Bosses are getting tired of AI at work, and preferring to hire humans for "specialist" roles once again

• Report finds 94% of directors use AI at work, however widespread judgement (or the feeling of being judged) continues
• SMBs experience less guilt, and are more likely to use the tech compared with enterprises
• A minority of companies actually want to replace human workers with AI

Bosses want to fill roles with human specialists, not AI, it turns out - as a new Monday study has uncovered mixed feelings about artificial intelligence in the workplace.

For example, while 94% of directors use it at work, many leaders still feel judged for using AI tools. And that guilt is at its highest in enterprises, rather than SMBs, where it's often perceived as a shortcut rather than a productivity tool.

The reality is that the tech performs best as a productivity tool rather than a job replacer, allowing humans to take on higher-value and strategic work with the free time they've gained from handing over repetitive and administrative tasks to the computer.

Humans and AI can live together at work

Monday described AI guilt as both "real" and "unwarranted." "This juxtaposition speaks volumes about the current state of AI," Nielsen EMEA GM Inam Mahmood explains in the report.

At the same time, organizations are still trying to figure out where exactly AI might be of most value.

Small businesses use AI 3.5x more per employee than enterprises, which are more likely to face siloed workflows and compliance hurdles, while marketing, tech and finance businesses may actually be underperforming with AI compared with construction and real estate workers.

Then, there's the overwhelm. Three in four (76%) directors regularly switch between multiple AI tools, with only 2% relying on one single tool.

However, while some hesitations still remain, the report does prove that AI is complementing human work rather than displacing workers. Most leaders aren't actually adopting AI to reduce staff, and many are making changes to hire more AI-literate talent to pioneer this new human-machine collaborative style of working.

With only around one-third (38%) of directors citing labor reduction as a motivator for adopting AI, Monday says AI-induced mass job losses are being challenged as a myth.

"While concerns about AI-led job displacement haven’t disappeared, there is a different reality also unfolding in the workplace," the report concludes.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.