New online research into the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace has revealed that office workers in financial services who were surveyed, are more likely than any other industry to believe technology that incorporates AI would be able to do a more accurate job at financial forecasting (49%) than a human.
The research, which was carried out by YouGov on behalf of Headspring, surveyed 2,000 UK office workers to unveil exactly what they think about the advances in AI technology in relation to their jobs. The study also looked at how business leaders think AI will change roles, to see if employers and employees have the same expectations.
According to Headspring’s report, over three quarters (77%) of those surveyed working in financial services admit to not currently using any form of artificial intelligence in their current role – a further 5% admitted to not knowing if they used the technology. However, on a national level, financial services and accounting appeared highly among jobs that office workers believe would be able to do a more accurate job than a human, if handled by AI.
The top five jobs are:
- Data handling (59%)
- Financial forecasting (42%)
- IT (35%), Accounting/managing finances (35%)
- Productivity management (24%)
- Communications (17%)
A common theme revealed in the research was the importance of human instinct and decision making alongside AI. Among office workers surveyed who work in financial services, almost two in five (38%) associate AI technology with creating ’robots or systems which replace human jobs’. However, when thinking generally about decisions made in relation to their current job, 49% of this audience said they would be more likely to trust decisions made by humans than AI, with just 7% saying the opposite – 28% said they would be likely to trust them equally.
Daniele Grassi, CEO of Axyon.AI, told TFT:
“Technological innovation has been an ongoing focus for financial services for years. AI, however, represents a major leap forward, as this technology can offer vastly improved efficiency when it comes to the data-heavy tasks present within the industry. At the same time, AI allows firms to move beyond traditional methods of analysis and use more sophisticated indicators that rely on alternative data sources and new, machine learning-based algorithms.”
