ChatGPT at work

Is there a place for Generative AI at work? The debate is mixed. This insight goes over the pros, the cons, and the solutions.

If you have even half a foot in the door to the tech industry, news, opinions, and insights start to flood your feeds. It is easy to just get swept up in amazing new AI developments, but it is equally important to continue hearing the worries and concerns our industry brings. Fidra Analytics loves adding to these conversations, positive or negative; and one debate in particular keeps catching our eye. There is mixed views on whether Generative AI platforms, like ChatGPT, belong in the workplace? Here is a bite-size amalgamation of the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

What are the stats?

Stats reveal that UK job candidates with AI experience have a 45% greater chance of success than those without it, so clearly there is an employer demand for AI competency. ChatGPT is now frequently being used in-office to write email drafts and generate reports. According to Deloitte’s annual Digital Customer Trends Survey, there was a 66% surge in Generative AI usage amongst British workers over the past year. The ability of these systems to quickly summarise large quantities of information is insurmountably useful. Improvements to the tech only serve as further temptation to hand off all work-related writing tasks to AI. A fascinating survey conducted by IZA in June 2024 asked 100,000 people across 11 occupations for their opinions. Over a half of all participants had used AI at work, estimating that for at least a third of their tasks, AI more than halved the turnaround time.

Clearly AI serves a workplace purpose, but experiences aren’t always positive.

The cons?

The wider debate on this topic is divided. ChatGPT is great, but is it better than human agents? Inarguably, Gen AI can often lack nuance and detail, producing results that do sound robotically computer-generated. The systems learn the craft of language from finding textual patterns in huge datasets. That means the output will often include repetitive phrasing or grammatical structures shrouded in a monotonous, impersonal tone. Not to mention the occasional source hallucination, misinterpretations of opinions or figures, biases. Sceptics warn that GPT-esque platforms cannot yet replace human judgement, and should only be used in the early planning stages of tasks. Especially at work, where the consequences of accidentally mistaking the facts and over-relying on shaky responses are grave.

What’s more, the IZA survey revealed something surprising. It is assumed that the main reason for worker disengagement and hesitation with AI is due to the mainstream fear of job loss that the tech presents. IZA found that the most common reason is actually due to employer restriction and lack of training. In this way, its easy to see why attitudes towards ChatGPT are tentatively lukewarm. Partially dodgy results and no formal guidance sounds like a workplace hinderance, not help.

Of course, the Fidra Analytics team are no strangers to AI, whether that be the RAG systems we build or the LLMs we use to help gain insights. We use them as tools to make tasks quicker, and feel that the quality of output greatly depends on the confidence of the user. For employers, training staff on AI usage and prompting is an easy way to introduce greater efficiency in the workplace. There is definitely room for the likes of ChatGPT at work, but it does ultimately come down to employee knowledge and awareness.

What is the solution?

Fidra Analytics believes that AI is not here to replace or slow down your human workers, but rather bring out their expertise and create a more efficient environment. Flawless and entirely reliable AI has a long way to go, but for now employers can start with staff training. Fidra Analytics run workplace training programmes that teach staff how to use AI safely and effectively. AI is great at information retrieval. Humans find it laborious. Why not free up those humans to do the more important and complex tasks – the ones that really matter?

If you’d like to know more about AI, or indeed if you have any questions, do reach out and let us know. We can discuss your business’ AI goals, and whether our team of experts can help.

www.fidra.ai

Back to Insights