The State Of Generative AI In The Workplace

Generative AI is here to stay, and employees are using the new tech big time.

Professionals across sales, marketing, finance, product, engineering, and information technology are all exploring new ways to integrate it into their workflow. 

To get a better understanding of generative AI in the workplace, we surveyed professionals. We wanted to know about their opinions, usage, organization policy, and the benefits and challenges of generative AI tools at work. Here’s what we found. 

Let’s study the numbers more closely.

Knowledge and use of generative AI is already widespread

Nearly a year after generative AI tools became the rage, employees are preparing to incorporate them. Many are already using them for work-related tasks. Here’s the proof showing that gen AI technology is becoming ubiquitous in the modern workplace.

• 9 out of 10 workers say they have a fine understanding of generative AI tools, which suggests a growing knowledge base and comfort level with generative AI technology in the professional world. 
  

• A vast majority of professionals (75%)  already use generative AI tools for work-related tasks.
  

Here, we shed light on the frequency of generative AI tool usage. 

• 21% of respondents utilize generative AI tools on a daily basis. A third of those use them multiple times each week.
• Another 20% employ generative AI tools several times a month.  
• 29% have reported never using the tools, and it includes people who have not integrated generative AI tools with their work.

The survey results also suggest there’s not much prevailing anxiety or fear of losing jobs to AI among workers. Some professionals even view AI as a catalyst for creating new roles or transforming existing ones. 

• 61% of respondents expressed confidence that advancements in AI would not significantly affect their jobs. 
• About 29% of workers who do worry about AI advancements affecting their jobs also believe that it will create new job opportunities. 
• Only 10% worry about AI affecting their job.

Generative AI tools have recently become accessible to the public, but users are rapidly integrating them into other software. 

The frequent usage underlines the consistent relevance of generative AI tools in daily work routines. Organizations should recognize the value employees are placing on AI and encourage them to experiment with generative AI tools. 

Each department can be tasked with finding the most functional use case for maximum value out of the technology. By strategically integrating these tools into various departments and processes, you boost efficiency, foster innovation, and enhance productivity.

In addition, leadership would do well to remain attentive to the sentiments of those employees who are worried about AI and job security. Proactively address their concerns through training, upskilling, and transparent communication about how your company plans to use generative AI tools. This will build a more resilient and adaptive workforce.

ChatGPT and Bard lead the pack

No surprises here. Taking the top spots for the most used generative AI systems are ChatGPT, the conversational AI chatbot by OpenAI, and Bard, from Google. Our data shows professionals most favor open-source, free-to-use AI software. 

• Nearly 98% of professionals across all departments report using ChatGPT for work-related tasks. 
• At 35%, Bard is a distant second place. 
• 27% of respondents pay for ChatGPT Plus, the paid version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool. It uses the GPT-4 model, suggesting some professionals are willing to invest in advanced features and capabilities.
• Surprisingly, Dall-E is the only text-to-image generator in the top 5 generative AI tools. It’s used by 23% of professionals.
• Other gen AI tools professionals use include Jasper (8%), OpenAI Codex (7%), Synthesia (5%), and Writesonic (5%). 
• 80% of the professionals who use OpenAI Codex come from engineering and information technology departments. 
• 2% of respondents say they use in-house software provided by their company.

ChatGPT follows a chain of thought (COT) technique in prompt engineering, which helps generate text, art, images, video, audio, and other deliverables to integrate in your business workflows.

Content and coding are the most used Gen AI applications 

How are employees using generating AI tools for work tasks? Well, it looks like a lot of text and codes. Matthew Miller, Principal Analyst at G2 focused on AI, is not surprised. He noted that this is consistent with the findings from our inaugural State of Software report, which shows that the fastest-growing AI category on G2 was synthetic media.

• 87% of respondents use generative AI tools for text creation. This includes writing articles, reports, emails, product descriptions, and chatbot scripts. This application of gen AI is not limited to any particular group of employees.

• 40% of professionals use generative AI tools for code creation, the process of writing code snippets, and automating programming tasks. Of this, 72% of users come from information technology, engineering, and operations departments. 
• 29% of respondents use gen AI tools to create graphic designs, artwork, logos, and prototypes. About a quarter of those users come from marketing and design fields. 
• Video and music generation finds the least use among professionals, with less than 5% of professionals mentioning it.

Nowadays, employees rule in favor of using AI for research and development to save their energy and optimize team bandwidth. 

Employees experience improved productivity, efficiency, and quality of work

The vast majority of employees who use generative AI tools at work report significant benefits. Tasks like document management, content creation, sorting of lists, strategy development, and customer communication have been automated, which reduced manual intervention and increased quality and overall team efficiency.

• A substantial 70.4% of respondents cite time saved as a prominent advantage of employing generative AI tools in their work. 
• For over half of the participants (51.5%), these tools have translated into heightened productivity, while 49% acknowledge the positive impact on the quality of their work.

• 23% of respondents note cost savings associated with generative AI tools at work. 
  

• A mere 2% express they do not discern any benefits from generative AI tools. 

Employees appear to grasp the risks of using generative AI tools

Within the workforce, there is a good amount of awareness about the potential risks associated with the adoption of generative AI tools.

• Only 6% consider the output generated by a generative AI tool to be completely accurate or reliable. 
• 75% of workers consider the AI-generated output mostly or moderately accurate and reliable, indicating a cautious yet optimistic sentiment regarding the technology's capabilities. 
• 18.3% consider the AI-generated output to be slightly or not at all accurate and reliable, which raises questions about the technology's overall dependability.
• These concerns are further substantiated by the fact that 48% of employees report having encountered factual errors in the AI-generated output.
• 48% worry about the legal implications of using AI tools.
• 43% express unease about security and data privacy issues related to these tools, while 35% harbor worries about potential bias in the AI models they use, along with ethical concerns associated with such bias
• 29% of employees feel that they lack sufficient training or understanding to effectively harness the capabilities of AI tools effectively, underlining the need for further education and awareness.

Organizations are still in the exploring stages 

While generative AI tools are gaining traction, organizations are using them at their own discretion. Take a look at the current state of implementation and policies within companies.

On one side, a majority of organizations have either started implementing or actively exploring the potential of incorporating generative AI tools into their tech stack and workflows. 

• 27% of knowledge workers note that their company is actively implementing generative AI tools into their workflow.
• Another 37% say they are currently studying the potential of generative AI tools for their organization.
• A notable 36% say their organization has not yet ventured into the area of incorporating generative AI tools.

A big bummer here is that a substantial portion of companies appear ill-prepared for the widespread use of generative AI.

• 53% note their organization doesn’t have a formal policy governing employees’ use of gen AI technologies. 
• Another 13% say their company is still deliberating their AI policy for work. 
• Just a third (31.3%) of respondents say their company has a formal policy that allows them to use AI tools for work. 

With a lack of clear guidelines or restrictions on gen AI from the company, employees are using them without seeking approval. 

• 19% of respondents using gen AI tools report that their organizations are unaware of this usage, leading to shadow IT, and 1 out of 2 employees who say so note that their company does not have a formal policy on gen AI use by employees. 

Research Methodology

In September 2023, G2 conducted a pulse survey of professionals who left reviews on G2.com in software categories relevant to generative AI, including but not limited to synthetic media, generative AI software, and AI software. The data above reflects responses from 170 professionals across sales, marketing, finance, accounting, operations, product, engineering, human resource, and IT, representing companies of various sizes and sectors.

Check out the generative AI trends in 2024 to see what's next for the worldwide AI evolution and how organizations will deploy them on a grander scale.