According to the UK boss of Microsoft, some companies are “neutral” in their approach to artificial intelligence.
A Microsoft survey of almost 1,500 senior leaders in public and private sectors and 1,440 employees revealed that more than half of executives believe their organization does not have official AI plans. Nearly the same percentage reported increased productivity gaps between employees using AI and those who do not.
“Some organizations seem to be stuck in the experimental phase and remain in neutral rather than moving towards deployment of AI,” said Darren Hardman, the UK CEO of high-tech companies.
Microsoft, a major financial supporter of Openai, the developer of ChatGPT, is driving AI deployment in the workplace through autonomous AI agents. These agents allow tasks to be performed without human intervention. Early adopters of Microsoft’s Copilot Studio products, which operate bots, include the consulting company McKinsey. McKinsey uses agents to schedule meetings with potential clients.
The Tony Blair Institute estimates that AI could create up to 3 million jobs in the UK, but also anticipates net job losses in the hundreds of thousands as technology creates new roles. Hardman mentioned to the Guardian that AI agents would eliminate the tedious digital tasks from people’s work, allowing them to focus on the creative aspects of their roles.
In terms of creating new roles in retail stores, such as data analysts, web designers, and social media managers, he stated: “And I think that the creation of agency workplaces will do the same thing.”
Hardman also mentioned proposed reforms to UK copyright law, which have faced opposition from the UK’s creative industry.
He said: “We believe it would bring clarity. I think it will support AI development.”
The UK government is proposing that tech companies like Microsoft can utilize copyrighted work without permission to train models. Critics of the proposal see it as a “wholesale” transfer of wealth from the creative industry to the technology sector.
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In other news, the former CEO of BP, Bernard Looney, has been appointed as the chairman of a UK technology startup. Looney departed the oil and gas company in 2023 after admitting to not fully disclosing a series of personal relationships with colleagues to the board.
He has been appointed to accelerate the expansion of data so that small and medium-sized businesses can utilize data to reduce costs and emissions.
Source: www.theguardian.com
