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Welcome to the Bring Your Own AI to Work (BYOAI) era.
More than a year after generative AI debuted, the technology is ubiquitous in the workplace. Employees are tired of the pace and intensity of their work and are turning to AI to reduce the pressure their jobs put on them. In fact, employees appear to be taking a “ask for forgiveness, not permission” attitude toward gene AI. They don't wait for their companies to give the green light.
On Wednesday, Microsoft released its fourth yearbook Work Trend Indexworking with for the first time subsidiary LinkedIn to investigate the state of the labor market. Unsurprisingly, this year's report focused on how AI was reshaping work. “AI democratizes the expertise of the entire workforce,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. “Our latest research highlights the opportunity for every organization to apply this technology to drive better decision-making, collaboration and ultimately business results.”
Microsoft isn't just releasing a report today. It also launches new Copilot for Microsoft 365 opportunities to help people get started with AI. More about that later.
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The AI Impact Tour – San Francisco
Join us as we navigate the complexities of responsibly integrating AI into business on the next stop of VB's AI Impact Tour in San Francisco. Don't miss the opportunity to gain insights from industry experts, network with like-minded innovators, and explore the future of GenAI with customer experience and business process optimization.
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The AI ground well
Reportedly, 75 percent of employees now use AI at work, claiming the technology “save them time, boost creativity and allow them to focus on their most important work.” While 79 percent of leaders say adopting AI will help their companies stay competitive, 59 percent are concerned about quantifying AI's productivity gains, and 60 percent say they don't know how to implement it.
No longer willing to deal with management indecision, employees have taken it upon themselves to leverage the AI they personally use in their daily work. It's also not limited to one specific demographic generation; BYOAI seems to be universally accepted. This trend is similar to that of many years ago, when we were shouting about the consumerization of IT with services like Slack, Dropbox, Trello and Google Apps. And leave it to employees to take the lead in getting companies to embrace AI because it makes their jobs easier.
According to the Work Trend Index, AI enables employees to find order in the chaos at work. Sixty-eight percent say they struggle with the pace and volume of their work, while nearly half feel burned out. And let's not forget the stress our inboxes cause: AI can minimize the feeling of email overload.
Using AI to break the career ceiling
The report suggests that AI competency is likely to give some workers an advantage in new career opportunities. You don't have to be a technical AI expert either: there is a demand for employees who can use ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot.
Sixty-six percent of business leaders say they won't hire anyone without AI skills, and in the absence of formal workplace training, employees are taking matters into their own hands and choosing to take classes from LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Amazon, Google and other online education services. With AI infiltrating every part of the workforce, it's no surprise that understanding the technology is critical.
The rise of AI power users
With most technology trends, there are two ends of the spectrum: skeptics and power users. The Work Trend Index looks at the latter and shows that employees who use AI frequently save more than 30 minutes per day. Nearly all of these power users say the technology makes their workload more manageable and enjoyable. However, their embrace of AI isn't just the result of non-work influences. Likely because they've heard from their CEO about the importance of using generational AI at work (61 percent), been encouraged by leaders to explore using AI to transform their function (53 percent), and have a tailored Have had AI training for their work (35 percent). per cent).
While executives may be hesitant to invest in AI for their organizations, they are still encouraging employees to find use cases for the technology.
“AI is redefining work and it's clear we need new playbooks,” LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky noted in a statement. “It is the leaders who build flexibility rather than stability and invest internally in building skills that will give their organizations a competitive advantage and create more efficient, engaged and equal teams.”
Advice to business leaders
Organizations that want to capitalize on their employees' enthusiasm for AI can take the following steps:
- Identify a business problem, then apply AI – Microsoft cites the problem latest Estée Lauder partnership as an example
- Choose a top-down, bottom-up approach. Successfully turning an AI experiment into a transformative moment requires participation from all levels of the organization. Business line leaders are needed to activate teams around AI.
- Prioritize AI training for employees to help them acquire skills and use them more fully for their role and position
Copilot for Microsoft 365 updates
For those looking to get started with AI, Microsoft is releasing new features for Copilot for Microsoft 365, its AI-powered productivity tool. The new capabilities include:
- An autocomplete feature that helps users generate the best prompt
- A rewrite function in Copilot that turns a basic prompt into a “rich” prompt
- A chat interface called Catch Up that surfaces personal insights based on recent activity and provides responsive recommendations
Microsoft says these features will be available in the coming months.