At a time when advances in artificial intelligence promise to revolutionize business as usual, some people are more concerned than others.
When Comparably asked more than 1,000 people across the tech world whether the benefits of AI will outweigh the risks, 72% of respondents who work in engineering said yes, the highest rate of any department surveyed.
Those who work in legal had the lowest rates, with just 41% saying they believe the benefits of AI will outweigh the risks.
The results show that those in less “techy” jobs overall had lower confidence in AI’s benefits: sales (44%), customer support (45%), communications (48%) and operations (48%) all had relatively lower rates than the 58% of people who believe AI will be more beneficial than it is risky.
Adding gender into the mix
From a gender perspective, women are less certain than men overall that the benefits of AI will outweigh the risks (49% of women vs. 65% of men say that AI’s benefits will outweigh the risks).
Looking closer at the results, an interesting story emerges: while lawyers are least bullish about AI than any other group, it’s because female lawyers are particularly unconvinced about AI’s benefits: just 24% of women say they see AI as more beneficial than harmful, while 73% of men say the same.
Other findings? Women in engineering are the biggest fans of AI, with 70% seeing AI as more beneficial than harmful. Women in business development, marketing and product also had above-average rates of saying the same (61%, 60% and 57%, respectively).
Men in executive roles, engineering and IT were most bullish about AI (79%, 73% and 72%) while men in communications and operations were least bullish (42% and 49%, respectively)
The latest survey figures are as of Oct. 25.
