Swamped with decisions to make, managers turn to AI

Under pressure to make critical decisions increasingly quickly, British bosses are handing over huge swathes of their decision-making to AI.

More than six in 10 (62%) UK leaders told data streaming firm Confluent that they use AI to make the majority of their decisions, with 46% saying they now rely more on AI than on their colleagues' advice.

And when they don't, they feel insecure, with 70% saying they now second-guess their own judgment when it conflicts with AI recommendations.

"It's easy to see why so many UK leaders are leaning on AI when making high-pressure decisions," said Richard Jones, Confluent's VP for Northern Europe.

"When the stakes are high, AI can feel like a neutral voice that processes information quickly and offers clear recommendations. The risk is when that reliance turns into blind trust."

Nearly eight-in-ten (79%) said they trust AI to help them make complex decisions – and some of these decisions are extremely sensitive. A quarter (25%) of survey respondents said they use it for people management, and 27% for hiring and firing. AI's even been used by 47% to decide whether to use AI, and by 33% when to implement it.

The results are a symptom of the increasing pressure on business leaders to make decisions fast, with 92% saying the speed of senior business decisions has increased over the past three years.

And there's a vicious circle in operation, with 59% of leaders believing that their colleagues' use of AI has increased the expectation for fast, or even instant, decisions.

Leaders do at least recognize that AI may not be perfect when it comes to decision-making, with virtually all (91%) saying they would feel more confident using AI if it were powered by real-time data.

However, six-in-ten leaders complain that data is too difficult to access at their level, with 71% saying it's already out of date by the time it reaches them. A further 62% report that there simply isn't enough time to analyse data before a decision is due.

As a result, 67% are planning to invest in more data streaming technologies, helping feed AI with more useful and accurate business insights.

"If leaders want AI to make informed decisions, it needs an accurate, real-time view of what's really happening across the business," said Jones. "Without that, AI can sound knowledgeable, but it won't be truly intelligent."

Using AI for major decision-making can be fraught with legal risks. Several US states, for instance, have strict rules on using it for employment decisions.

Meanwhile, recent research from Lancaster University has found that relying on AI may lead to poor decision-making, with people who received AI guidance on a decision making poorer judgments than those who received human guidance.

"Our findings suggest that AI-driven support tools may be uniquely placed to engender biases in humans and may ultimately impair rather than elevate decision making," said lead author Sophie Nightingale.

"Specifically, more positive attitudes toward AI produced a reduced ability to discriminate between real and synthetic faces, but this was only the case for those who received AI guidance, not for those who received human guidance. This highlights how people with a positive view of AI may be at higher risk of being misled by AI tools."