming years: a positive attitude (around 34% of responses) was about seven times more frequent than a negative attitude (around 5% of responses). The main concerns seemed to be unclear policies and lack of training, while on the other hand, various experiments and pilots seem to be widely underway. Against this background, there is the already mentioned egg-and-chicken situation, which at least in some organisations is being tackled through experimentation and learning from it.
Afterword
Based on the above, it would appear that:
- widespread interest in the use of artificial intelligence
- key risks (such as reliability and security) are outlined in fairly general terms
- there is a positive attitude towards the use of AI, and it is widely seen as both making work more efficient and changing the nature of work
On the other hand:
- the applications of AI for work are still unclear and unstructured
- it is not yet possible to accurately assess what changes will be made to processes and workloads
- partly because of the above, policies and plans are unstructured and it is challenging to provide appropriate training
In this context, encouraging experimentation and pilots, and a broad exchange of experiences, may be the most effective way forward in the use of AI, learning and the elimination of inappropriate uses. PRY conducted a similar study on AI deployment in early 2024, and the speed of change is unparalleled when comparing the results.
No previous technology has hit organisations with the same force as AI, and all the evidence suggests that the pace of AI will continue to accelerate.
As a brief recap, the main findings of the survey’s multiple-choice questions (compared to the survey conducted three quarters (9 months) earlier):
The use of AI in their own work had increased significantly:
- Dramatic drop in NO response at all
- Daily, as well as weekly use multiplied
- The amount of AI-related training had increased significantly, but most of those who had studied the subject still relied on their own knowledge search
- Colleagues’ prejudices had decreased
- The use of AI at organisational level had increased significantly, with more and more organisations implementing or planning to implement it
- However, in more than a quarter of the enterprises, planning had not been initiated or even discussed
5. AI was seen more as a small or moderately sized efficiency enhancer than as a significant silver bullet
Author:
The author is a senior lecturer in digitalisation of business and application of artificial intelligence at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. He is involved in several research projects related to this topic and is leading the EUSAir project (https://www.haaga-helia.fi/fi/hankkeet/eusair), which will define AI testbed solutions (AI sandboxes) for the whole EU in the period 2024-2026.
