AI could drive more economic growth than lower taxes or less regulation
A majority of UK business leaders (85%) feel that their productivity efforts are being held back, according to research from Celonis. Citing economic headwinds, employee stress, and difficulty implementing new productivity tools as the three core issues, these insights come against a backdrop of 57% of UK companies reporting turnover challenges in early October 2024, according to the ONS, and upcoming changes to employer’s National Insurance rates.
As UK businesses look for new ways to improve productivity and drive growth, Celonis’ research, carried out with 500 UK business decision makers, found that this group believes that better support for AI implementation (39%) would be more beneficial for the UK’s economic growth than reducing red tape (36%) or cutting business tax rates (35%).
Respondents also said that AI (46%) is more than twice as effective at driving employee productivity than return-to-office mandates (19%). However, while 93% of those surveyed feel they are getting at least some value from AI investments, over a third (36%) say they still struggle to extract the expected value.
Giuseppe de Giacomo, Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, commented: "The growing influence of AI in the workplace is understandably causing some worry among employees that the technology will lead to fewer jobs. However, the kind of AI currently being deployed, while surprisingly capable of accomplishing tasks that require language fluency, lacks the deep conceptual reasoning capabilities that people possess. Its understanding remains somewhat shallow and is unable to replace the strategic or empathetic parts of work that are so crucial. Bringing this understanding gap is important for business leaders, as is ensuring they are able to measure the effectiveness of their AI implementation. This is where Process Intelligence can be extremely powerful, by showing in detail how AI affects business processes and identifying which areas would benefit most.”
For many businesses the benefits of AI can’t come soon enough, as employees are currently spending 154 hours per year manually troubleshooting processes which could be automated. Almost half (48%) of business leaders are already investing in AI-driven solutions to improve productivity and 39% say that these investments are having an impact. Despite these investments, almost one in three (31%) cite a disconnect between senior management and staff as hindering morale, and a lack of digital skills adding to this productivity conundrum is reported at one in four companies (24%).
Rupal Karia, Country Leader UK&I at Celonis commented: “AI’s potential to accelerate business productivity is extremely attractive, especially at a time when UK companies face so many barriers to productivity and growth. Yet, there’s a gap between AI’s promise and its ability to deliver tangible results. Process intelligence closes this gap. It provides a unique class of data and business context that enables process improvement across systems, departments, and organisations. Process intelligence ensures AI has the knowledge to understand how the business runs and how to make it run better.”
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