AI adoption is on the rise in Singapore with 52% of workers in this country using AI in their jobs and 53% excited about the prospect of AI replacing some tasks, according to Slack’s latest Workforce Index.
Despite business leaders continuing to emphasise urgency in leveraging the technology and the traction seen in Singapore, global AI adoption rates have slowed over the last three months — growing from 32% to just 36%.
In addition to a lack of training from employers, the research points to uncertainty and discomfort around AI usage. 45% of workers in Singapore report feeling uncomfortable admitting AI use to their managers for fear they might be seen as incompetent, lazy, or cheating.
“Too much of the burden today has been put on workers to figure out AI. It’s important that leaders not only train workers to use AI, but encourage employees to talk about it and experiment with AI out in the open,” said Christina Janzer, SVP of Research and Analytics at Slack.
“The arrival of AI agents – with clearly defined roles and guidelines – will also help with this, alleviating the ambiguity and anxiety many workers feel around using AI at work,” said Janzer.
For the Autumn 2024 edition of Slack’s Workforce Index, a survey was conducted between 2nd and 30th August, covering 17,372 workers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. These include 1,008 respondents in Singapore.
Findings suggest that without clear guidance, workers are confused about when it is socially and professionally acceptable to use AI at work — and are keeping their usage under wraps.
In Singapore, 45%of desk workers said they are uncomfortable admitting to their manager that they used AI for common workplace tasks.
Among workers in Singapore who reported feeling uncomfortable, the top reasons include fear of being seen as less competent, fear of being seen as lazy and feel like using AI is cheating.
On the other hand, global workers who are comfortable sharing AI use with their manager are 67% more likely to have used it for work.
Also, the data reveals a disconnect between what leadership wants employees to focus on and what workers expect they’ll focus on with the time saved by AI.
Globally, execs want employees to prioritise upskilling and innovation, while employees expect to use the time saved by AI to catch up on busy work and existing projects.
The top areas that execs want employees to prioritise to move the business forward are learning and skill-building, innovation and more work on existing projects.
What employees in Singapore expect they will do with the time AI helps them to save more work on existing core projects, administrative tasks and learning and skill-building.
Despite uncertainty around AI in their current workplace, workers in Singapore want to skill up on AI as 88% feel an urgency to become an AI expert.
However, 63% of workers in Singapore have spent less than five hours total learning how to use AI, and 30% of global workers say they’ve had no AI training at all, including no self-directed learning or experimentation.
Employers will need to solve the gap in training and get clear about AI guidelines, as current employees and new professionals entering the workforce will gravitate to more supportive workplaces.
Global workers with guidance to use AI saw a 13-percentage-point increase in AI adoption since January, while global workers with no guidance to use AI only saw a 2-percentage-point increase, from 8% to 10% since January.
In Singapore, 87% of workers say that a prospective employer’s ability to provide and enable workers with AI tools is a factor in their job search.
Nearly two in every five workers, globally, say they’d prefer working for companies that provide AI tools and enable their use.
Globally, people in their first job are 1.8x times more likely to say AI enablement is a “very important factor” in their job search.
