AI in the Office: Most Workers Trust AI's Autonomous Future

Salesforce's recent research reveals a growing acceptance among global workers for AI co-workers in the autonomous AI workplace, with systems capable of operating with minimal human oversight. The study, which surveyed nearly 6,000 workers, found that 77% anticipate trusting a fully AI-powered future. Currently, only 10% trust AI to operate autonomously, but this is expected to increase significantly within the next few years. Workers are most comfortable delegating tasks like coding, data insights, and communications to AI, while preferring to handle inclusivity, training, and data security personally. Despite the optimism, there remains a significant portion of work that employees would not entrust to AI, highlighting the importance of balancing technology adoption with adequate training and knowledge.

We are entering the era of the autonomous AI workplace. In other words, some of us officially have AI co-workers.

Autonomous AI is a branch of AI in which systems and tools are advanced enough to act with limited human oversight and involvement. That means that as we continue to use more AI tools and delegate work to bots, they will become workers themselves and end up being self-sufficient in many ways. They are AI agents, that interact with their environment, collect data, and use the data to perform self-determined tasks to meet predetermined goals.

Salesforce released new research this week on how nearly 6,000 global workers feel about an autonomous AI future. Surprisingly, most workers (77%) say that they will eventually trust a fully AI-powered future. Right now, 10% of global workers trust AI to operate autonomously, 26% will trust AI to operate autonomously in less than three years, and 41% in three or more years.

“We’re already really excited about what this can unlock,” said Paula Goldman, Salesforce’s chief ethical and humane use officer, at a press briefing. “We believe the key to getting to AI agents successfully and where it can operate, where you set it, let it go, and inspect it after, is really this thoughtful design of combining the best of human and machine intelligence for this era.”

Full story at Digiday.