New report reveals local impact of AI on jobs, productivity
Plus: An exciting founder-only event for the Auckland-based community.
Happy Tuesday!
Kia ora Caffeinators,
It’s my favourite kind of day. There’s more local data on emerging technology to parse, a founder-only event to shout out and some more sloppy drama from Silicon Valley to keep us entertained. Something for everyone.
Here’s what’s brewing in your Daily Shot:
Event: Auckland Startup Collective founder only networking opportunity
Third bi-annual AI Forum report shows real A.I impacts
Pod pick: NBR Podcast with Simon Shepherd unpacks Productivity vs Jobs
Elon Musk sues Apple and OpenAI because of course he does
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Finn and the CAFFEINE team
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Third bi-annual AI forum report shows real A.I impacts: Its felt for a while like we’re in an accelerating phase of A.I adoption and now the third bi-annual AI in Action survey from the A.I forum provides some clear numbers to back that up.
Key findings:
91% of businesses report efficiency gains from AI.
50% cite positive financial impact
77% report cost savings on operations.
55% consistent level of new roles being created
An underpinning factor seems to be the plummeting cost of AI tools, seventy-five percent of organisations now report setup costs under $5,000 (58% under $1,000), compared to nearly 30% spending over $50,000 a year ago. The proportion of organisations spending more than $50,000 per year has dropped markedly from 12% to just 4%.
AI-driven job losses have increased with 14% of organisations now attributing job losses to AI, up from 7% in the previous two surveys. Of course there is a danger of mixing up causation and corelation here and this appears to be linked to wider economic pressures, with many businesses choosing to bank savings rather than expand headcount.
The number which stuck out most to me was the fact 45% of AI adopters report a reduction in new hires, a trend that has steadily increased over the past year. While the ‘A.I bubble is about to burst’ conversation is heating up currently, I think it’s crucial to keep in view numbers like this which show businesses are finding enough value in relatively low cost tools to stave off hiring new employees.
Yes, this does seem to be balanced by new roles being created based on this data but I doubt those roles are 1 to 1 replacements and are more likely redeploying existing talent within the organisation.
The worry I’ve had for a while is that the place AI impacts will be most keenly felt in the short term is in the entry level jobs taken by new hires and fresh grads. If the trend continues like this, I fear we could start seeing the ladder be pulled up on employment as it once was on housing.
Pod pick: NBR Podcast with Simon Shepherd unpacks Productivity vs Jobs - A very timely podcast episode has dropped from Simon Shepherd at the NBR unpacking the results of this survey. It includes interviews with AI forum chair Madeline Newman and some businesses at the forefront of AI adoption, like recently unveiled AI powered startup Aether and the more established AI business solution provider, Supahuman. This episode is behind the paywall for those with a subscription but will be available to all from next week on Spotify.
Auckland Startup Collective founder only event: Really cool event to shout out here for our Auckland-based founder whanau. It’s a networking event made with you in mind and with a different twist than many of the others you might have attended.
The format is as follows: After a drink, you break into smaller groups. Each person gets the floor for 20 minutes. In that time, they spend the first 5 minutes giving the group context about their work / personal life, and sharing their most pressing challenge, or something they’re struggling with. Then, for the next 15 minutes, the group is allowed to do two things: (1) ask questions, or (2) share a personal experience relevant to their situation. Crucially, no one in the group is allowed to “give advice”.
And of course, you will also have plenty of time to chit chat with your peers.
This event is ONLY for:
a) Founders of a tech or tech-enabled company,
b) With a registered company, or material evidence of market activity (e.g. a product in the wild),
c) Can evidence commitment and aspirations for their proposition.
Thursday, 18 September, Auckland, 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Apple because of course he does: Another day, another law suit from the world’s richest man. You know what that they say: when you’re losing, you should dig deep, try your best and then accuse the other team of cheating and take them to court.
The long running and messy saga of Sam Altman vs Elon Musk has entered a new phase as poor old Tim Cook gets dragged into the real house wives of Silicon Valley spat. Elon Musk is now suing OpenAI and Apple in an antitrust case filed yesterday over alleged anti-competitive practices.
Musk alleges Apple is manipulating its storefront to give preferential treatment to OpenAI. Its hard not to read this as a temper tantrum from a man who can’t handle that his own recently released model simply was not as popular as ChatGPT. I wonder why? It’s not like Grok publicly called itself MechaHitler or anything. Oh what, it did do that? Huh, I think we might be in hell.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co
Re entry-level jobs, a recruiter I was talking to recently told me her daughter graduated not long ago and such jobs in her field are thin on the ground.