The artificial intelligence craze has taken the world by storm. At the beginning of this year. a lot of organizations began to inject AI capabilities across their products and services in a bid to enhance efficiency and effectiveness, with the likes of Google and Microsoft launching their own AI-powered chatbots.
It’s no secret that the possibilities these AI capabilities open up are endless and will definitely redefine and reshape how people work. Organizations tapping into AI and leveraging its capabilities to enhance efficiency and effectiveness at the workplace will get to promote productivity as well as creativity.
Microsoft has released its latest Work Trend Index report which delves deeper into this in detail. The findings from the report are based on the 31,000 people surveyed from 31 different countries coupled with the trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals analyzed alongside labor trends from the
LinkedIn Economic Graph.
The shift and incorporation of AI in organizations is inevitable, and according to the Work Trend Index report, AI will reshape how people work in three major ways. Here’s everything you need to know:
Innovation and productivity booster
First up, per the report’s findings, digital debt is negatively impacting the performance index of employees. Employees are bombarded with a lot of digital data throughout the day, that is, emails, meetings, and notifications which in turn leaves them with little time to come up with ideas thus stunting their creativity. With meetings marked as the “number one productivity disruptor.”
There’s therefore a growing need to make the meeting experience across organizations better and more effective. And with the help of AI capabilities meetings will cease being a point in time to a digital artifact that employees can access at their own pleasure.
The report further details that 68% of the people that took part in the survey indicated that they didn’t have sufficient uninterrupted focus time during a workday.
However, by leveraging AI capabilities, Microsoft believes that employees can be able to strike a balance. This means that they will be able to maintain their performance index at work and also get enough uninterrupted time to come up with brilliant ideas and even get to execute them.
Get more done with the help of AI
While AI continues to gain popularity across organizations, there’s been a growing concern among employees that it will eventually render them redundant at the workplace and inevitably take their jobs.
However, the report’s findings detailed that 49% of the people surveyed had this concern. On the other side, more than 70% were excited about the injection of AI in their organizations. They further cited that they’d leverage its capabilities to enhance their productivity.
Business leaders part of the survey expressed their interest in AI and that they were working towards incorporating its capabilities across their organizations. However, their main concern was 2x focused on achieving efficiency and effectiveness than getting rid of employees.
The leaders also expressed their interest in helping their employees reduce the time spent on low-value activities, increase well-being, enhance capabilities, and more with the help of AI.
AI aptitude for workers
As more organizations begin to warm up to AI, it’s paramount that employees know how to leverage its capabilities properly and appropriately for the best results. According to Microsoft’s findings:
Leaders we surveyed said it’s essential that employees learn when to leverage AI, how to write great prompts, evaluate creative work, and check for bias. As AI reshapes work, human-AI collaboration will be the next transformational work pattern—and the ability to work iteratively with AI will be a key skill for every employee.
To effectively make use of AI in the workplace, leaders indicated that it is essential for employees to have analytical judgment, flexibility as well as emotional intelligence.
The report further disclosed that 60% of people stated that they don’t possess the required skills for their current job postings. But the incorporation of AI gets them a step closer as it opens new avenues for learning. However, this is dependent on how well the leaders prepare and empower their employees for the future.
At the end of the day, AI is getting bigger by the day and more innovations continue to pop up every day. It’s, therefore, necessary for organizations to keep up with trends in a bid to remain relevant and continue to be a lucrative venture.
Change is constant we can’t evade it, but as highlighted in the report organizations as well as business leaders need to be equipped with the right information and skills which will allow them to properly implement these changes.
Featured Image by Bing Image Creator
