Despite widespread concerns about AI’s impact on jobs, 85% of workers globally expect AI to improve their jobs over the next two years, according to a survey released Dec. 18 by The Conference Board.
The findings include workers who also anticipate workforce reductions.
While 42% of workers expect AI to decrease employment at their organizations, 40% of the leaders surveyed also share this belief.
A majority of professionals, ,91%, said AI has already changed their tasks. Eighty-seven percent reported productivity gains and 57% cited increased job satisfaction.
However, the survey found that many companies lack a cohesive AI strategy. More than half of leaders 54%, said their organization has an insufficient link between AI redesign and business strategy.
<HEADING 5>HR’s Role
The survey also found that while AI is transforming jobs, workplace culture and skills, HR is often limited to training or adoption efforts rather than participating in upstream decisions on strategy, structure and work design.
Yet only 56% of leaders and 42% of workers believe HR is currently providing sufficient AI training and support.
<HEADING 5>Culture and Skill Gaps
Culture emerged as a decisive factor, with 56% of leaders and 48% of workers believing workers should be fully involved throughout AI redesigns.
At the same time, the skill gap is widening, with 68% of leaders saying their organizations struggle with insufficient employee skills to take advantage of AI redesigns.
“Workers are telling us something leaders need to hear: They believe AI will make work better,” Erka Amursi, principal researcher, human capital at The Conference Board, said in a press release.
“This optimism offers organizations a powerful foundation for building engagement, trust, and readiness for change.”
Additionally, The Conference Board urged organizations to take the following steps:
- Cultivate a culture rooted in transparency, psychological safety and continuous learning, including co-creating AI solutions with employees, normalizing experimentation and “fail-fast” learning, being transparent about how AI will reshape jobs and clarifying which tasks and skills will remain uniquely human.
- Invest in continuous upskilling, rethink performance expectations and redesign rewards to reinforce agility, collaboration and innovation.
- Talent models should evolve to accommodate rapidly shortening skill life cycles, new combinations of human and AI-enabled tasks and the increasing need for systems thinking and process redesign skills.
“AI is reshaping work at an extraordinary speed. Workers are largely energized by AI’s possibilities, but organizations must rethink how they operate or risk missing the broader value AI can deliver,” Matt Rosenbaum, principal researcher, human capital center at The Conference Board.
The research is based on global surveys of more than 900 leaders and workers, along with 26 enterprise executives’ interviews.