This conclusion is the most striking that can be drawn from the VI Survey of social perception of innovation in Spain made by him Observatory of the Cotec Foundation and sigma two. The majority of the citizens surveyed (51%) believe that the technological revolution will create new jobs, reduce the length of the working day (56%) and improve the balance between private life and work life. In addition, 53% of those interviewed believe that it will reduce the gender gap in employment.
On this occasion, there were 7,587 surveys distributed by autonomous communities between December 2022 and February 2023. In addition, a interactive visualization tool that allows efficient consultation and comparison of results by territories.
Much has been said in recent months about the impact of artificial intelligence and about the danger that this entails, in this case, in the destruction of employment. Thus, the visualization tool allows you to check that two thirds of the active population (63%) believes that most of the current jobs will be replaced by machines within 15 years, but that in the case of their own work only 12% believe that their tasks could be automated.
It is a feeling of attachment and belief in robots, algorithms and AI, but also a suspicion that it could end his job. That self-confidence against machines it is especially accentuated in those jobs related to dealing with people (in 64%), operating machines (in 54%) or information processing (in 48%).
In this VI Survey of social perception of innovation in Spain, it is appreciated a difference of 27 percentage points between citizens who believe that technology will reduce working hours (56%) and those who believe that it will not bring significant changes (29%). Something that contrasts with the data from four years ago, when the difference was barely two points.
Preparing the sector for the technological revolution
The majority of workers surveyed, 70%, consider that Spanish society is not prepared for the change and adaptation of artificial intelligence, but in 61% of cases they do think that they are. The conclusion is drawn that feeling of self-defense and self-confidence in which one wants to imply that their employment, despite the changes, will be defended even if it requires specific training.
Compared to the most optimistic, it can be seen that 34% of the active population, out of seven million workers, declared not being able to compete in a market where technology prevails. This feeling is greater among those who do not have studies (61%) and those with medium studies (40%), but it also occurs in 22% of the cases among those who have higher education. blame is placed, in large part, on Spanish educational system, who consider that it does not sufficiently prepare future generations. That trust in education is currently at 15%, five percentage points less than in 2022.
Although most consider the employment gender gap would be reduced with a greater presence of technology, 39% of the women surveyed think that their technological work skills are less than those of their peers and that they will not eliminate this difference. In their case, 48% of those surveyed do see hope in technology to tackle this problem at the root.
The perception of Spain by workers
In addition to their pessimism regarding the current educational system, a large part of those surveyed believe that Spain does not commit enough to innovation, with perception falling by 12 percentage points in the last five years. 51% of those surveyed consider that technological change generates social inequality and 29% believe that it does not.
Now the difference between those who see the country prepared for the technological revolution and those who see it at the bottom of the race for innovation is barely 2.6 percentage points. And it is that eight out of ten Spaniards consider the country’s public investment in R+D+I insufficient.
For his part, the perception of large Spanish companies as synonymous with innovative organizations has fallen by 10 percentage points, going to be at 38%.
