If you’ve seen The Terminator as many times as I have, the explosion of AI tools into multiple industries is a little scary. While we’re hopefully still a few decades off from the machines becoming self-aware enough to start hunting humans, it’s clear that AI tools are not a fad and are only continuing to grow in number and efficiency. Publishing is one of the many industries where AI tools are becoming a necessity, and they can’t just be ignored anymore.
We’ve written about AI’s growth in the publishing industry ad nauseum. AI tools are being used to facilitate peer review, authors are using ChatGPT regularly to help with writing papers, and even publishers are using AI tools to help promote their research. All of which is to say that employers and industry professionals are now making AI proficiency a requirement for anyone trying to enter the industry.
A recent Axios study shows a real divide between workers and executives on the impact and importance of AI technology. There is almost a 30% difference between executives and employees in how AI is implemented in their companies. In the grand scheme of this study, executives see AI as an inevitable revolution, but most workers still aren’t sold on using the tools. Yet, for those employees who aren’t sold on the tools, they may be forced to buy in as employers are more and more making AI literacy and requirement for future employees.
Studies from the World Economic Forum show that over half of hiring managers surveyed say they wouldn’t hire an employee without AI literacy skills. According to a 2024 study from IBM, 64% of company leaders said their organization needs to embrace AI tools even though this technology will likely change job roles and functions faster than current employees can adapt. More and more companies are asking for general proficiency with tools such as Copilot or ChatGPT with potential employees responding in kind by increasing the number of AI literacy skills listed on LinkedIn accounts increasing by 177% since 2023.
That being said, it’s understandable why some employees are hesitant to embrace AI tools especially in publishing. In a 2024 LinkedIn report, 53% of employees said they hid their AI use from their employers fearing that using these tools would make them look replaceable. In the Axios study, approximately half of employees surveyed say AI-generated information is inaccurate, confusing, and biased.
This is why it is crucial for companies to make sure their AI rollout is successful for their employees. The Axios survey showed that less than half of employees believe that rollout of AI technology at their company in the last 12 months has been successful. This is compared to 75% of executives who feel like the rollout is successful. Employers need to make sure they are making good use of AI training modules, tutorials, case studies, and best practices to help employees become more proficient.
Employers should also make sure that employees feel comfortable experimenting with AI by having clear policies written out for AI usage. In a May 2024 webinar, Barbara Kline Pope, Executive Director of Johns Hopkins University Press, stated that she was surprised by her employees’ hesitancy to actively experiment with AI tools despite encouragement from managers. She later learned that the employees were reluctant to use some AI tools without firm guidelines, as they worried that they’d inadvertently leak organizational data or breach some unwritten regulations. After putting a formal AI policy in place, the team was more confident in training with these tools and trying them out in various workplace scenarios.
Yet, at the same time, it is important for employers and employees to remember that as helpful and revolutionary as AI tools are, a human touch is still needed. As the Word Economic Forum summed it up best: “As organizations come to grasp the full extent of what AI can do, they’re also coming to terms with all that it can’t do – those tasks that require the uniquely human skills that all businesses need.”
Have you added AI skills to your LinkedIn profile? Have you experimented with ChatGPT, Copilot, or any other emerging AI tools in your work?
By Chris Moffitt
Chris is a Managing Editor at Technica Editorial
