AI has arrived at work

It’s been about a year since GAI showed up on the scene at work. This new technology continues to pick up steam both in our personal and professional lives, and we’re starting to see some early impacts on the labor market. As Chief Economist at LinkedIn, it’s my job to look at our data and interpret what it means for work today, tomorrow and the years to come. And when it comes to AI, our team at LinkedIn couldn’t think of a better partner than our friends and colleagues at Microsoft to take a deeper look together at the state of this technology and what the data is showing us through the annual Work Trend Index. 

Here’s what we uncovered… 

AI has arrived at work. From the B2B marketer who wants to easily create and optimize a new advertising campaign to the talent leader who needs help finding candidates faster, AI tools have spread across many different roles. Across the board, professionals using AI today say they are experiencing real gains - saving time to refocus on more meaningful and complex work.

But a gap is emerging between employees and leaders. 

Employees aren’t waiting for business leaders to move on AI. 75% of knowledge workers across the world use generative AI (GAI) at work, with usage doubling in just the past six months. However, 78% of those GAI users are bringing their own tools to work rather than using company-provided ones. That’s often out of necessity. Nearly half of US executives are not currently investing in AI tools or products for employees, citing uncertainty around budgets, measurement, and implementation, according to LinkedIn’s Executive Confidence Index. This is on top of the fact that  only a quarter  of Learning and Development teams globally plan to offer training programs on how to use generative AI this year. With so few business leaders devoting resources to reskill and upskill their talent around the latest AI tools to help enhance productivity, there is a real procrastination penalty that comes into play.

We’ve seen a fierce demand for AI technical talent. Over the past eight years, hiring of technical AI talent on LinkedIn has increased 323%. Additionally, the number of companies with a Head of AI position has tripled in the past five years globally, growing by more than 28% in 2023 alone. So while Tech remains the top industry when it comes to the concentration of AI technical talent, AI hiring and talent development is happening across many industries. In the US, the fastest growing industries by concentration of AI tech talent are Consumer Services (35%), Education (29%), Entertainment Providers (26%), Administrative and Support Services (25%) and Accommodation and Food Services (25%), according to LinkedIn data.

These two aspects — professional adoption alongside hiring teams snapping up technical talent — signal an important trend. It’s demonstrating a growing realization across leadership teams that AI is an inevitability. Companies are aware of GAI and have begun hiring their technical teams to power success across their entire organization. But the battleground for talent is shifting beyond pure technical AI expertise. We're entering a new phase where all professionals will be expected to skill up their AI aptitude - meaning the skills to use generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot. This upskilling will only increase in importance to help professionals land roles and stay competitive. 

AI adoption has spread well beyond the tech industry. Since late last year, we’ve seen a 142x increase globally in members adding AI aptitude skills to their LinkedIn profiles - and it’s not just workers in technical roles who are adding those skills. While any new technology can seem daunting and difficult to grasp, workers across a multitude of industries have already caught on to the benefits of AI, and many are upskilling to leverage the latest tech.

Perhaps surprisingly, the 10 occupations globally with the highest shares of members increasing their AI aptitude are actually creative roles like content writers, graphic designers and marketing managers. Professionals across industries like Retail, Real Estate, and Administrative and Support Services are leading the way in building their AI aptitude — even ahead of professionals within the Tech industry. In the last six months alone, we've seen a 160% increase in non-technical professionals taking LinkedIn Learning courses to enhance their AI aptitude. 

Now comes the hard part. For professionals and business leaders alike, the challenge will be moving beyond experimentation with GAI tools to implementation. While change is going to take time, we’re already seeing many professionals discovering how GAI unlocks potential and productivity. Early reports from power users — those who use AI extensively — is that the technology makes their overwhelming workload more manageable (92%), boosts their creativity (92%), and helps them focus on the most important work (93%). 

Business leaders face another set of challenges: leveraging AI to drive business transformation, growth, and value for their customers. Long term organizational success with AI will depend on factors like investing in the areas that will drive ROI the fastest, creating touchpoints for knowledge-sharing, identifying AI champions, and of course, creating continuous upskilling opportunities for employees across the organization. 

Business and process transformation won’t be easy or without investment, but if done correctly, professionals will be empowered with the tools and skills they need to reduce digital debt, tap into their creativity, and focus on higher impact work that leverages their uniquely human skills. Companies that embrace this challenge of transformation will be able to create growth for their business and value for their customers, while building a workforce that’s adaptable and agile for the future.  

AI at work is no longer a question - it’s here. By embracing a skills-first, human-centric, learning-led approach, and strategically implementing AI across functions, companies can begin to move from AI buzz to AI breakthroughs.