Workers are not as enthusiastic about artificial intelligence and automation as their bosses – The Australian Financial Review

Businesses are enthusiastically investigating the possibilities of artificial intelligence and automation, and workers are scared for their future.

A quarter of Australians fear redundancy due to increased use of artificial intelligence and automation as businesses increasingly investigate options, according to a new report into business use of emerging technologies.

The study from research firm Telsyte looks broadly across Australian businesses and the rapid adoption of new technologies under way, including artificial intelligence and automation, wearable technology, augmented and virtual reality and drones.

It finds that nearly two-thirds of businesses are already dabbling with machine learning or deep learning to improve operations or influence business decision making, with so-called artificial intelligence and automation technology use growing for things ranging from physical robots to digital assistants and chatbots.

Telsytemanaging director Foad Fadaghi said there was a distinct difference in the enthusiasm for intelligent automation among company executives from the general population. Despite regular statements that automation will augment rather than replace jobs, workers are not buying it.

The study found that financial processes are considered ripe for early automation with 65 per cent of chief information officers questioned saying they saw opportunities to deploy machine learning in financial modelling and fraud detection.

However, it is in customer-facing roles that jobs may be noticeably affected first, with almost two thirds of organisations saying they intend to use cognitive computing for applications like chatbots, which mimic human interaction.

"AI intentions are running at two speeds in the Australian market, with businesses much more bullish about using automation technology than consumers," Mr Fadaghi said.

"There is an undercurrent of fear in the average consumer about the impact of AI on jobs and future prospects for later generations in a highly automated world. When we compare with consumer research, we see that mainstream Australians are cautious about technology, in particular automation.

"One in four Australians are concerned they might lose their job to a machine or robot in the future, and only 45 per cent think the future will be betterthanks to the opportunities technology offers."

Elsewhere in the Telsyte study it found that organisations are rapidly adopting the internet of things (IoT), which means non-traditional connected devices like sensors and cameras providing vast amounts of data for analysis.

Almost 90 per cent of technology executives in the study said their organisation would be using IoT for important processes within five years, and 59 per cent of early adopters said they are already seeing cost savings from its introduction.

Meanwhile, over 60 per cent see value in smart wearable devices such as smart watches and smart glasses in their organisation, for internal operations, access control and customer-facing applications. More than half of organisations are investigating augmented reality applications and a quarter of tech executives believe that drones or autonomous flying vehicles will become useful.

Mr Fadaghi said this would include most sectors like agriculture and fishing with underwater drones, mining operations, security and surveillance, transport and logistics, warehousing and emergency services

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Workers are not as enthusiastic about artificial intelligence and automation as their bosses - The Australian Financial Review