Workday says 23% of employees are unsure whether their business prioritises their interests over its own when deploying AI.

Workday, a global software company, believes business executives and employees lack trust in the responsible development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Workday has released its most recent global study, which concluded that an AI trust gap has emerged in the workplace.

The global study, Closing the AI Trust Gap, was the outcome of a poll commissioned by Workday and conducted by FT Longitude between November and December 2023.

The study included 1,375 company leaders and 4,000 employees from 15 countries in three major regions: North America, Asia-Pacific and Japan, and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

According to Workday, this breakdown provides a holistic view of the organisational hierarchy, showing the perspectives of leadership and the larger employee population.

Workday has launched the report ahead of the World Economic Forum annual meeting, which will take place in Davos, Switzerland, from January 15 to 19, 2024.

According to the company, business leaders and employees agree that AI offers significant opportunities for business transformation; however, there is a lack of trust that it will be deployed responsibly, with employees expressing even greater scepticism than their leadership counterparts.

Key findings include: 62% of corporate leaders (C-suite or direct reports) support AI. This figure is significantly lower among employees, at 52%, according to the survey.

23% of employees are unsure whether their business prioritises their interests over its own when deploying AI.

70% of corporate leaders think that AI should be designed in a way that allows for easy human review and involvement, whereas 42% of employees believe their organisation lacks a clear grasp of which systems should be totally automated and which require human interaction.

Furthermore, three out of four employees claim their organisation is not collaborating on AI legislation, and four out of five say their company has yet to offer standards on responsible AI use.

"There's no denying that AI has enormous potential for commercial revolution. However, our research demonstrates that leaders and employees lack confidence in and comprehension of their organisations' goals around AI implementation in the workplace," said Jim Stratton, Workday's chief technology officer. "To help close this trust gap, organisations must adopt a comprehensive approach to AI responsibility and governance, with a lens on policy advocacy to help strike the right balance between innovation and trust."