AI ‘here to stay’ with tech bosses to invest big as jobs are cut

Tech executives in the US appear to be relishing the challenges presented by economic crisis, with three-quarters saying they believe financial uncertainty will help them innovate better.

And unsurprisingly, AI large-language generators will be top of mind for most tech leaders. In a survey commissioned by business analyst company EY, nine in ten respondents told researchers that they’ve already experimented with the likes of ChatGPT or BingChat.

Perhaps somewhat worryingly, depending on your point of view, four in five tech executives said that they intended to increase investment in AI despite the recent public call for a six-month pause on research signed by Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak.

And contrary to the aforementioned Musk’s recent puritanical rant against working from home, 78% of tech bosses in the US believe that the practice improves innovation at their companies.

“It’s not a productivity thing,” the Twitter owner said last week. “I think it’s morally wrong.”

Musk also heads up electric car maker Tesla, putting him firmly at the center of the tech industry, but most of his cohorts appear to disagree with him on this issue.

Those concerned about losing their jobs to ChatGPT or another AI technology might have taken some comfort from the EY survey’s finding that 77% of tech firms that cut jobs in the past year said it had hurt their ability to innovate.

Unfortunately, a similar proportion admitted that they nevertheless planned to make more cuts, raising the inevitable question of why the forecast is so optimistic regarding innovation. Cybernews reached out to EY for comment, and will update this report as and when a response is received.

Nevertheless, optimistic they seem to be, with an astonishing 94% saying they believe that tech innovation will be their company’s route to being stronger than before, and that they have plans to increase investment in “IT or emerging technologies.”

Reading between the lines, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that EY’s findings suggest a pattern of fewer human beings being employed at tech companies, with technologies such as AI picking up the slack.

“Despite economic uncertainty, leaders are continuing to prioritize and invest in innovation,” said EY. “More than half of tech executives at companies have plans to increase investments in IT or emerging technologies. AI is here to stay, and companies are betting big on the technology [...] with a focus on platforms like ChatGPT, Bing Chat and OpenAI.”

EY commissioned Atomik Research to carry out the study, which surveyed 254 executives and decision-makers across the US technology industry.