Workers Using AI To Snag Pay Raises, Promotions: Study

A substantial number of workers are using ChatGPT to get pay raises and promotions, according to survey results recently released by a resume resource website.

Some 38% of workers say ChatGPT helped them land a pay raise, and 29% say it helped them secure a promotion, according to a survey of 1,666 U.S. employees who spend most or all of their workday on a computer conducted by ResumeTemplates.

Workers told researchers that ChatGPT has helped them complete tasks more quickly (64%), be more productive (62%), and reduce stress levels (50%).

In addition, workers reported the generative AI tool allowed them to more efficiently problem-solve (49%), enhance skills and knowledge (46%), improve job satisfaction (43%), and achieve better project outcomes (41%).

What’s more, they say the tool allowed for greater innovation in their work (36%), improved job security (29%), better team collaboration (31%), and more recognition from colleagues and supervisors (19%).

Reinvesting Time Into Company

“Employers are not only open to it, but in some cases, we see employers encouraging it,” ResumeTemplates’ Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach Andrew Stoner told TechNewsWorld.

That’s likely because employers know it’s making their employees more productive. According to the survey, 56% of respondents said their employers knew how much time ChatGPT saved their employees.

Moreover, much of the time freed by ChatGPT is being reinvested into organizations. Some 60% of employees said they reinvested some of the time they saved with ChatGPT into company tasks, while 33% invested all of it back into the company.

“In our research, we’ve seen a top benefit of using generative AI is the technology’s ability to alleviate or automate tedious and manual tasks,” said Thomas Vick, senior regional director for Illinois, Tennessee, and Missouri for Robert Half, a global staffing and recruiting firm.

“With this additional time, workers can engage in more strategic thinking and problem-solving activities that might be seen as higher-value initiatives for businesses,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Learning the best utilization of these tools and how to incorporate them into your workflows can certainly help propel your career.”

“If employees are more efficient by using AI and are not creating ethical issues, we’ll see it more and more becoming a prerequisite,” Stoner added. “Employers will be looking for employees who know how to use the technology and integrate it into their work.”

Transformative Workplace Impact

At Phoenix-based Impact Health USA, a health care solutions platform, CEO and Founder Josh Thompson said the company believes in leveraging AI to boost productivity and drive professional growth. “This survey underscores the potential for AI to play a pivotal role in career advancement,” he told TechNewsWorld.

“ChatGPT is a powerful tool that enhances worker productivity and efficiency,” he observed. “Employees can use it to draft professional emails, generate detailed reports, brainstorm innovative ideas, and quickly learn new skills. These enhancements can significantly improve work quality and performance, making employees more valuable to their organizations and increasing their chances for raises and promotions.”

“It’s intriguing that 38% of workers attribute their raises to ChatGPT,” he said. “This highlights the transformative impact of AI tools in the workplace.”

Modern AI, like ChatGPT, is a highly customizable knowledge synthesizer, so it’s no surprise workers have been able to leverage it for raises and promotions, added Dev Nag, CEO and founder of San Francisco-based QueryPal, an enterprise chatbot.

“Since it came out, people have been using it to learn new skills — with an infinitely patient tutor, accelerate everyday tasks like analysis and content creation, think through strategic plans, do faster research and summarization than search engines can, write software faster, and even modulate their communication to a given audience — whether external customers or co-workers,” he told TechNewsWorld.

“All of these were available to workers before, but AI just helps them do it so much faster than ever before, and it’s not surprising that their increased productivity would result in raises and even promotions.

“Now, no one expects an information worker to get their job done with a pencil and paper anymore,” he continued. “We understand that workers will be using some kind of computing device at essentially all times and that some will be better at using it than others.”

“We’re moving toward an economy where what was true for computing, in general, will be true for AI specifically,” he said. “We expect everyone to leverage AI and raise the performance bar accordingly. To quote William Gibson, the future is already here; it’s just not evenly distributed.”

Perils of AI

Using AI tools, even if they can contribute to a pay bump or promotion, can entail a lot of risks, noted Alon Yamin, CEO and co-founder of Copyleaks, an AI-based text analysis and plagiarism company in New York City.

“Information can be inaccurate. It can be plagiarized,” he told TechNewsWorld. “So what’s important when working with these solutions is to make sure you have tools in place that can mitigate those risks.”

One risk users should be careful to avoid is data leakage. “When using platforms like OpenAI’s, there is no guarantee that the information submitted will remain confidential,” cautioned Keaun Amani, CEO and founder of Neurosnap, a software engineering and molecular biology company in Wilmington, Del.

“It is crucial for users in business to be mindful of the sensitive information they share through such platforms to minimize the risk of data leakage,” he told TechNewsWorld. “But other than that, I firmly believe that people should use the best tools at their disposal.”

Ethical Concerns

There may also be some ethical challenges for AI users. “It’s not an ethical problem to use AI to generate content or to analyze a situation, but it’s definitely a problem if that usage isn’t disclosed and understood by the ultimate recipient of that content or analysis,” Nag explained.

“They might have specific expectations that the worker is leveraging their own specific background, or has taken pains not to include copyrighted material, or fully understands the unspoken rules and preferences of that organization,” he explained. “These expectations can be violated when using AI naively.”

Ed Dodson, an instructor at Henry George School of Social Science in New York City, recommended a person’s performance be evaluated utilizing multiple measures, including interpersonal skills, problem-solving ability, and creative approaches to achieving desired outcomes.

“If the use of AI strengthens what the person knows and is capable of, then AI is useful,” he told TechNewsWorld. “If AI is used to hide shortcomings, these shortcomings are certain to become known under conditions of stress and time constraints.”

But David Inserra, a fellow for free expression and technology at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, sees AI as just a tool to improve a worker’s capabilities, as other workplace tools do.

“The computer greatly enhanced the abilities of workers in the office, and that didn’t make it unethical for some workers to use this advantage,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Similarly, if AI tools are used by workers to get hired for better jobs or ask for a raise, that is little different than making use of a friend or job service that can help you craft a strong resume or performance evaluation.”

Editor’s Note: The charts featured in this article are credited to ResumeTemplates.