Appcast, the global leader in recruitment marketing technology and services has announced findings from the Decoding Global Talent 2024: Work Preferences in the Age of AI report published by Boston Consulting Group, The Network, The Stepstone Group, and Appcast. The fourth global study on international workforce trends, this report—the second from the most recent study—reveals that most survey respondents are not concerned about losing their job to AI.
Across the globe, 86% of survey respondents have heard of generative AI and 39% use it regularly, defined as a few times a week or month. While U.S. respondents’ regular use of GenAI is slightly higher (41%) than the global average (39%), it’s far behind countries like India (74%), Pakistan (61%), China (53%), Morocco (52%), and Tunisia (52%).
The report finds that few U.S. respondents (6%) are worried about their job being eliminated due to AI. Most feel that either some tasks will change and they’ll learn new skills (40%), the job will be transformed and there will be significant upskilling required (16%), or that the job will not be affected at all (39%).
“While AI may replace some routine cognitive tasks, it is more likely to augment human work by enhancing productivity and creating new job opportunities,” says Andrew Flowers, chief labor economist at Appcast. “The survey findings truly underscore the concept of the ‘Centaur worker,’ where humans collaborate with AI to combine their strengths, exemplifying this labor-augmenting potential. This symbiosis can lead to higher efficiency and creativity, ultimately reshaping the labor market in a positive direction.”
AI adoption among U.S. survey respondents appears to be highest among those in the under 30 age bracket (55%) and those who are highly educated (54%), which are both higher than the global average. GenAI adoption is most prevalent among IT (71%), digitalization, AI, and data science (71%), marketing and media (69%), and design, art, or architecture (64%) professionals.
People around the globe are using GenAI for personal and professional reasons, underscoring the range of its applications. In the U.S., 35% of those who use it at work are using it for writing tasks, 34% for administrative tasks, studies, learning, and research (32%), and 31% for creative tasks. On the personal side, 42% use AI for learning development, 33% for facts and general knowledge, 28% for content creation, 26% for career advancement, and 25% for recommendations and hobbies.
GenAI is formidable, yet remains a work in progress, as many U.S. survey respondents can attest in how they use the final outputs. Approximately 39% say they review the output and make a few changes before using it, 24% use it only as input and still do most of the final output themselves, and 18% say it depends on what they’re using it for. Further, 19% have confidence in GenAI and use the outputs directly without any further improvement.
