Bringing AI tools to the workplace requires a delicate balance

One possible conclusion from these findings is “that the advantage someone had with regard to his or her performance has now diminished because a young person with ChatGPT can perform just as well as someone with a few years of experience,” said Azeem Azhar, president of Exponential view, a research group. If the research takes place in the wider field, it could lead some companies to invest more in junior employees, while paying less for more expensive employees who have been with them for longer.

Some companies are already starting to make workforce decisions based on the expected impact of AI tools. IBM said recently it slowed down or stopped hiring some back-office functions, such as human resources functions, that could be replaced by AI in the coming years.

AI’s speed and productivity gains will raise customer expectations, said Bivek Sharma, the chief technology officer for PwC Global Tax and Legal Services. “It’s about making sure we can upskill the workforce and get them on AI fast enough to meet the obvious demand that’s coming,” he said.

PwC has teamed up with Harvey, an AI start-up that creates tools for lawyers, to roll out an AI chat tool for the entire legal advisory practice in the coming months. It plans to extend such technology to its tax and human resources experts as well.

In addition to quickly providing employees with answers based on the company’s expertise, PwC’s goal is to generate new insights, including by ultimately also analyzing its clients’ data, Sharma said. The AI ​​could potentially get all the contracts of two companies considering a merger, for example, and allow PwC experts to search for specific types of facilities and risks.

“Consider this really an expansion game rather than a time-saver for us,” Mr. Sharma said. “This is almost like a senior associate who is connected to all of our legal and tax advisors and contributes to what they can do for their clients on a daily basis.”

Larger companies generally need to invest in AI-savvy technical staff, who can adapt the technology to their business. “There are already companies that can’t adopt ChatGPT because they simply don’t have the kind of baseline to run it on, which is content management and the data in order,” Ms. Mousavizadeh said.