Almost three quarters of German consumers (72%) believe that their current job cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence, Europe-Data reports.
According to a study by the TÜV association of 1,001 people aged 16 and over, around 53 % of workers believe that artificial intelligence will play a “big” or “very big” role in their profession in five years’ time, while 44 % believe it will have little or no impact.
Currently, around one in three (31%) working people in Germany use generative AI applications such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Le Chat for professional purposes, while in the general population this figure rises to 53% as many respondents use such applications privately.
“Artificial intelligence will fundamentally change many work processes in almost all professional fields – from plant engineering to dental technology,” commented Dr. Joachim Bühler, Managing Director of the TÜV Association, noting that AI is already being used in a variety of industries such as robotics, production planning and product development. “It is crucial that employees develop the necessary AI skills early on,”he added.
Among other findings from the survey: 49 per cent of respondents believe AI could lead to widespread job losses, but only 7 per cent personally fear losing their jobs to AI.
Additionally, three in five (60%) employees believe that further AI training would be beneficial to their professional development, and only 19% of employees say their employer has issued specific rules for using generative AI in the workplace.
“Most employers apparently lack a strategic approach to how artificial intelligence can be used most profitably in their organisation,” commented Bühler.
Where such guidelines exist, they tend to focus on areas such as data protection (76 %), privacy rules (63 %) or copyright (61 %). Some 54 per cent require their employees to conduct fact-checks on AI-generated content, and 4 per cent state that the use of generative AI is strictly prohibited in their workplace.
