European bosses confident GenAI will benefit employees

A significant majority of business leaders across Europe are optimistic about the impact of generative AI on their employees, according to the latest research from LinkedIn. 

More than four in five (82%) bosses surveyed by the world’s largest professional network – which recently reached a billion members – believe GenAI will ultimately benefit their workers. 

Executives based in Germany are most optimistic about the benefits of the emerging technology (93%), followed by those in the UK (81%) and France (80%).

The top way leaders think GenAI will help employees is by removing boring, repetitive tasks (60%), in addition to increasing productivity (53%) and freeing up time for more creative thinking (50%).

More than a third (38%) can also foresee generative AI creating brand new roles at their organisation. 

“AI holds huge potential to improve the way we work and is already reshaping jobs, businesses and industries,” comments Olivier Sabella, VP for EMEA and LATAM at LinkedIn.

“I regularly talk to our customers about the opportunity of AI. There is real excitement about the potential to remove the drudgery of day-to-day, repetitive tasks so their teams can focus on higher value, people-centric work – the things that bring people greater enjoyment and businesses greater value.”

AI reshaping the world of work

LinkedIn’s latest report, ‘Future of Work: AI at Work’, shows AI is already reshaping the world of work as companies look to maximise the technology’s potential.

‘Head of AI’ roles have tripled globally over the past five years, while job posts mentioning AI have more than doubled globally in the last two years. 

Meanwhile, professionals are demonstrating a desire to improve their skills in AI. 

LinkedIn has seen an 80% increase in members watching AI-related learning courses on the platform in recent months, as well as a 60% month-on-month increase in GenAI skills being added to members’ profiles since January 2023. 

Despite this, business leaders and professionals agree people skills are set to become even more valuable. 

Nine in 10 UK executives, for example, agree soft skills are more crucial than ever, and employees believe skills such as communication (48%), adaptability (48%) and problem solving (46%) will become more important as work continues to evolve.

“Business leaders across the world are currently figuring out how to get their workforce ready for an AI future,” adds Sabella.

“They’re improving AI literacy through skills development, putting in place guidelines for how the technology will be used, and building the technical capabilities needed to adopt these tools amongst their teams.”

Read the full report: Future of Work: AI at Work

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