Europeans positive to AI use but job worries remain
A majority in Europe believe that digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, have a positive impact on their jobs, the economy, society, and on quality of life. 62% of Europeans view robots and AI positively at work and 70% believe it improves productivity. But 66% believe the use of robots and AI means that more jobs will disappear than new jobs will be created, according to a new Eurobarometer published by the EU Commission.
67% think the use of digital technologies, including AI, can improve workers’ safety and security.
“While a majority supports using robots and AI to make decisions at work, 84% of Europeans think that AI requires careful management to protect privacy and ensure transparency in the workplace”, the report says.
66% believe that due to the use of robots and AI, more jobs will disappear than new jobs will be created, and that robots and AI steal jobs.
“However, both these proportions have declined since March 2017 (-8 pp and -6 pp, respectively). In addition, 61% agree that robots and Artificial Intelligence have a negative impact on communication between colleagues.”
Most Europeans support clear rules for the use of digital technologies, for instance protecting workers’ privacy (82%) and involving workers and their representatives in the design and adoption of new technologies (77%).
Key findings:
- More than six in ten believe the most recent digital technologies currently have a positive impact on the economy, their quality of life and social security benefits (all 62%).
- More than half (56%) indicate that the most recent digital technologies have a positive impact on society.
- Large majorities think that rules addressing risks and maximising the benefits of digital technologies in the workplace would be important
- More than eight in ten (82%) say protecting workers’ privacy would be important in addressing risks and maximising the benefits of digital technologies, including AI, in the workplace.
- More than seven in ten think it would be important to involve workers and their representatives in the design and adoption of new technologies (77%), to enforce more transparency in the use of digital technologies to handle HR decision-making (75%), to prohibit fully automated decision-making processes (74%) and to limit the automated monitoring of employees (72%).
- Around seven in ten consider themselves to be sufficiently skilled in the use of the most recent digital technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, to be able to benefit from digital and online learning opportunities (71%, +14 percentage points since March 2017) and in their daily life (70%).
- Overall, respondents are concerned about the use of digital technologies, including AI, to automatically fire workers (78%), to monitor workers (63%), to assess performance (57%), to select applicants for a job (57%), to gather additional information on applicants for a job (50%), and to collect, process, and store personal data (49%).
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