AI literacy impacts perception of the technology at work, new survey reveals

New survey data from SAP reveals a strong link between employee AI literacy and employee sentiment on AI in the workplace.

More AI literate people feel less fearful about using AI at work than their less literate colleagues, according to a survey of 4,000 employees and managers, released this week by SAP SuccessFactors.

Nearly 70% of people with high AI literacy expected positive outcomes from using AI at work, compared to 29% of people with low AI literacy, the study found.

Additionally, people with low AI literacy were more than six times more likely to feel apprehensive, seven times more likely to feel afraid, and more than eight times more likely to feel distressed about using AI at work than those with high AI literacy.

“This juxtaposition, the discrepancy here, it’s something to unpack, and what role does HR play here, they have to set some clear understanding to employees, or else they’re drawing their own computations,” said Autumn Krauss, chief data scientist at SAP SuccessFactors.

The survey relied on criteria considering five factors to assess AI literacy:

1. People with high AI literacy know how to apply AI tools to achieve goals or make tasks easier.
2. They can detect when a tool uses AI or when they’re interacting with the technology.
3. They know about the concepts related to AI.
4. They understand AI’s limitations and opportunities.
5. They consider ethical factors when deciding whether or not to use AI.

“The concept is not work specific,” Krauss said. “So people can get that literacy in lots of ways. How much are they exposed to [AI] in other places, and then that’s finding its way into how they think about it at work.”

Additionally, 55% of all people surveyed believed that employees who use AI should have better performance reviews than those who don’t use AI.

“This is evidence of employees leaning into a new resource, a new tool, trying something out, to try to improve themselves, improve their work, and so in that respect, they should get recognized for that,” Krauss said.

So what’s HR to do? As AI tools make their way to the workflow, HR and learning and development (L&D) teams can also work to spread basic AI literacy.

“Perhaps some high-level communications have been launched, and certainly, I think we’ve seen a lot of encouragement [to] give it a try, but that’s not the same as some level of primer, or confidence building,” Krauss said.

While some organizations have already invested in learning modules and curriculum to educate employees about how AI tools are being used at work, there are many ways for businesses, HR teams and L&D pros to raise awareness and literacy.

“[I’m]…a big firm believer of the peer role-modeling learning model, and finding those who are the early adopters, who are the AI literate to…share their knowledge with others,” she said. “These [are] learning pods that are much more attached to functions and real practical examples of how they’re using it in their daily life, and letting that spread through the business.”

Opportunities for hands-on learning and sharing AI success stories, can also do the trick, according to Krauss.