Leaders at companies around the globe plan to use more contingent workers, according to the Ceridian 2023 Executive survey, released Thursday. It found that 65% said they would increase their reliance on contingent workers in the next two years.

Use of contingents is already widespread at global firms, with 80% of those surveyed saying their organisation already uses contingents.

There are some issues. The survey found that 70% of executives said they are somewhat or strongly challenged when integrating contingents into their workforce, and 44% said finding contingent workers with specific skills is a difficulty.

The survey also looked at technology usage. It found 81% said their company uses artificial intelligence to perform repetitive tasks. However, less than half of leaders said their organisations are using technology to optimise skills usage throughout the business.

Another finding: 92% of respondents said workforce challenges such as employee attraction, engagement and retention — in addition compliance complexities — are creating risks to organisations in terms of their ability to achieve their goals in the next year.

For the survey, Ceridian polled 2,020 business leaders at the director level or above at companies with at least 1,000 employees. Companies were located in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and the US.