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- C-suite executives don't care if their workers use AI to do multiple jobs, a new edX survey finds.
- Execs say AI is a valuable skill that can help employees land raises and promotions.
- The findings come as companies seek to hire workers with AI expertise to boost productivity.
Your boss might turn a blind eye to you working a second or third job at another company — that's if you know how to use artificial intelligence to do your current job better, a new survey suggests.
Researchers at edX, an education platform for workers to learn new skills, surveyed 1,600 full-time US employees — including 800 C-suite executives like CEOs, and 800 "knowledge workers," such as managers — to understand how they see AI affecting the future of work.
Out of the 800 executives surveyed, 82% of them said they are willing to let their employees use AI technology like ChatGPT to work multiple jobs if they can use the technology to help them finish their tasks faster.
In other words, the researchers wrote, bosses seem to take the attitude that if employees get their work done, "it shouldn't matter if they use AI to do their job.
The freedom to work multiple jobs isn't the only perk employers are willing to grant their workers with AI chops.
According to edX, 83% of the C-Suite executives surveyed said that workers who have AI skills should be paid more than employees who don't; 74% of execs said that workers fluent in AI should be promoted more often.
The majority of executives surveyed may be willing to offer pay bumps and guaranteed promotions to AI-skilled workers, in part, because they believe these employees should be held to higher performance standards.
Workers familiar with AI may be expected to, say, create higher-quality work, or to produce higher volumes of work in a shorter amount of time.
The same standards apply to executives as well. According to the survey, 73% of executives say that those who know how to use AI will have a higher chance of being promoted to CEO, and 85% believe that succeeding CEOs at their employers will possess AI expertise.
The findings come as business leaders warm up to the idea that AI-tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT can help employees save time and boost productivity.
Since ChatGPT came out last November, workers across industries have been using the AI chatbot to develop code, create marketing materials, and generate lesson plans.
Companies, too, see the value in hiring workers who know AI. Places like Amazon, Netflix, and Meta — among others in the education and medical industries — are willing to pay salaries as high as $900,000 to attract workers with generative AI experience.
As for executives, some have already encouraged their workers to learn how to use AI to boost their companies' bottom lines. For instance, Akash Nigam, the CEO and founder of avatar-tools company Genies, previously told Insider he bought ChatGPT Plus accounts for all of his 120 employees and claimed that employees who are "using AI effectively" will be up for a promotion and raise.
"It is clear that a majority [of executives] think that AI is going to be transformative," Anant Agarwal, the founder of edX, told CNBC regarding the study.