share on
“I always say to colleagues: AI is not going to take your job. What will take your job is someone who knows how to use it better than you do,” Penta’s President Conall McDevitt shares in this exclusive.
Organisations are embracing AI in the workplace to help improve efficiency and make better-informed decisions. But how have employees perceived the adoption?
A surprising finding from the latest research from Penta showed that, compared with senior executives, junior-level employees are less enthusiastic about AI at work, and use it much less frequently.
Having surveyed 500 US-based corporate employees from companies with at least 5,000 full-time workers in July 2024, the results revealed a gap in attitudes and behaviours between senior executives and more junior-level employees towards AI integration in the workplace.
Key findings included:
- 71% of senior executives were optimistic about AI integration, while junior-level employees expressed nearly as much concern (42%) as optimism (51%).
- Senior executives (86%) were far more trusting of AI to assist in their job than directors/managers (68%) and associates (49%) were.
- Senior executives were more likely to believe AI would lead to job creation (61%) and better decision-making (61%).
- On the contrary, 46% of associates believed AI would instead replace workers, compared to 31% of executives who agreed.
What are the challenges for embracing AI?
Talking about AI adoption in the workplace, Conall McDevitt, President of Penta, tells HRO’s Tracy Chan exclusively that the biggest challenge is probably cultural.
The cultural challenge, according to McDevitt, operates at two levels – one is at the organisational level, and the other is the idea that AI will take people’s jobs.
“I always say to colleagues at any level within an organisation: AI is not going to take your job. What will take your job is someone who knows how to use it better than you do,” he affirms.
“The threat is that a whole pile of the workforce refuse to understand that change is happening, and they get replaced by people who do understand that change is happening.”
He elaborates on how a protectionist mindset hinders organisations from embracing the opportunity for change.
“If an organisation always worries about what will go wrong, and thinks about how to stay unchanged, AI will freak that organisation out from an organisational culture point of view, and lead the organisation to a state of insecurity and uncertainty. Those two things breed all sorts of unhealthy cultures and behaviours within the organisation.”
How to align all levels within the organisation to change
Echoed by the research, the successful incorporation of AI requires cultural adoption at all levels. But one interesting finding is the misalignment of the usage and awareness of AI between the senior and junior levels:
- While a majority of large-corporation workers were familiar with AI, senior-level executives (95%) reported significantly higher familiarity (vs. 85% of directors/managers, and 74% of associates).
- Senior executives were most likely to report using AI frequently, with 43% using it once per day, compared to only 21% of directors or managers, and 11% of associates. However, 34% of associates said they had never used AI tools in their current role.
- Senior executives were significantly more likely to report leadership discussion of AI at their company, with 21% saying AI is discussed every day, 32% saying several times a week, and 17% saying once a week. However, 35% of associates said they had never heard of such discussions.
“This shows that at an organisational level, organisations haven’t caught up with the change. Therefore, people at the earliest point in their career are not being empowered, told, or encouraged to think about AI within the organisation,” says McDevitt.
While the leaders of scaled organisations are typically aware of the opportunities, and want to understand and explore AI, McDevitt indicates that such individual curiosity, commitment, and awareness at the leadership level haven't turned into business strategy nor positively affected the organisational culture.
To turn leadership awareness into organisational commitment, McDevitt shares: “I think the first thing is organisations, particularly large organisations, need to make a decision on whether they are going to integrate and adopt AI as part of their organisational future. If they choose to adopt, they need to start thinking and planning the organisational strategy around the integration of AI.”
He then lists out three dimensions to consider:
- Human – Leading with the message that it isn't AI that is going to take the jobs, it is other organisations that can use it better that will take the market share and therefore jobs will be lost.
- System – Where to use this technology? How to use this technology? What functions within the organisation are most appropriate, helpful and efficient to use it? Those decisions should be taken with a robust level of participation across the organisation.
- Compliance – Making solid rules about the usage of technology. It will only be successful if it is done gradually, and in a way where the entire organisation can keep up with.
What training do people need?
To successfully integrate AI in the workplace, there was consensus that company-wide training and workshops are critical, which was agreed by 49% of senior executives, 67% of directors and managers, and 57% of associates, followed by more pilot programmes and demonstrations.
For younger employees, who are tech natives having grown up around technologies, McDevitt emphasises that the focus of training should not be on 'how to', but on 'what to' – what are they going to use AI for, what are the right questions to ask, and the right instructions to give to Gen AI.
“This sort of training will get people to think in a way like a ChatGPT, and to understand how it will process the information, so they can speak a common language with it,” McDevitt explains.
For senior executives, it's all about business strategy and generative AI or AI generally. “I think for senior leadership, it's all about baking AI into business strategy, not corporate strategy,” he says.
How the technology and human relationship will go forward
“Many large organisations are scaled with a management structure that is just about the processing of information,” McDevitt says.
“As AI develops and becomes embedded in organisations, information will be processed in a more efficient way. It should change how decisions are made and how organisations are structured. And it will probably flatten the organisation, allowing people to continue doing what they have been good at, rather than having to give up what they do really well and becoming managers.”
As AI is not going to replace humans, how should humans put it in our best use?
In general, McDevitt believes leaders must commit to using technology for good, not for evil. That means global leaders should agree on certain moral and legal standards and hold themselves to.
Another critical question business leaders need to be asking is “what role will AI play in guaranteeing the sustainable future of organisations?”
“People need to be comfortable with that. And if they are not, they need to give themselves some time to get comfortable with that.”
For HR, it all comes around being human after all.
“I would say to any HR leadership group, this technology should enable you to spend more time with your people,” McDevitt asserts.
“Get the technology to do things that aren't about spending time with your people, such as analysing stuff, helping with the back-office administration, and helping with sifting of CVs at the very basic level but always be careful to make sure that it is not being biased.”
He concludes: "It is your job to spend time with colleagues, particularly colleagues who are not in a good place, supporting them and thinking about them as human beings. Your principal duty is to the person. My challenge to senior HR leaders in our organisation is to think about that and come back to me with some ideas as to how that will happen."
If you've got a great story to tell on how your organisation has deployed AI, do participate in HRO's Employee Experience Awards 2025, where we have a category dedicated to 'Best HR Digital Transformation Strategy' as well as another on 'Best Use of Technology in Employee Engagement'. Contact our team here to find out more.
share on
