A working paper published by Denmark's National Bureau of Economic Research revealed that the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) had a minor influence on hours and pay. Employees saved 3 per cent of their time on average, but only 3-7 per cent of their productivity improvements were returned to them in the form of greater compensation.
"AI chatbots have had no significant impact on earnings or recorded hours in any occupation," economists Anders Humlum and Emilie Vestergaard wrote in the paper, NDTV reports.
The study examined 25,000 workers in 7,000 different workspaces. The bulk of the personnel worked in occupations that were thought to be susceptible to disruption by AI (accountants, customer support specialists, financial advisers, Human Resources professionals, software engineers, and teachers).
After reviewing the data, the researchers stated that they discovered no displacement of human labour, nor did they observe "transformed productivity and hefty raises for AI-wielding superworkers."
"While adoption has been rapid, with firms now heavily invested in unlocking the technological potential, the economic impacts remain small," the researchers said.
They added, "Modest productivity gains (average time savings of 3 per cent), combined with weak wage pass-through, help explain these limited labour market effects. Our findings challenge narratives of imminent labour market transformation due to Generative AI."
The findings may shock companies that are actively trying to reduce their headcount in favour of AI. CrowdStrike, the infamous cybersecurity company responsible for the massive global IT outage last year, announced this month that it was slashing five per cent of its workforce and replacing it with AI.
Similarly, language-learning platform Duolingo announced it would "gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle". The company justified its switch in approach, stating that it had taken a similar call in 2012 by betting big on mobile.
Over the past few years, the popularity of AI models has caused worry among human workers as businesses want to leverage technology to reduce costs, boost efficiency, and maximise income.
Ironically, one of the first studies to examine AI use in conjunction with job data produced some 'mild' conclusions.
