While terms like agentic, agents, large language models and hallucinations are now part of “buzzword bingo”, the reality is that artificial intelligence (AI) is already being widely used in companies.
So said Carl Eschenbach, CEO of Workday, speaking during the opening keynote of Workday Rising EMEA. The US-based finance and human resources management applications firm is hosting the 10th edition of its Europe, Middle East and Africa regional event in Barcelona, Spain.
According to Eschenbach, 85% of enterprises today are using AI in some capacity, whether it’s in production, a test case, trials or experimentation.
He revealed that 75% of Workday’s new customers − those that joined its clientele over the last couple of quarters − have already bought at least one AI solution from the company.
“Technology is changing the workforce and it’s happening faster than ever. What we can agree on is that it is not business as usual. I believe we’re at a pivotal point in time, calling us to a new era.
“We are embarking on a ‘new work day’ for everyone, bringing with it incredible opportunities but also a lot of risks. The world is moving faster than ever…and companies need to evaluate their pace.”
Delving into what a “new work day” looks like, the CEO explained it is AI-powered. “AI is removing the drudgery of what we do every day, taking us away from the work we don’t want to do and letting us do what we love.
“Last year, I spoke about moving to a world where we no longer work with technology, but the opposite happens, technology starts to work for us. We see this take place in how employees are recruited, how contracts are reviewed, software is written, or how X-rays are being read.
“AI is helping us in fundamental ways we thought would never happen. At the individual level, it’s helping us become more productive – particularly for certain tasks. However, we need to move from a world focusing on productivity gains at a task level to workflows…the real promise happens when we orchestrate the end-to-end workflows of our business.”
Estimates show that AI will result in $4 trillion-value impact annually in gross domestic product, he pointed out. “We need to lean in; we need to be aggressive and take advantage of this technology because the risk is that we’ll get left behind if we don’t.
“At the same time, it needs to be human-centric because the future of work…is about humans and technology coming together in a seamless way to drive business outcomes.
“We think AI should amplify human potential; it’s not going to replace it. It’s going to free us up to reskill and upskill our employees; to do things they couldn’t do in the past. it's going to revive a much-needed skill in the workplace and that’s human skills.
“Humans are going to be the driving force of AI in the world of work and that’s why AI in the future needs to be human-centric.”
While there are opportunities for human potential, he highlighted that some jobs will be impacted by AI.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates there will be 11 million jobs associated only with AI over the next five years, he noted.
At a broader scale, WEF estimates that nearly 80 million jobs will be formed over the same period. “This is after the impact of AI on companies and individuals,” Eschenbach stated. “We’ve seen this happen with the internet transition and emergence of e-commerce.
“Instead of job losses, some of the largest retailers and e-commerce customers or businesses in the world were created, driving millions of new workers, resulting in a new category of ‘frontline’ workers.
“With every technology transition, we see the power of the human coming through to work with and leverage technology, not be replaced by it.”
Share