Pluralistic: “A new research report from the Upwork Research Institute offers a look into the bizarre situation unfolding in workplaces where bosses have been conned into buying AI and now face the challenge of getting it to work as advertised:”

• Research by The Upwork Research Institute reveals that 71% of full-time employees are burned out and 65% report struggling with employer demands on their productivity. Meanwhile, 81% of global C-suite leaders acknowledge they have increased demands on workers in the past year.
• Leaders have high hopes that generative AI will help boost productivity, as 96% of C-suite leaders say they expect the use of AI tools to increase their company’s overall productivity levels. Already, 39% of companies in our study are mandating the use of AI tools, with an additional 46% encouraging their use.
• However, this new technology has not yet fully delivered on this productivity promise: Nearly half (47%) of employees using AI say they have no idea how to achieve the productivity gains their employers expect, and 77% say these tools have actually decreased their productivity and added to their workload.
• By introducing new technology into outdated models and systems, organizations are failing to unlock the full productivity value of generative AI across their workforce. Business leaders need to shift how they organize talent and work by balancing traditional and nontraditional approaches. This includes leveraging alternative talent pools, co-creating measures of productivity with their people, and becoming fluent in the language of skills rather than job descriptions.”