AI 'Inevitable,' Retraining Needed, Survey Finds

Much debated concerns about the impact artificial intelligence on the global workforce are again highlighted in a new study on AI adoption, but so too are worries among CIOs who worry they lack the in-house skills to deploy and manage machine intelligence. A survey of about 1,600 senior managers released this week at the World Economic Forum by IT services specialist Infosys Ltd. (NYSE: INFY) seeks to explore the cultural impact of AI along with near-time applications and implications. Survey respondents who have already deployed the technology said they are primarily using it to automate mundane business processes as a way of saving money and boosting productivity. Overall, however, more than half of all respondents (54 percent) said the biggest challenge to adopting AI remains "employee fear of change" along with an equal number who cited lack of skills required to manage deployments. Those findings appear to reinforce the need for employee retraining to simultaneously oversee the automation technology while boosting job security among the ranks of IT workers.