Good morning,
Another day, another study on how companies are thinking about generative A.I.—this one from freelance platform Upwork. Some of the results confirm what other surveys (see Tuesday’s post) have shown—that in the short term, companies are looking to hire more people, not fewer, because of generative A.I. And that there’s a gap between the enthusiasm of CEOs and the enthusiasm of their teams.
A couple of other interesting takeaways from Upwork research, which surveyed 1,400 U.S. business leaders at the senior manager through C-suite level:
—Mid-sized companies (501-5,000 employees) are moving faster to adopt generative A.I. than large or small companies. Sixty-two percent said they are already leveraging generative A.I., compared to 41% of the bigger companies, and 56% of smaller ones. That likely reflects the risks around privacy, security, and accuracy that worry some big companies, as well as the lack of adequate talent at small ones.
—Remote-first companies are more likely to embrace A.I. Sixty-eight percent of full-time remote companies say they are leaning into this new technology, compared to 53% of companies that are full-time in the office.
I caught up with Upwork CEO Hayden Brown yesterday, who told me she’s convinced that generative A.I. will spark “a complete revolution in how work is happening at every level—and not just what the work is, but more fundamentally, how we do the work…This will break the model of how work has been done in the past.” She said job searches involving generative A.I. on her platform increased 1,300% between March and May, while job posts increased 1,000%. You can read more about the Upwork study here.
Also yesterday, I had lunch with the CEO of a company that has 126 years of history behind it—and remarkably, is still run by a member of the family that founded it. When I was a child, Smucker’s Apple Butter—the first product produced by the J.M. Smucker Co. in 1897—was my breakfast go-to. Today, the company’s brands include Jif, Folgers, Uncrustables, Milkbone, and more.
Mark Smucker has been CEO since 2016. I asked him how leadership has changed over the past decade. His response:
“As CEOs, we have to think about more things than we would have ever had to think about five or 10 years ago. Each of our constituents has differing opinions, thoughts, interest. As a consumer goods company, our first focus is meeting the consumer needs. But we have to take care our employees. What they feel matters. If it’s about social issues, we need to be aware of what is important to them. But we also need to recognize that we’re a business, and we are in business to be successful.”
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
