AI Usage Quickly Broadens From IT To HR And Marketing, Survey Shows

The use of generative artificial intelligence has quickly become ubiquitous across various types of jobs over the past year, spreading from information technology to areas like human resources, according to a survey of 800 business leaders at large corporations.

About 72% of decision makers reported that generative AI is used at least once a week, up from 37% in 2023, the first year of the survey, according to a report by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and marketing consulting firm GBK Collective.

Adoption picked up in areas that had a slow start last year, including HR but also marketing and operations. In legal and finance, which were added this year to the survey, weekly usage is almost as prevalent as in IT.

Firms have moved beyond the initial hype and amazement around generative AI toward more practical usage, the report found.

The most-cited uses include document and proposal writing and editing, with 64% of total respondents, followed closely by data analyses and analytics, at 62%. Other functions cited by more than half of the decision makers include customer service and support, fraud detection and prevention, and financial forecasting and planning.

Many questions about generative AI remain unanswered, including how many people might lose their jobs as a result of widespread adoption and how many new jobs will be created.

Almost all respondents working in purchasing and procurement said that generative AI will “enhance” their employees’ skills, while almost nine in 10 in finance think it will replace skills, according to the survey,

Overall, the survey shows a small shift in perception compared with last year. A slightly higher percentage of business leaders say generative AI will enhance skills, while a slightly lower share think it will replace skills in some tasks.

The survey shows that the gap is closing between the two extreme beliefs about AI being either a harbinger of doom or a gateway to utopia, said Wharton marketing professor Stefano Puntoni, co-author of the report and faculty co-director of AI at Wharton.

Organizations will keep experimenting with AI to figure out how it works best for them, Puntoni said in a post about the report. “This is only the beginning.”