Some people find it difficult not to panic when reading the latest iteration of the “AI Will Take Your Job” headline – especially given the rapid advances in AI tools in recent years. But Gus Nisbet, a 30-year-old music producer, is excited about what AI has to offer in the workplace.
“It’s all about co-creation,” says Nisbet, who also works as a creative strategist at audio branding agency MassiveMusic in London. It already uses generative AI tools including ChatGPT from OpenAI to simplify administrative tasks and enhance creative projects. “I would start with the idea and then use AI to materialize and develop it in more diverse ways,” he says.
Since Nisbet has integrated AI tools into his daily workflow, he has seen an exponential increase in efficiency. Tasks that would normally take half a day to complete, such as parsing client feedback on a project, can be handled faster when run through ChatGPT. “If you use it the right way, on the right task, you can get about four or five hours of work done in about 30 minutes,” he says. This extra time is used to focus on tasks that require complex thinking and creativity.
While the growing capabilities of artificial intelligence are certainly making Many workers worried, and others embrace the technology. They are already using the tools to improve productivity and efficiency at work. And emerging data shows that there may be more optimism about AI in the workplace than headlines – and our own biases – lead us to believe.
Microsoft’s annual Labor Trends Index, released in May 2023, shows that while 49% of people worry that artificial intelligence will replace their jobs, much more – 70% – It would delegate as much work as possible to AI to reduce workloads.
“Employees are more anxious about losing jobs than they are about losing jobs,” says Colette Stahlbaumer, general manager for the future of work at Microsoft. According to the report, 64% of workers struggle to get all their work done daily, often due to the constant stream of emails, meetings, and other digital distractions. Once workers start experimenting with AI tools, Stallbaumer says, they realize “these tools will not replace my job, they will actually be able to augment what I can do and my abilities.”
Stahlbaumer refers to her own workflow, where she uses artificial intelligence to run her meetings. “When every meeting becomes a digital artifact, you can approach it in a whole new way,” she says. Stallbaumer will use artificial intelligence to summarize key points of meetings she missed and can even ask her to analyze the meeting in real time, to determine what people agree on and what requires further discussion.