A third of managers in the UK have never used AI

More than a third of British managers have yet to try ChatGPT, the AI assistant, and very few have received any formal training on artificial intelligence, a survey has found.
According to the survey for the Chartered Management Institute, managers are unprepared and lack confidence in their ability to properly use the technology, which has been dramatically changing business operations from call centres to marketing and the drafting of legal documents.
The findings come as Whitehall has stepped up its efforts to encourage more companies to make use of AI-driven services to improve their productivity.
Professional services companies have been targeted first with grants of up to £5,000 to help to pay for training, with more sectors to follow if the pilot initiative proves successful.
The institute said that of the 1,000 managers it had polled, while 58 per cent had used ChatGPT, 86 per cent had never received any formal training from their employers.
Of those seeing AI services deployed in their organisations, a quarter said it was for data analysis, with the next most prevalent adoption in the automation of routine tasks such as data entry, information gathering and summarising. Only 9 per cent believed that their organisations had the skills to use the technology effectively.
In July, Sir Tony Blair called on the government to use emerging AI technologies to automate large parts of the public sector and to improve productivity.
Anthony Painter, the CMI’s director of policy, warned that while the UK was well-placed to make use of AI technologies, businesses should not neglect to train their employees. “Our research shows that while Big Tech companies are capitalising on this opportunity, the wider economy is nowhere near ready to make that leap if they are not ensuring that their workforce is properly trained to use AI effectively,” he said.
“With ongoing anxieties about AI, organisations should focus on demystifying it and showing employees how to use it to boost productivity. Without this investment in training, we risk missing out on the full potential of AI and falling behind in the global race for technological advancement and the economic growth that it can bring.”