Employers investing in AI face shortage of skills needed for long-term benefit
While talk around AI and automation has for generations revolved around the idea of replacing labour, and downsizing wages, many employers are concerned that it will not have this effect. While employees using AI save an average of 7.5 hours per week on repetitive tasks, best results come from staff trained adequately in digital skills which are in short supply – meaning they are something they could expect a premium wage for.
Earlier in the year, a number of executives finally said the quiet part out loud, when they admitted that they hoped implementing AI could reduce labour costs. Speaking to the British Standards Institution (BSI), over 850 business leaders’ public corporate statements were analyses, with 61% of firms investing in AI with a primary view of improving productivity and efficiency. A 49% portion hoped it would reduce costs – something 18% directly said this would be linked to reducing headcount.
This has been seen across the consulting sector in recent months, as a growing number of large companies – including the Big Four – have announced reductions in graduate recruitment, opting instead to deploy AI technologies to handle entry-level tasks. While the short-term picture may mean this enables those firms to improve their profitability amid slow growth, however, they are potentially shooting themselves in the foot, looking ahead – by slamming a useful door to future talent in the face of entry-level staff.
A new study from Protiviti, in collaboration with the London School of Economics’ Inclusion Initiative has underscored this – by examining a divorce between the long-term and short-term concerns of executives. Surveying nearly 3,000 workers and 240 executives globally, the researchers found that economic conditions, such as inflationary pressures, were their top immediate concern.
Similar concerns which organisations often sweat – rising wages and the need of new skills for their workforce – were further down the top issues, though. And as firms continue to treat AI as a silver bullet for productivity, it may be that they are underestimating the costs involved.
The study also found that professionals at surveyed firms believed they were using AI to save an average of 7.5 hours per week – worth approximately £14,000 per employee per year in productivity gains, or the equivalent of one workday. However, getting the most from that will still require significant expenditure. A 93% majority of employees who receive AI training use AI in their roles, while only 57% have risked deploying it without training. At the same time, those with training are twice as productive, saving 11 hours per week compared with 5 hours for the untrained.
Despite this, training, retaining top talent, and addressing succession challenges still seems to be seen as more of a long-term priority – alongside talent and labour availability. Conversely, the longer this continues – saving money in the short term – the longer it will take firms to maximise their AI productivity boosts.
At the same time, it could maintain a level of scarcity for AI-related skills which will enable staff to ask for higher wages. And considering a growing number of employers are addressing this publicly, as a nakedly apparent mechanism to depress wages, there is something of a contradiction at play here.
Fran Maxwell, global leader of people and change at Protiviti, said, "AI isn’t just another tool for the workplace — it’s a catalyst for rethinking how they organise, lead and empower their people. The organisations that will benefit the most are those that embed AI into everyday workflows, redesign roles to focus on higher-value work, and give employees the confidence to experiment. This research shows that inclusive adoption across all generations doesn’t just improve productivity — it prepares companies for the next wave of change.”
