It was great to finally read a piece that avoided the conventional wisdom that we’re about to face a jobs apocalypse from generative artificial intelligence (Opinion, January 19).
We have some facts to add into this debate. We released an AI assistant, an application program that understands natural language commands and completes tasks for the user, across the Prosus Group in late 2022 to facilitate experimentation and discover “use cases”, available to over 10,000 staff.
From the 1mn-odd interactions, usage has been highest for software engineers, where 70 per cent of users report productivity gains. Specific technical tasks now take 50 per cent less time. About a quarter of usage related to improved communications. These efficiencies raised productivity, without replacing entire jobs. Our evidence reinforces the optimism in Gillian Tett’s piece and shows that AI equals more independent and capable workers and higher economic growth, not a jobs doomsday.
Euro Beinat
Global Head, AI and Data Science, Prosus Group, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
