Lenovo: Enterprises aren't ready to take advantage of AI productivity gains

Most IT leaders believe AI will help employees focus on "more impactful" work, yet fewer than half believe their organizations are ready with sufficient digital workplace solutions to support that shift.

That's according to a survey of 600 global IT leaders from Lenovo, which found 79% believe AI will help support employees to work on more interesting tasks.

However, only 36% believe their existing systems support employee engagement effectively and 89% say their organization will need to overhaul digital systems to take advantage of AI's potential.

"Transforming your workplace is essential to using AI effectively. Simply automating existing workflows will only yield incremental benefits," said Rakshit Ghura, VP and General Manager of Digital Workplace Solutions at Lenovo.

The Lenovo study echoes findings from Cisco's AI Readiness Index, which found only 13% of respondents saying they feel fully ready to capture AI's potential, down to a lack of infrastructure, including compute, networking, and security.

A similar study from Wrike found only 11% of businesses had integrated AI into their workflows, impacting the productivity benefits.

But those companies that manage to significantly boost productivity are able to slash jobs — indeed, Microsoft said earlier this month that the efficiency gains from internal adoption of AI tools means the tech giant can continue to grow without adding to its headcount, effectively capping headcounts.

Personalized work

Taking full advantage of AI will require a shift to more personalized digital workplaces, Lenovo argues. That could involve tailoring tools and workflows to individual roles, allowing employees to drive their own productivity.

The current one-size-fits-all approach makes it difficult for employees to design a flexible workflow that suits them, Lenovo said, with a lack of configurable devices and applications identified as top barriers to making AI work better.

"AI changes the rules of productivity, but to realize its potential, IT leaders must work alongside their executive teams to rethink how AI can augment their organization’s value-creation levers and competitive differentiation," Ghura said.

AI at the core of business

Beyond point of use, Lenovo said generative AI should be embedded into core business operations. For example, generative AI could help manage devices, in particular to meet diverse needs of employees, Lenovo said.

"AI must be seamlessly integrated into core operations, creating a personalized and efficient digital workplace that enhances the employee experience and drives long-term productivity," said Ghura.

The Lenovo research follows a survey from Slack, which showed that AI usage has slowed as workers are hiding their use of AI over concerns it makes them look lazy.

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