Dive Brief:

• Workers are looking toward AI to streamline finding data and assist with customer response, according to a Sapio Research survey of more than 5,000 office workers. The research, sponsored by ABBYY, was released last week. 
• More than nine in 10 employees waste up to eight hours each week looking through documents to find data for customers and one-third say AI would make them more responsive, the survey found. 
• Struggles with accessing data in documents leads to delays for half of respondents and increases manual handling for one-third of employees. Errors and poor customer experience also creep in with data access issues. 

Dive Insight:

The long-touted merits of AI and automation are creeping into the workflow and more employees see the advanced technology as a way to make their work lives a touch easier.

For two in five workers, the addition of AI would allow more time for creativity, and even help avoid manual data entry. Creativity can inspire businesses to move faster, too. Creative leaders grow 2.6 times faster than their peers, Forrester data found. 

Cloud has made automation and AI technology easier to deploy and many vendors are weaving the advanced technology into their products. But there is an adoption gap — companies are deploying IT automation technology at a faster rate than AI. 

Half of companies currently deploy IT automation, but only 18% now use AI, according to Spiceworks Ziff Davis' 2022 State of IT. Within the next two years, 70% will use or plan to use automation, while only 40% of companies will use or plan to use AI. 

But those numbers change when taking company size into account. Within two years, four in five large companies will use or plan to use IT automation, while more than two-thirds will use or plan to use AI, Spiceworks Ziff Davis found. 

The addition of modern or advanced technology can make work more efficient, but it's also a recruiting tactic and used to improve worker experience. The introduction of AI can also help team morale, and improve the quality of decisions teams make. 

One of the central benefits automation can deliver is helping fill workforce gaps. With the Great Resignation taking root in the IT workforce, one-third of executives are turning to automation, using the technology to eliminate redundant tasks.