But the phase of structural adoption by the general public is still a long way off. In other words, we humans don’t change that quickly, and perhaps we are not yet fully convinced of the added value. For example, a personal AI budget of €100 per month that people can expense for AI they use to become more productive could lower the barrier. More on this at the end of the article.
The Status of AI as of June 2024
Richard Fletcher and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (Oxford and Reuters) have conducted an extensive study in six countries—Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, England, and America—on the adoption of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and CoPilot, as well as the impact AI has on ‘the news’ and our perception of what we read. Below, I have highlighted some of the most excting findings.
- About a quarter of the people in the surveyed countries have still never heard of ChatGPT or any of the other frequently mentioned AIs in the media, such as Gemini, Claude, CoPilot, or Perplexity.
- Younger generations commonly use AI to obtain information (24%) and create different media types, including text, audio, code, images, and video (28%). Only 5% of people use AI to find “the latest news”.
- People feel more comfortable with news written by humans (like this article!). However, this also depends on the topic. For topics such as sports and fashion, AI may be more acceptable, but not for politics or international affairs.
We’re Overestimating the Short-Term Impact and Underestimating the Long-Term Impact
These figures show that there is still a long way to go before AI is widely known and adopted. As the saying goes, we tend to overestimate the impact of AI in the short term and underestimate it in the long term. Another saying is that “everyone is talking about teenage sex, but nobody is doing it.” This could give the impression that ChatGPT and all other AIs are just hype, but nothing could be further from the truth. The current impact on businesses is already enormous, and we are only just at the beginning of what is to come regarding transformation and reorganization. People will start to adopt AI when they realize that Gemini and ChatGPT can provide them with the answers to their questions, including the relevant references. This is much faster and more pleasant than the answers that Bing or Google gives us now. The good news is that Google and Bing are also improving by implementing OpenAI and Gemini. It’s great that you no longer have to wade through all the ads and then open all the links with optimized answers for Google (and not necessarily for the searcher). Steven van Belleghem’s Search 3.0 principle is accelerating the AI revolution for the general public.
AI as a Driver of Productivity and Innovation
AIwill not going to take over your job, at least not all of it. However, the person who masters AI will. A software developer who uses AI in their development activities is, on average, 2.3 times more productive. If there is a reorganization, I know who will keep their job. This, of course, also applies to recruiters. Those who work with AI, such as RecruitAgent.ai, ChatGPT, In2Dialog, Carv, etc., or those who stick to their old ways.
Fortunately, recruiters are always curious, even if they are not necessarily the innovators. The latter group is much more the (recruitment) marketers. Recruiters and many other professions use ChatGPT or another AI. However, there is a big difference between using AI occasionally and using AI’s full potential structurally, namely $20 per month. Now, $20 per month might not seem like much, but still, this money often isn’t spent.
In many cases, they believe the organization they work for should pay for it. In that case, $20 per month is preventing them from doing it. It’s a combination of ‘principled resistance’ and a ‘responsibility issue,’ where people believe that driving productivity and innovation should be initiated by the employer. It’s somewhat comparable to training opportunities that people want, but mainly if they are offered by the employer. It’s a strange phenomenon (there’s not a name for it, and I asked ChatGPT about it), but something that has a simple solution.
Give everyone within the organization the freedom to spend up to 100 euros or dollars per month on (safe) AI and allow them to expense this without any questions. This removes the financial barrier and immediately identifies the innovators within the company. They will hopefully not only be the ones to grow in productivity but also be able to point out how the organization can be successful in the changing market dynamics, including the implications of Search 3.0.
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