New Study: Your Company’s AI Tools Aren’t Boosting Profits—Yet |
New Study: Your Company’s AI Tools Aren’t Boosting Profits—Yet
When is a lot of hype too much hype? Just ask thousands of business leaders who’ve rolled out pricey new tech to little advantage.
BY KIT EATON @KITEATON
Illustration: Getty Images
If you’re one of the people who think the promise of modern AI tech is just too good to be true, you’ll be especially interested in new data that backs you up. A new study from Massachusetts-based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found that the majority of executives who’ve deployed AI tech across their companies simply don’t think there’s been any meaningful impact on productivity. The leaders in the survey also said they felt AI hadn’t impacted employment habits either.
Some of this runs counter to lots of reports about how AI is already allegedly transforming the world, so what’s happening here?
It turns out we may all be just a bit ahead of the curve.
The NBER study involved quizzing nearly 6,000 executives in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Australia, the Register, a technology news site, reported. That’s a lot of company leaders in a lot of diverse markets, immediately lending some heft to the report’s stark findings. Some 69 percent of the companies in the survey already used AI in some form, and 75 percent expect to use AI in the next three years, skewing toward “younger, more productive” firms.
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But over 90 percent of managers surveyed said AI had no impact on employment, and 89 percent said there had been no big changes to productivity as measured in revenue per employee.
This looks like pretty damning data that counters narratives about AI’s transformational value, and its negative impact on entry-level jobs. If you’ve been wary about rolling out the tech across your own outfit, you may be backing further off the idea at this point.
The thing is the NBER data does have some positive things to say about AI. And mainly it suggests that while AI may not yet have delivered on its promises, the executives who’ve been using it really do think it’ll add value in the coming years.