"A good year after the launch of ChatGPT, up to 79 percent of people in a professional group use this technology, achieving time savings of up to 43 percent, but many do not use it despite the advantages.
Generative AI is one of the rare basic technologies that are powerful enough to increase the growth and productivity of economies - if they are used on a correspondingly broad scale. Researchers at the University of Chicago have therefore identified the use of ChatGPT as the most prominent application of generative AI in a digitally open country that, with fourth place in the ranking of digital competitiveness and the digital skills of the population, is one of the pioneers in the world. This country is Denmark.
The researchers surveyed 100,000 Danes in eleven different professions about their use of ChatGPT. According to this, up to 79 percent of people in a professional group are already using the new AI and achieving time savings of up to 43 percent. What is particularly striking is that women use ChatGPT about 20 percentage points less often than men, and the use of AI decreases by one percentage point with each year of life during aging.
ChatGPT use is highest among software developers
Half of employees have used the technology, with adoption rates ranging from 79 percent among software developers to 34 percent among financial advisors. It is no surprise that software developers are at the top. Thomas Dohmke, CEO of the world's largest developer platform Github, expects a productivity boost of 30 to 50 percent for developers. Hardly anyone who wants to stay in the industry in the long term will miss out on this help.
The usage rate is similarly high among journalists. AI can help them find information more quickly, search through large amounts of data, summarize texts and even replace an entire proofreading department.
The usage rate is comparatively low among lawyers, teachers, accountants and auditors, and financial advisors. This is not due to insufficient time-saving effects, but mostly due to regulatory hurdles, because nobody wants to feed sensitive customer data into ChatGPT. Therefore, many employers have restricted or completely banned its use.
However, this problem can be solved - and that is what is being done: Setting up your own AI applications that only process your own data in a secure environment without sacrificing the benefits of large language models is not rocket science, but it takes time. Since many companies are currently starting to implement these secure systems, this hurdle could soon be overcome.
Lack of knowledge as the biggest hurdle to using ChatGPT
Among employees who believe that ChatGPT can halve their time for a work task, around 50 to 60 percent intend not to use AI. These "adoption barriers" point to large, untapped productivity gains from ChatGPT. What is stopping employees from converting potential gains into actual adoption? The biggest obstacles relate to company policies:
43 percent of employees report that they first need training to use ChatGPT.
35 percent say that employers actively restrict their use.
"Fear of one's existence," of becoming redundant in the job or dependent on the technology, are the least important barriers to adoption.
The lack of knowledge and thus the lack of training were cited as the most significant hurdle, especially by teachers, accountants and auditors, as well as journalists. Although AI encompasses large parts of the world's knowledge, the correct operation ("prompt engineering") as a cultural technique of the 21st century is not yet widespread. Smart companies therefore not only provide their employees with the tools, but also offer the appropriate further training.
This training of their employees is currently probably the most important task of management when introducing AI, because only when people see the advantages and feel safe will they use the technology. Germany is already lagging behind here: Only 26 percent of office workers in this country use AI on a daily basis, according to a recent Slack survey of 2,000 office workers. 44 percent do not use it at all, and another 27 use it less than once a day or irregularly. Companies in Germany themselves only partially encourage the use of AI among their employees. Only 29 percent of respondents report official recommendations from their employer to use AI or AI tools such as ChatGPT.
One obstacle could be the low level of knowledge about the new AI, which is also rather low in Germany. Currently, only one in four office workers (23.9 percent) in Germany are well informed about generative AI. Among industrial employees, the proportion is even lower at 18.5 percent and is also below the results in the general population (21.3 percent), in which more than half (54.7 percent) of respondents explicitly stated poor knowledge, according to a Microsoft survey of 9,000 people in Germany. At an international corporation that measures the use of the Microsoft Copilot rolled out worldwide, German employees also only achieved lower places.
The relevant obstacles also differ by profession. Restrictions by the employer are more likely in professions such as financial advisor and lawyer, which process sensitive information. Customer service employees avoid ChatGPT for fear of being replaced or becoming dependent on the technology. Finally, employees in professions where writing is a core competency - such as in journalism or teaching - resist ChatGPT because it reduces their enjoyment of work.
Women use ChatGPT significantly less often than men
What can be expected in Germany is very clear in Denmark: women use the new technology significantly less often than men - in all professions. On average, the difference is 20 percentage points. This gender gap also exists among colleagues in the same workplace and is not explained by the specific mix of tasks of the employees. Many women were unsure about how to use the technology and preferred to stay away from it - a reluctance that was rather alien to men.
Younger and more highly qualified people are intensive users
The fact that younger people use the technology more intensively than their older colleagues can be explained by their lower fear of digital technology. With each additional year of life in aging, the probability of using ChatGPT decreases by around one percent. Here, too, special training programs for older people could help to lower the age barrier.
The intensity of use also depends on qualifications: the higher the education/qualification, the more intensively people use ChatGPT.
This research suggests that companies could play a critical role in further encouraging the use of tools like ChatGPT, and that a proactive approach to encouraging ChatGPT adoption could mitigate some worrying trends. For example, the fact that workers currently using ChatGPT were already earning more before its introduction suggests that less experienced workers may need further support to fully reap the benefits of generative AI. Likewise, providing more training for women could reduce the gender gap uncovered." [1]
1. Softwareentwickler nutzen ChatGPT am häufigsten, Finanzberater am seltensten. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (online) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH. May 2, 2024. Von Holger Schmidt
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