Slack: The Fall 2024 Workforce Index Shows AI Hype Is Cooling

Executives are all in on AI, with 99% planning AI investment in the coming year. And yet, for the first time since generative AI’s introduction, adoption rates are plateauing and excitement is cooling among the global workforce.

This study is a real Rorschach test for what one wants to be true with AI exactly 2 years in the ChatGPT revolution. If you’re a skeptic, then the headline is exactly what you want to see. “See!? People don’t want this stuff!” On the other hand, enthusiasts will point to the fact that the usage numbers are still going up and the blockers employees reported more align with training misses than distaste for the tech.

For my part, I’d say that the biggest headwind for AI among workers is that the tools simply aren’t living up to the hype and they’re wildly inconsistent. I see this from developers, designers, product managers, and every other position I work with. The code assist can be helpful, or it can be totally wrong. ChatGPT can help you turn your requirements bullet points into a few decently worded paragraphs, but it might also spit out unintended requirements you didn’t intend. Besides, the person reading those maybe-correct paragraphs will have a “turn into bullet points” button next to the document.

I personally thought Slack AI was going to be a godsend since it had a dataset that included so much domain knowledge, but that’s been a bummer for me as well. At best I’d say it’s useful in maybe 1/20 searches I perform, but it’s also not exactly a game changer. And that’s how I feel in general – these AI tools are useful in same cases some of the time. That’s not nothing, but it’s a far cry from the lofty promises we’ve heard from AI companies and executives.