(Study) Employers think ChatGPT means +74% productivity: 51% of resulting job losses in marketing

According to our study, 23% of employees working in the software and tech industry are worried about losing their job because of ChatGPT.  Maybe they should be, as 26% of employers in the same industry are thinking about reducing headcount as a direct result.  

Finance employees: 70% more at risk than they expect

Finance is the second-biggest industry where employees and employers have differing views on how ChatGPT will reduce headcount. Employees in the finance industry do not see ChatGPT as a threat, although they should.  

Only 14% of employees in the finance sector fear that ChatGPT will be used to reduce headcounts and costs in their company. However, 22% of employers in finance consider this an option if they were to introduce ChatGPT into their business.

On a departmental level, employees in product management and customer service departments are 2x more likely to worry about their jobs than marketers…but marketers are the ones who are most at risk. 

Although employers may look into ChatGPT consulting services before making their final decisions, according to our data, 51% of employers who are considering reducing headcount believe that ChatGPT would be implemented into their marketing and PR departments. Is an unforeseen wave of marketing layoffs is coming? Only a quarter of employees in those departments envision reduced headcounts in their organization.

Although employees and employers have different opinions on where jobs may be impacted by ChatGPT, both groups agree that the chatbot has potential in marketing copy. Still, marketing employees may not have grasped just how many employers are ready to use the bot. 

43% of employers want to hire ChatGPT as a marketing copywriter compared to 36% of employees who see the chatbot as having a role in this area.

Across all sectors, millennials are 43% more worried about job cuts in their industry, however, the number significantly increases when it comes to those working in software and tech.  

Within the industry however, most millennials that fear these job cuts imagine ChatGPT being used mostly for writing purposes rather than coding such as answering customer questions (50%), and outreaching potential clients (38%)

Most employees (32%) see an increased productivity range of 25-50% and so do employers (33%) but the latter see an average productivity boost slightly above that of their employees.

Employees who predict the biggest productivity gains would use ChatGPT for coding, employers in marketing

Out of employees who believe ChatGPT could at least double their productivity, 45% would use it for coding tasks, and 38% of them think it would be most beneficial for IT and engineering departments.

However, only 31% of employers believe that coding would see such a significant benefit from the chatbot. 

On the other hand, 41% of employers expect ChatGPT to double their productivity in marketing and PR departments and would use it for writing marketing copy as well.

58% of 18-24-year-olds believe that ChatGPT would at least double their productivity in answering customer questions. 50% believe it would be most useful for writing code and generating non-marketing copy.

37% of employers who would use ChatGPT for customer service work in the software and tech industry.  Of that number, 72% are afraid of a loss of human touch. 

For all the talk of ChatGPT replacing human customer service, only 14% of employers in software and tech (ChatGPT’s heaviest adopters) would be looking to reduce headcount in this area.  

What about watermarking? When it comes to watermarked text making AI-generated content look untrustworthy, employers and employees share concerns regarding contacting customers. 

Of those most concerned, 39% are concerned they would seem untrustworthy in outreaching clients, and a further 44% when answering customer questions.

Companies fear that direct contact with customers would label them as unreliable if they knew they were talking with a bot.  Admitting to the clients that their content is produced by AI could turn away those looking for a more personal experience.  

The pilot of the paid service ChatGPT Professional begs the question: which industries are willing to put their money where their mouth is? 

32% of those willing to pay over €250 per month come from the software and tech industry, and 52% of those willing to pay over €500: making it overwhelmingly the sector willing to pay the most for ChatGPT Professional.

To put that into context, in second place sits the finance industry with just 19% ready to pay over €250 per month.

Although ChatGPT has left an impression of autonomy for both employees and employers, ChatGPT has been known to make simple mistakes which begs us to wonder if it should be left unsupervised.  

Understandably, employers who think ChatGPT can work unsupervised are 18% more likely to reduce headcount within their company.

ChatGPT has created differing perceptions amongst employees and employers on its potential impact on the workforce. Whether it be on job cuts or in terms of productivity, ChatGPT could leave an impact on both the finance and software and tech sectors with AI integrated into, most likely, their marketing departments.  

It is uncertain if the chatbot will continue to be accessible for free, but employers are willing to pay for the AI-generated text.  But wait to see whether chatbot content with a watermark that might as well say “I was not written by a human” will change our usage of the chatbot.