Part Three – The Digital Revolution (Part Fourteen)

Economic Unit

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Employment

There is an active debate about how much AI will reshape the workplace and which sectors and roles will be most affected. There is still no clear consensus on the net impact of AI or whether jobs lost to automation will be replaced by newly created roles.

Our research shows that 36% of businesses believe it is still too early to predict the impact of AI on employment. Interestingly, only one in eight companies (12%) believes that AI will result in a net increase in jobs within their sector.

In the qualitative responses from our survey, employment impact and customer service concerns were cited as reasons for not adopting AI. Examples include:

• “We don’t need it, and it would lead to staff reduction. Customers also need face-to-face interaction.”
  Small logistics company in Staffordshire

• “Customers prefer human interaction.”
  Small hospitality business in Staffordshire

• “We operate in a creative field. Replacing talented, creative individuals with AI technology is a slippery slope that could eventually lead to the extinction of human creativity.”
  Small marketing company in Norfolk

Business Attitudes Towards AI: Insights From Our Expert Panel

We complemented our research with discussions with industry stakeholders forming the “Digital Revolution Challenge Group,” who identified additional ways businesses are using AI across sectors.

Formal and Informal Use

• Companies do not always have a unified internal view on AI. Sometimes adoption is a leadership decision; in other cases, employees use AI without managerial approval—or even without managers knowing.

Negative Perceptions

• Some large companies use internal AI systems instead of external ones for security reasons.

• In a major media organization, there was skepticism about AI’s ability to make a meaningful impact due to concerns around accuracy.

• Some businesses expect AI tools like ChatGPT to become less useful over time, as organizations withdraw their data from publicly accessible training sets.

GDPR as a Lesson for AI Adoption

• GDPR implementation occurred largely because regulations required it, leading to thorough process reviews and strengthened security—similar to what AI integration demands.

• It will be interesting to see whether businesses that handled GDPR rigorously become those most confident in deploying AI systems.

Categories of Business AI Users

Based on the research, we developed four overarching categories to help explain how businesses interact with AI:

1. The Cautious

Many companies—especially small businesses—are wary of AI due to security risks and potential fraud. They miss opportunities to benefit from productivity gains that AI could deliver.

2. The Over-confident

Some digital-savvy employees may place excessive trust in AI’s accuracy, overlooking real risks such as tools known to produce incorrect or misleading outputs.

3. The Unaware

Some businesses do not realize they are using AI as software providers increasingly embed AI in their products. This can introduce unexpected risks, such as reliance on unvalidated external systems. Bloomberg Intelligence predicts that this embedded AI segment will be a key driver of industry growth.

4. The Effective Implementers

These are organizations comfortable with AI and capable of assessing its uses, risks, and limitations. Implementation approaches vary widely between sectors.