Deloitte research suggests that 26 percent of UK adults aged between 16 and 75 have already used generative AI, which equates to 13 million people.

The survey of 4,150 adults in the UK found that more than half of the population had heard of the technology. One in ten are also using it for work, representing around four million people across the country.

According to Deloitte, the adoption of generative AI has outpaced voice-assisted speakers, including Amazon’s Alexa.

Paul Lee, Partner at Deloitte UK, commented on its uptake: “It took five years for voice-assisted speakers to achieve the same adoption levels.

“It is incredibly rare for any emerging technology to achieve these levels of adoption and frequency of usage so rapidly.”

Generative AI refers to algorithms that can be used to create various forms of content, such as text, image, audio, video, code, and more.

OpenAI helped to propel generative AI from relative obscurity with the release of its advanced chatbot, ChatGPT, in November 2022.

Deloitte says that ChatGPT become a phenomenon because of its ability to give its answers in a natural, human-like style, whether users are requesting essays, articles, poetry, jokes, or job applications.

Following the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft has released its own ‘Bing’ chatbot, and Google launched ‘Bard’. This week Anthropic upgraded the ‘Claude’ chatbot to ‘Claude 2’, following a technology partnership with Zoom.

Image generators have also become popular as they can quickly create fictitious images that appear to be real. Some such images have gone viral, with Deloitte pointing to a highly realistic picture of Pope Francis wearing a puffer jacket.

This powerful tool can also be used damaging ways, however, such as enabling the creation of large disinformation campaigns either intentionally or unintentionally.

The survey found that over 40 percent of respondents that had used generative AI believe it always produces entirely accurate answers.

Unfortunately, this is not true as generative AI is regularly found to make factual errors.

As generative AI becomes more popular, society will inevitably need to prepare for its potential pitfalls as well as its strengths.

Derek Mackenzie, CEO at Investigo, a leading recruitment agency, warns that companies need to adapt with the changing technology:

“With AI adoption surging, and the use of chatbots and voice-assisted technology becoming the new normal, it’s vital that businesses have credible plans in place to fully capitalise on this trend.

“The skills crisis has left many companies struggling to build a robust talent pipeline, and getting access to staff with deep technical knowledge in areas like AI remains a major challenge.

Mackenzie continued: “The technology brings huge benefits such as saving time and money but also challenges like managing operational governance and evolving job roles.

“Forward-thinking businesses will plan for these changes, building links with specialist trainers and providers so they have the skills ready in-house to make the most of what AI has to offer.”

Microsoft and SAP have been working on exactly this. In May 2023, they partnered to streamline recruitment and employee learning by leveraging Azure OpenAI Service API.

 

 



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