Study: Managers want more AI in politics
Top managers in DACH SMEs prefer artificial intelligence to reduce bureaucracy, according to a survey by Steinbeis Augsburg Business School. The survey also shows that more than half of SME managers (53 percent) consider AI support for political decisions desirable.
"Artificial intelligence (AI) would make better decisions than many a politician driven by his own ego" - this pointed statement would be signed by around two-thirds of managers in medium-sized companies. This is the result of a recent survey conducted by Steinbeis Augsburg Business School among more than 100 top managers from predominantly medium-sized companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
More than half of German SME managers (53 percent) consider AI support for political decisions to be desirable. In any case, artificial intelligence could bring more logic and rationality to politics, a third of managers are firmly convinced. "The call from business for more rationality in politics is unmistakable," says Andreas Renner, Academic Director of Steinbeis Augsburg Business School and study leader of the current AI survey.
Better climate, more security, less bureaucracy
In the survey, the managers questioned named a number of concrete application scenarios for AI in politics and, above all, in policy implementation. For example, 32 percent are firmly convinced that AI algorithms could improve climate and environmental protection, while another 46 percent are at least partially convinced. AI-supported systems could improve security in public spaces, say 72 percent. For example, 45 percent are quite sure that the rate of crime detection could be increased through the use of AI; another 40 percent are inclined to agree.
Meanwhile, the management group sees the greatest need for AI in the uncluttering of bureaucracy. 85 percent of executives are convinced that AI software can make a contribution to reducing bureaucracy. 58 percent even rank AI as an authoritative technology to curb the rampant "rule of the office" (bureaucracy taken literally). When it comes to democracy - the "rule of the people" - 44 percent of managers from SMEs attribute a positive effect to AI.
"More democracy and less bureaucracy is apparently a hope that many executives associate with the use of AI," analyzes Andreas Renner of Steinbeis Augsburg Business School. He notes, "Many business decision-makers are apparently shifting some of their most pressing desires to politics as a hope for artificial intelligence. If the human intelligence of politicians can't fix it, then hopefully the artificial intelligence of computers can. Whether this calculation will work out, however, remains to be seen." The answers to the question of whether AI can "bring more peace to the world" also come close to this interpretation. Yes, at least somewhat, according to three quarters of decision-makers from the business world. "Let's hope they're all right," says study director Andreas Renner of Steinbeis Augsburg Business School.
About the survey: This was conducted by the Steinbeis Augsburg Business School together with the UN think tank Diplomatic CouncilThe survey was conducted by the Central European interim manager community United Interim and the Oberösterreichische Landesbank. It is not representative, but focused on the target group of top managers from medium-sized businesses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (board members, managing directors, supervisory and administrative board members, advisory board members and C-level consultants).
