The pace of work across international markets has surpassed human capacity and negatively impacted innovation but early AI adoption could drastically change this, as per Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2023 Report titled ‘Will AI Fix Work?’
Released on Thursday, the survey encompassed 31,000 individuals across industries in 31 countries, including 14 markets in the Asia Pacific region, combined with extensive data from Microsoft 365 and labour trends on LinkedIn.
The report highlighted the potential of AI to revolutionise the way we work, with organisations that embrace AI early on breaking this cycle and fostering increased creativity and productivity.
78% of surveyed Indian workers felt they currently lack the essential capabilities to accomplish their work effectively. A large majority was open to being supported by AI.
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The report observed that a deluge of data, emails, and chats overwhelmed workers’ ability to process them efficiently. The report highlighted the opportunity to optimise existing communication channels to enhance productivity.
Within Microsoft 365, people spend 57% of their time on communication and only 43% on actual creation.
While 74% of surveyed Indian workers expressed concern about AI replacing their jobs, an even higher percentage (83%) would eagerly delegate work to AI to reduce their workload. Over 75% of surveyed Indian workers are comfortable utilising AI for administrative, analytical, and even creative tasks, as per the report.
Notably, 100% of surveyed Indian creative workers familiar with AI are open to leveraging it for the creative aspects of their jobs. Managers in India are also 1.6 times more likely to believe AI boosts productivity rather than reduces headcount, according to the findings.
Microsoft’s report stated that all employees require new core competencies, including prompt engineering, as part of their daily routine.
Bhaskar Basu, Country Head of Modern Work at Microsoft India, emphasised that AI represents the most significant work transformation of our time.
The next generation of AI is set to unleash a wave of productivity growth, liberating employees from mundane tasks and enabling them to rediscover the joy of creation, according to him.
Basu noted that organisations and leaders are responsible for not only investing in AI but also ensuring that employees possess the necessary AI aptitude to thrive in the evolving work landscape.
The Asia Pacific markets covered in the study are Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
