ChatGPT Is Changing The Workplace: 43% of Employees Report Chatbot Use
Chatbots are transforming office work. Photo by Andreas Arnold/picture alliance via Getty Images.
Key Takeaways
- According to one survey of over 5,000 professionals, 43% of workers have used chatbots at work.
- However, adoption rates diverge between different industries.
- If more workers are to embrace the technology, AI agents need to become more like human colleagues.
With the rise AI agents like ChatGPT, workers who use computers to research, write and create have rapidly adopted the new technology. According to one survey of over 5,000 professionals, in November 2023, 43% responded that they had used ChatGPT or similar AI tools at work.
With Chatbot usage rising, how is it changing the world of work? And how have workers responded to the integration of such tools into professional life?
Effects on Different Industries
The first thing to note about the way generative AI is changing the world of work is that not all professions are impacted equally.
At the risk of stating the obvious, office workers are far more likely to use chatbots than manual laborers or factory workers. But adoption rates diverge significantly even between different desk-based jobs.
Research by Glassdoor shows that marketing has the highest rate of chatbot adoption, with 77% of professionals in the industry reporting at least some chatbot usage.
Other fields that have embraced the technology include consulting and advertising, where employees reported usage rates of 71% and 67% respectively.
User Satisfaction Boosted by More Human-like AI Interactions
While AI agent’s ability to boost productivity has been declared so frequently that it almost seems like common sense, there has been less research into employees’ on-the-ground experience of the technology.
However, a recent study published in Nature highlights rising user satisfaction as AI systems have become more sophisticated.
“As ChatGPT continually evolves, users are likely to derive more value from their interactions with it, the report noted.
Furthermore, the paper demonstrated a connection between user satisfaction and more human-like AI traits, which it found to enhance knowledge acquisition and creation.
“AI systems like ChatGPT with a more human-like personality can foster an interactive environment, enhancing user satisfaction and engagement […] Users who perceive an AI system to exhibit human-like personality traits can develop a sense of rapport, trust, and ultimately satisfaction with the system.”
Memorability Key to Chatbot Success
A corollary to users’ preference for more human-like interactions is a preference for more personalized systems.
Noting that “high memorability can enhance user satisfaction, encourage repeat use, and foster a sense of connection or rapport with the system,” the Nature study observed that users get the most value from AI agents that can recall previous interactions.
This suggests that developers who want to improve the user experience of their chatbots should focus on creating models that respond to each user individually, cultivating long-term usage patterns that are with them that are more akin to human-to-human professional relationships.
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