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Workers in office jobs aren’t getting the AI training essential to keeping up with a changing labor market, a report from software giant Salesforce found.
According to the report released Tuesday, which was based on a series of anonymous surveys conducted by the company, about 70% of desk workers said they haven’t received generative AI training. And only 21% of respondents said their companies have clearly articulated policies around approved AI tools and use cases. And 62% think they don’t have the skills to effectively use the technology.
But that hasn’t stopped workers from trying. The report found that “workers aren’t waiting for permission to use AI.” Some 55% of survey respondents reported using tools that aren’t approved for their workplace, and 40% said they’ve used AI tools explicitly banned by their employers.
“Workers aren’t waiting for their employers to define protocols around the use of generative AI,” said the report. “Instead, many are diving right in, despite the absence of policies and approved tools, introducing a new wave of shadow IT that introduces data security and ethical questions.”
The CEO of Salesforce AI, Clara Shih, wrote in the report that “the unprecedented pace of change in AI requires companies to upskill their entire workforce.” She added, “This is not a ‘one-and-done’ exercise, but rather a continuous cycle of learning as AI evolves.”
But there are some companies rising to the challenge. While less than half of U.S. companies had taken steps to train workers in AI as of April, according to a LinkedIn study, businesses including JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, PricewaterhouseCoopers, AT&T, Verizon, Moderna, and General Motors are creating AI literacy initiatives for both their employees and the workforce at large. Amazon, for example, created a program that aims to train 2 million people across the globe to better understand generative artificial intelligence by 2025.