More Than 60% of CEOs Are 'Digitally Illiterate', According To Their Own Employees 73
Corporate resistance to AI tools is costing employees six hours per week in manual tasks that could be automated, according to research by recruitment firm SThree. Sixty-three percent of workers blame management's "digital illiteracy" for slow AI adoption, despite major companies rushing to tout AI initiatives since ChatGPT's launch. A 2023 tech.io study found two-thirds of business leaders barely use AI tools due to limited understanding.
Workers should shut up about AI (Score:2, Funny)
Or they could find AI taking their jobs.
Re:Workers should shut up about AI (Score:4, Insightful)
AIs seem better suited to taking over a CEO's job, actually.
That's an entirely different type of technodystopia though.
=Smidge=
Re:Workers should shut up about AI (Score:4, Funny)
I will always maintain that a magic 8 ball is good enough to replace most CEOs.
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Magic 8 ball can't play golf! Yet.
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The day an AI can do plumbing and welding in a dirty industrial environment as well as changing elevator bucket without human supervision it's going to be an issue.
So far most corporate leaders are so computer illiterate that they don't understand how to file a problem report over the web and just picks up the phone and gets help filing the problem report.
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So far most corporate leaders are so computer illiterate that they don't understand how to file a problem report over the web and just picks up the phone and gets help filing the problem report.
Thanks for identifying the main problem and that's the fact that workers like yourself don't understand the job of running a business. The job of running a business as a CEO is not to know how to do everything in it but to know how to source and manage people who do know how to achieve specific parts of that job. Them phoning someone to file a report gets it resolved for them much quicker than them filing one over the web because hierarchy. When your boss phones you to say they want X doing ASAP it doesn't
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Yeah i know that and still my impression of CEOs and their competencies is probably even lower than the guy you're responding to.
As a matter of fact I'd say my dislike of the who upper leadership structure only intensifies the more I learn what they're supposed to be doing.
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AI might take some of their jobs, but nobody will pay the same for the resulting work, and the lawsuits are going to be more expensive.
Imagine two companies, one with AI to solve a problem, and the other using people, when the first is mired in lawsuits, and strikes and violent threats against their CEO. The second one gets all the customers.
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Eh... it depends.
The LLM stuff is halfway between useless, and a serious threat to my job. In my tests it *is* capable of doing much of what I do , but badly. (Although its pretty great at writing documentation for my code, although it definately needs supervision).
However theres also all the data munging stuff , training models to find patterns in large datasets , and I've found that stuff superb, and im not seeing any obvious way it'll be doing me out of a job. Though we are small enough a company that th
Not just CEOs (Score:4, Insightful)
Us trench troops know that many managers are just as clueless abut not just AI, but the very own tech they people they manage work on.
I see it on daily display where I'm at. Network mgr will come out with the most 1990's things to say about networking, and thinks his own monitoring runs on metal -- even after we've explained to him a million times it's a vm.
And these people sign your reviews and paychecks.
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Us trench troops know that many managers are just as clueless abut not just AI, but the very own tech they people they manage work on.
I see it on daily display where I'm at. Network mgr will come out with the most 1990's things to say about networking, and thinks his own monitoring runs on metal -- even after we've explained to him a million times it's a vm.
And these people sign your reviews and paychecks.
Different people have different abilities and training.
I don't expect the CEO to know about RF intermodulation, path loss and the various propagation effects of different frequencies, nor do I expect the best IT person on staff to know either. I have done some IT work, so I'm fairly versed in it, but the smart guys and gals know more than me.
But to address what you posted, I think we can both note that the experts should make the decisions.
And there is the real problem. The cost center view of IT
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I keep saying that IT is not a cost center, but a profit enabler. A modern company can't make money going back to typewriters and interoffice couriers.
Re:Not just CEOs - most upper management (Score:1)
/. frequently forgets that second level managers and up in the worker->manager->senior manager->...->CEO chain spend nearly all of their time in meetings, reading reports, building out budgets and leadership things.
They don't have time to get a deep understanding of new technologies and rely on 'experts' like the Gartner Group for advice and strategy.
If you've been around technology long enough, how many 'next big thing' programming languages, tools, frameworks did you not learn because, after a
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/. frequently forgets that second level managers and up in the worker->manager->senior manager->...->CEO chain spend nearly all of their time in meetings, reading reports, building out budgets and leadership things.
They don't have time to get a deep understanding of new technologies and rely on 'experts' like the Gartner Group for advice and strategy.
As a CEO of a non-profit, I can say you pretty much nailed it. And while I'm pretty technologically versed, I've got other things to do to occupy my time. Budgets are a big and non-trivial thing, steering and monitoring to keep our tax exempt status is another. A slip or two, and it is lost. I review and pass judgement on recruiting efforts, and public facing areas, be it web, educational, or seeking contributions.
As much as many here on /. believe that the suits are stupid and worthless, the suits are t
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I was always a little bit surprised how these guys wouldn't bother learning the most very basic things about the businesses they ran.
I gave them the excuse that they know about running the business.
Then I took business classes and it became obvious they don't try very hard and they don't know what's going on. Some of them went to top schools and somehow don't even know basic business operations.
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My focus on the "next big thing" has always been whether it can reasonably integrate into what we're already doing or whether it's just being dropped on us. Some time back, the entire IT department that I was in was forced to go through ITIL training in an attempt to modernize operations. The training wasn't bad, but it was generic, and then management kept saying, "ITIL says we have to do this" like it's written law. I repeatedly pointed at the parts of the ITIL documentation that said that ITIL is a frame
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please don't say that "they" own your personal data, unless you somehow sold it to them by agreeing to the EULA of course ... but really even the devil can't make that deal ... you own your personal data, and you always will, years from now you will regret a lot of it and pretend that wasn't you, but you own it all
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please don't say that "they" own your personal data, unless you somehow sold it to them by agreeing to the EULA of course ... but really even the devil can't make that deal ... you own your personal data, and you always will, years from now you will regret a lot of it and pretend that wasn't you, but you own it all
I have a safe at home where I keep important papers. I have an expectation that what is in there will stay in there, unstolen and safe.
Most people have an expectation that their personal health information will be held safely - we have laws that prevent people from fiinding out if one of our balls is bigger than the other one, or had to get a dose of antibiotics after that one company picnic when the group secretary shared her clamidya with us (or guy, depending one your inclinations or sex - no judgeme
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Managers are even clueless about how to connect a display and a keyboard to their PC, so don't expect them to even have a realistic view of AI.
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Us trench troops know that many managers are just as clueless abut not just AI, but the very own tech they people they manage work on.
I see it on daily display where I'm at. Network mgr will come out with the most 1990's things to say about networking, and thinks his own monitoring runs on metal -- even after we've explained to him a million times it's a vm.
And these people sign your reviews and paychecks.
If he was directly involved at the coal face then that's a problem but he isn't. His job isn't to understand that, his job is to manage people that do. Quite how supposedly intelligent people like yourself can't seemingly work this out I can never understand but then again maybe that's why you're an employee.
par for the course (Score:2)
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The CEOs promoting AI are the ones who are digitally illiterate. The whole story seems to be "dumb CEOs prevent adoption of unproven technology, according to mythical workers."
data governance (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, don't want my employees posting all of our company info into AI services that vacuum up that data. I don't want my employees relying on tools that regularly produce bad results. By limiting the use of garbage AI I'm protecting the company.
I hired you to do a job, not farm your job out to crap software. I can buy crap software and use it all by myself.
Re:data governance (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, I am wondering about the level of tech competence in the pool of "workers" that were polled for this.
Really, on the face of it - this sounds like a survey commissioned by a company trying to sell its AI tools.
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You honestly think there was a poll? It's so much cheaper and takes much less work than to just claim that you did a poll. I assume you must be new to marketing.
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You honestly think there was a poll? It's so much cheaper and takes much less work than to just claim that you did a poll. I assume you must be new to marketing.
Joe, Suzi, Vanessa, I need to write a fluff piece - "Does management technical illiteracy limit AI adoption?" Yes, No, Yes
67% of workers surveyed said managers are technically illiterate, limiting AI adoption
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Justifying Lower Pay and Benefits. (Score:3)
Sorry, don't want my employees posting all of our company info into AI services that vacuum up that data. I don't want my employees relying on tools that regularly produce bad results. By limiting the use of garbage AI I'm protecting the company.
I hired you to do a job, not farm your job out to crap software. I can buy crap software and use it all by myself.
This.
And if the 40-hour-full-time-with-benefits employee REALLY wants that 6 hours worth of AI efficiency and is willing to degrade their “Boomer” bosses over it, fine. They can become 34-hour-part-time-no-benefits employees instead.
Enjoy. You fucking asked for it, morons.
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You'd be amazed/terrified/tickled silly if you knew the amount of health clinics, law firms, fin/tech firms, MSPs that jumped into AI forgetting all about data governance.
When you tell their controller about how most AI solutions work, amazing how quickly the blood drains from their face.
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PRINT MY EMAIL (Score:3)
Yeah, I had a boss who wanted his email to be printed out
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I used to work for an administrator who, every few months, had a student worker print out the entirety of our website - on paper.
Re:PRINT MY EMAIL (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, I had a boss who wanted his email to be printed out
I had an engineer once ask me to email him a hard copy of a document,
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That lump coming down the wire is for you...
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I had an engineer once ask me to email him a hard copy of a document,
When he said, "can you email that to me" I think he meant something different than what you think he meant, or, by email, did you mean UUCP?
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I had an engineer once ask me to email him a hard copy of a document,
When he said, "can you email that to me" I think he meant something different than what you think he meant, or, by email, did you mean UUCP?
When I asked him how I could email an actual document, he was embarrassed and asked me to just email him a pdf.
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Same here, and he was the CIO for a global investment bank. He also dictated his replies for his secretary to type up and send.
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Yeah, I had a boss who wanted his email to be printed out
Same here, and he was the CIO for a global investment bank. He also dictated his replies for his secretary to type up and send.
How is this even a problem?! That's how I keep up with the slashdots you insensitive clod!
[help! ...said secretary. Our karma should be good.]
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AI cannot do a**-kissing so they are safe... (Score:2)
They cannot be replaced as no AI at the moment has a**-kissing functionality not to mention there is know-how in whom to kiss...
Re:AI cannot do a**-kissing so they are safe... (Score:5, Funny)
I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for your outstanding leadership. Your vision and guidance not only inspire our team but also create an environment where we can thrive. I truly appreciate the support and direction you provide, which motivates us to strive for excellence.
Thank you for being such an incredible leader. I’m excited to continue contributing to our team's success under your guidance!
Warren Buffet says who cares (Score:1)
Or maybe they do. (Score:5, Insightful)
Digital literacy is broad (Score:5, Interesting)
Tell the boss that he can replace you with AI (Score:2)
And he's the idiot?
Not surprising (Score:4, Insightful)
Most employess have no idea what CEOs do. I find people have this strange notion that if a manager has multiple teams that they would somehow at least have working knowledge of all those teams' day-to-day technical knowledge when in fact many C-level managers haven't the foggiest.
While CEOs tend to be mutli-disciplined most are or were sales people. They sell the vision, convince the shareholders, decide to take the risks in strategic plans and generally have the experience and reassuring smile to lead.
As the article mentions AI there's a lot of hype. Like how eeryone jumped on the cloud bandwagon to save money we now know that most companies have not actually saves any money by adopting cloud technologies.
The fact is AI has yet to deliver much. It will no doubt be an amazing tool in the future but early adoption of tech has a price. Most CEOs do not need to be early adopters.
Currently if you just use some of your company's data to chuck at ChatGPT you'll probably get fired for leaking information. It's not as easy to "just use AI" even if Microsoft has tried to shove Copilot down your throat.
An idea for using AI is by running a company private LLM+RAG as or in fact instead of a knowledgebase. Another idea for companies that have no data classifcation is to have AI help scan through the millions of documents to help classify...still these activities take some thinking and planning and must work within compliance. -Just ask your sensitive customers how they feel about their data being scanned by AI tools.
Like the internet we might still be 20 years away from AI being reliably good at helping us with many things but certain niche use cases are already showing promise.
I keep saying Dilbert is a (Score:2)
...documentary, not just a comic strip. It's based on actual emails sent to the artist by fans. (Too bad the artist got trapped in the MAGA cult, I miss the strip.)
Clueless managers who are willing to listen can and do successfully manage technical projects, but too many let their big ego cover their ears.
Don't kid yourelf... (Score:1)
Don't kid yourself Judge. You are an incredible slouch....
This study way underestimates this phenomenon.
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Don't kid yourself Judge. You are an incredible slouch.... This study way underestimates this phenomenon.
While I can appreciate a good Caddyshack reference, fiscal conservatism and being skeptical of the technology that is designed to replace your most valuable asset, is more than understandable. Criticism of CEOs is perhaps dead wrong here.
Right now, AI marketing is giving dot-bomb vaporware a run for its wasted money in the Hype Olympics.
Yep, including software company CEOs (Score:2)
"OK team, we're going to add this fancy whiz-bang feature and roll it out in the next couple of months.
Wait, what are you talking about, it's going to take you a year to complete the feature? What's the matter with you programmers, don't you know how to write code?"
Suspicious of the survey. (Score:4, Insightful)
From snippets:
“[lack of access to the latest AI tools] has caused a noticeable drop in my motivation to tackle new challenges at work.”
Those brackets might be doing a *lot* of heavy lifting. The respondent complained about some thing bogging them down and the report 'helped' them to clarify it's lack of latest AI tools. I'd bet they complained about the actual problem rather than a lack of the specific imagined fix for the problem.
A Japanese engineer, meanwhile, told the group: “I have to spend a significant amount of time on repetitive tasks that could be automated.”
This is a common complaint that is as old as time, with or without AI. Tasks that frequently are not needed but are inflicted anyway.
I'm suspecting the general response is similar to always, bad leadership is very common and inflicting demoralizing tedious bureaucratic crap on people, but this time the party running the survey is framing it as specifically about AI. LLM might be able to provide a bandaid, taking efficient interactions and 'formalizing' them into stupid 'business appropriate' fodder and then breaking that fodder back into some semblance of efficient interaction. However from my experience, people really would most prefer getting rid of the bureaucratic stuff in general.
Digitally Literate CEOs know AI is mostly hype (Score:4, Interesting)
Using AI in data science and such has it's place. But to use it for average business oriented activity like writing reports is not going to save time and labor. It just shifts the creative process to having to review everything AI generated to make sure it's accurate, i.e. it shifts the work load, not eliminate it.
If you want something automated, it's better to have some code it up so it's deterministic and can be maintained by people who know the business domain.
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There's so much built in assumption in every one of the statements made in the summary, that AI actually has value. That has NOT been proven, and most of the perceived value is by low tech literate managers, or engineers that buy the hype then forget how this technology works (if they bothered to make an effort to learn about that).
There are going to be a LOT of companies that lose big because of they bet hard on AI (LLMs in particular) because it doesn't do 90% of the things proponents promise.
I call shena
Re: Digitally Literate CEOs know AI is mostly hype (Score:2)
While I agree that the value has not been proven, a company that waits until value has been proven will never win the market. Business is risk, and taking the right risks is key to generating shareholder value.
That said, I am by no means convinced that most companies are taking the right level of risk with regards to AI - Iâ(TM)m only pointing out the fallacy of that statement in isolation. I agree that most are overplaying it.
wow (Score:1)
That's surprising. A firm that is offering to recruit AI personnel finds that more AI personnel is needed. This is almost as shocking as when the SAS Institute found that people should buy SAS software and supplement it with open source rather than just stick to open source software.
So what? (Score:3)
Employees are generally terrible at knowing what people in higher layers of a hierarchy know or do. You hear it on here all the time. Management are clueless and inept, CEOs are bumbling fools, leaders do nothing but hold meetings, engage in toxic politics, and contribute bugger all... all the same buckshot time after time.
It's my favorite form of hubris. The idea that you don't get something must mean there's nothing to get. When I read these things, I just move on. No point in addressing it - I learned what I need to know.
(I meant "bullshit" above... but my mistype got autocorrected to buckshot... and I like it better!)
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(I meant "bullshit" above... but my mistype got autocorrected to buckshot... and I like it better!)
Just chiming in to say that when I read "buckshot" on the first pass I was impressed with the novel use of the word! I'm going to steal it.
If you want to automate your job, automate it.... (Score:2)
Big dirty lie for marketing (Score:2)
There are a number of ways a CEO's tech illiteracy might show.
Not buying the AI these people are selling isn't one of those ways. Things I know about AI: At least one lawyer tried using AI and ended up in a show cause hearing for why the judge shouldn't have him disbarred. Sometimes AI says embarrassingly incorrect things but it puts it so fluently the mistakes are easy to gloss over if you're busy. AI sometimes produces horribly brittle and insecure code, there too it can lead you down the garden path.
Some
The other 40%? (Score:2)
This premise has the "problem" backwards (Score:2)
If more CEOs were actually digitally "literate" AI adoption would be even lower, because it's mostly nonsense.
Companies are set to spend hundreds of millions on AI next year according to another story today, and I'd wager heavily that the resulting ROI will be a negative number.
But some gullible CEOs are being convinced to invest in tech that's not ready for prime-time just as they have always been because they live with constant financial FOMO.
It's not digital literacy (Score:2)
It's the state of the AI market
Everything that's available today is crap generators
AI is a research project. I predict that useful tools will be developed, but today's AI is useless for real serious work
Fiscal Competency vs. Digital Illiteracy. (Score:2)
So, let me get this straight. We’re now labeling CEOs as “digitally illiterate” when it comes to dumping millions into technology that hasn’t been this hyped with marketing bullshit since dot bomb vaporware.
Those CEOs might be digitally illiterate, but as an employee you’ll probably be thankful they’re being fiscally competent right now with resisting the very tech designed to make those whining about 6 hours wasted per week, completely unnecessary for the other 34.
Business case (Score:2)
So, AI, where's the business case? I am not convinced.
They used to be proud of it (Score:3)
I used to work for a (very) small IT company. We provided equipment and support for Businesses in our area. I remember owners and senior managers assuming their superiority because they DIDN'T understand IT!
I was an anomaly to them as I had what they considered a "proper" education - Latin, Greek and a number of other, useless, subjects but I worked in IT. They were proud that they had little understanding of how the products they sold worked. A couple of decades later those companies are gone. That the managers thought they were better because of their lack of knowledge is insane. I remember one sneering at staff because they knew how to use lathes and he didn't!
A complex society like ours will always need engineers and mechanics. It does not, even now, need people who think they are better because they are unable to understand technology (not just IT).
6 hours per week is 15% (Score:2)
I'd say 20% increase in productivity is "very good" when employing AI tools. It really depends on your domain/role, and you are not always going to get that 6 hours across the board.
We also can't ignore the risks. Treat it like an attack. Phishing attacks work on what, 1% of your employees? AI also has risks, be it misinformation that could impact security, a customer, etc. A low chance, but still multiplied at scale. Given the uncertainty, I can see why there could be some "corporate resistance". Is the 15