For workers reconsidering their jobs amid the Great Resignation triggered by
the pandemic, there is a new trusted source of career advice: artificial
intelligence.
Though economists are hard-pressed to quantify it, a population-wide career
crisis has played a role in the current labor shortage, and that is reflected in a
new survey of workers from Oracle. It finds 93% of individuals saying they
took the last year to reflect on what is important; and 88% thinking about what
success means to them.
“For many of them that definition has changed,” said Yvette Cameron, senior
vice president, Oracle Cloud Human Capital Management.
Further, Oracle found 75% of workers saying they feel stuck personally and
professionally and there is growing reliance on technology to make career
decisions.
The majority (85%) of people taking the Oracle survey said they want
technology to help define their future — to identify the skills they need, ways
to learn those new skills, and next steps forward in their careers. More
specifically, the Oracle study found that 82% of employees believe AI can
support their careers better than humans.
The Oracle AI at Work survey was conducted among 14,600 C-level
executives, HR leaders, managers and full-time employees from 13 countries,
including the U.S., during the summer.
Employees are demanding more flexibility and control over their work/life
balance, and workers are motivated to gain new skills to succeed in careers.
But in uncertain times, employees have reported they often don’t know where
to turn to learn those new skills. “And what do you do when you don’t
understand the future,” Cameron said. “You turn to technology.”
She cited the ability for tech to spot skills gaps, identify skills that should be
developed and offer learning, and the ability to connect people automatically
to career ambassadors as applications that help individuals and organizations
make decisions that improve career paths and employee retention.
“People are trying to really find what they’re good at, or what they want to
spend their time doing,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at
staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “Especially in the times we’re
living in.”
Over the last decade, AI technology has advanced dramatically, and so has
its use in human resources. Tech vendors including Oracle and IBM have
software products making the case for AI as a core HR technology, and use it
within their own workforces as well.
“We see this across our service sector, and it is something that is very
important to our employees,” said Anshul Sheopuri, vice president and chief
technology officer, data & AI for IBM HR.
IBM claims it has developed AI that can predict if a worker is likely to quit with
a high degree of accuracy.
Experts say as business transformation through digitization has taken off, the
conversation has extended to technology and employees and the
convenience of accessing everything from the palm of one’s hands in
personal life has translated to the world of work. “We see it in the way we hail
a cab or watch a movie,” Sheopuri said. “They are looking for the same level
of ease when they’re growing their skills.”
Growing use of AI in the workplace is a phenomenon that Oracle has
studied in previous annual surveys. It has taken on new importance as
employers are facing a tough hiring market and difficulty retaining workers. AI
offers employees the chance to grow skill sets and apply those skills efficiently
to work that is in demand. Within IBM, the company uses AI software to direct
its employees to projects best suited for them, and connects them
to other jobs opportunities within the company.
Live chatbots are one example of AI that can provides workers with unbiased
views and recommendations, said Dan Schawbel, managing partner of
Workplace Intelligence, partner on the Oracle survey. It also allows
employees to get answers whenever they prefer. “If you pick up your phone at
three or four in the morning and have a chatbot that can answer your
questions, that is beneficial,” Schawbel said.
“There are so many options, yet it is hard to know what to do when,” he said.
“And I think that is a reason why people are turning to [AI] over humans, when
it comes to thinking about their career path and their next steps.”
This doesn’t mean qualitative data from people including mentors and peers is
no longer valuable. But the technology combined with other inputs will help
employees make more informed decisions, “regardless of where [they] are in
their career,” Schawbel added.
Almost all (98%) of IBM’s employees access the company’s AI learning
platform every quarter in an attempt by the company to drive high adoption
with the goal of greater skills acquisition. Sheopuri said the AI directs the
employees to recommended learning services that are relevant to their job
and connects them with other experts in the same space.
“The question becomes much more important, not just for the company in the
way we look at our skills, but also from the employee lens,” Sheopuri said.
AI also supports employees at the managerial level.
By feeding the data collected from lower-level workers to managers in a
consumable way, Sheopuri said it helps business leaders “make more
informed decisions around what to invest in, in order to support business
plans.”
Adoption of AI and collection of user data has stirred up controversy. But AI ’s
role seems poised to continue growing as workers seek new ways to make
progress in their careers.
“It comes down to thinking about how to use technology to identify what the
next opportunity is for [employees], and not just to identify it, but to point to
the right courses and skills that they are going to need to make that
transition,” Schawbel said.