Microsoft and LinkedIn's Work Trend Index Reflects Impact of AI

Microsoft and LinkedIn recently released a report regarding the state of AI. The report on Microsoft and LinkedIn's Work Trend Index has been published with the title, “AI at work is here. Now comes the hard part.”

The research of Microsoft and LinkedIn focuses on how has created an impact on the workplace and the recruitment process of companies. The survey for the research of Microsoft and LinkedIn has been conducted on 31,000 people located in 31 countries, a study of labor and hiring patterns on LinkedIn a study of trillions of productivity signals in Microsoft 365, and a study with Fortune 500 clients.

Microsoft recently in Copilot has also introduced new features. While LinkedIn offered over 50 courses on AI to enhance the AI skills of professionals for the subscribers of LinkedIn Premium.

“AI is democratizing expertise across the workforce,” stated chairman and CEO, of Microsoft, Satya Nadella. Further adding to it he said “Our latest research highlights the opportunity for every organization to apply this technology to drive better decision-making, collaboration — and ultimately business outcomes.”

Here are three key takeaways from the report that every leader and expert should be aware of as AI continues to revolutionize work and the workforce moving ahead:

Employees want AI at work — and won’t wait for companies to catch up:

It’s clear that employees want artificial intelligence in the workplace, and they’re not waiting for companies to jump on the bandwagon as 75% of knowledge workers say they’re already using AI at work, and employees, many of whom are already struggling with workloads and workloads, say that AI saves them time, increases creativity, and enable them up to focus on the most crucial tasks. Yet, while 80% of leaders say adoption of AI is essential for competitive success, 59% are concerned about quantifying productivity gains, and 60% believe their company lacks vision and a plan to implement AI. So, employees are doing things their own way. Eighty-seven percent of AI users say they use their own tools at work, including BYOAI (Bring Your Own AI), which means they’re missing out on many of the strategic benefits that come with deploying AI at scale and risking company data. The opportunity for every leader today is to turn this momentum into scale-accelerated business impact.

For employees, AI raises the bar and breaks the career ceiling:

AI and job loss is some of the biggest concerns today but the data offers a much more nuanced picture — one with hidden talent shortages, employees looking to change careers, and offering numerous opportunities for those willing to learn and grow in AI. 55% of leaders say they’re worried about hiring enough talent this year, with cybersecurity, engineering, and creative design leaders feeling the most pressure. 46% of global employees say they’ll quit in the next 12 months — a record high since the Big Reshuffle in 2021. In a separate LinkedIn study, 85% of U.S. employees said they’re looking to change careers. Two-thirds of leaders would not hire someone who doesn’t have AI skills, but just 39% of users say their company has provided AI training and only 25% say they expect to do so this year. So, professionals are learning on their own. Previously, last year, there was an increase of 142x in the number of LinkedIn members who added AI skills (Copilot, ChatGPT, etc.) to their profiles, and an increase of 160% in the number of nontechnical professionals who have enrolled for the LinkedIn Learning courses to enhance their skills on AI. In a world where mentions of AI in LinkedIn job postings drove a 17% increase in application growth last year, this is a win-win situation. Organizations that give employees access to AI tools and/or training will attract top talent, while those that skill up will gain an advantage over those who don’t.

The rise of the AI power user — and what they reveal about the future:

The research identified four types of AI users: “Skeptics” and “Power users” . Skeptics are considered to be those who leverage AI rarely while the Power users are considered to be those who leverages AI frequently. Compared to skeptics, power users have made fundamental changes to their workdays, reimagined business processes, and saved more than 30 minutes a day. “More than 90%” of power users say that AI makes their workload easier to manage and their work more fun, but they’re not doing it alone. 61% more likely to hear from their CEO about the need to use generative AI in the workplace 53% more likely to be encouraged by leadership to think about how AI can change their function 35% more likely to get personalized AI training for their role or function

Microsoft has also introduced innovations in Copilot for Microsoft 365 to assist people in their work in this AI landscape.

• The prompt box is about to get a new feature called auto-complete. This means that Copilot will now offer to complete people who have the beginning of a prompt, suggesting a more granular prompt based on what you’re typing to give you a better result.

• The new chat interference Catch Up provide personal recommendations based on your activity and offer real-time suggestions on the app.

• The new Rewrite function will change a basic prompt into a strong one which give you good result for your searches.

• Copilot Lab will allow users to create, publish, and manage prompts that are specific to them and their team, role and role.

2024 is the year that AI at work becomes a reality. Generative AI at work usage has almost doubled over the past half year. Microsoft and LinkedIn are seeing an exponential rise in the number of professionals adding AI skills to their profiles. Most leaders say they would not hire someone without AI skills. However, with many leaders concerned about their company’s lack of an AI vision, as well as employees bringing their own AI tools to the workplace, leaders have come to the end of the road when it comes to any tech disruption, from trial and error to real business impact.