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photo: Alexandra Koch
Organisers of a new survey on artificial BroadCast Unitedligence in the workplace say they want to find out what’s needed to help New Zealand businesses adapt to the AI era and measure its impact on productivity.
New Zealand Artificial Intelligence Forum is working with Victoria University and Callaghan Innovation to measure the impact of AI on business.
The first round of this quarterly series of surveys closed on Friday, with 300 responses received.
Madeleine Newman, executive director of the Artificial Intelligence Forum, said there was little empirical evidence on AI, both domestically and internationally.
Everyone is talking about the impact of AI on the workplace, but no one has been able to accurately measure it, she said.
“As someone on the front lines of AI, I’m often asked to provide data to give meaningful context to the stories we hear about New Zealanders using AI, particularly as the technology has grown exponentially over the past 18 months.
“But we don’t really understand what impact AI is having on New Zealand workplaces, who is using it and how.
“While there is a lot of anecdotal information, there has been no independent research done. This is not just a New Zealand problem – there is a lack of academically sound, rigorous data internationally as well.”
She said the research should give a good indication of how AI could help address New Zealand’s “poor productivity record”.
Last year, the now-defunct The Productivity Commission found the country’s productivity is among the worst among OECD advanced economiesAny gains in productivity in recent decades have come from more people working longer hours.
one Deloitte Research Research shows that a company’s widespread adoption of generative AI (which has not yet been integrated into its systems) could save employees up to 5.4 hours of time per week.
“That’s a big difference, and if you want to imagine the impact that has on a surgeon who can spend more time with their patients, or a teacher who can spend more time teaching, then that’s really significant extra time.
“For those of us who are also working really hard, maybe (it means) being able to stay home a little longer.”
Newman said the “best-case scenario” for the survey would be to find more people adopting AI and increased productivity.
“The worst-case scenario is slow adoption of AI, skepticism and even outright restrictions on its use. Given that the magic of AI has already been fully unleashed, this response will still help us gain a clearer understanding of what needs to be done to help people adapt.”
Newman said the initial survey collected 300 valid responses, which will provide a good foundation, but he hopes future surveys will attract about 1,000 participants.
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