New data shows most employees are
experimenting with AI and growing their skills — now, the
job of every leader is to channel this experimentation into
business impact
REDMOND,
Wash., May 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday,
Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn released the 2024 Work Trend Index, a
joint report on the state of AI at work titled, "AI at work is
here. Now comes the hard part." The research — based on a
survey of 31,000 people across 31 countries, labor and hiring
trends on LinkedIn, trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity
signals, and research with Fortune 500 customers — shows how, just
one year in, AI is influencing the way people work, lead and hire
around the world. Microsoft also announced new capabilities in
Copilot for Microsoft 365, and LinkedIn made free more than 50
learning courses for LinkedIn Premium subscribers designed to
empower professionals at all levels to advance their AI
aptitude.1
The data is in: 2024 is the year AI at work gets real. Use of
generative AI at work has nearly doubled in the past six months.
LinkedIn is seeing a significant increase in professionals adding
AI skills to their profiles, and most leaders say they wouldn't
hire someone without AI skills. But with many leaders worried their
company lacks an AI vision, and employees bringing their own AI
tools to work, leaders have reached the hard part of any tech
disruption: moving from experimentation to tangible business
impact.
"AI is democratizing expertise across the workforce," said
Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO,
Microsoft. "Our latest research highlights the opportunity for
every organization to apply this technology to drive better
decision-making, collaboration — and ultimately business
outcomes."
The report highlights three insights every leader and
professional needs to know about AI's impact on work and the labor
market in the year ahead:
- Employees want AI at work — and won't wait for companies to
catch up: Seventy-five percent of knowledge workers now use AI
at work. Employees, many of them struggling to keep up with the
pace and volume of work, say AI saves time, boosts creativity, and
allows them to focus on their most important work. But although 79%
of leaders agree AI adoption is critical to remain competitive, 59%
worry about quantifying the productivity gains of AI and 60% say
their company lacks a vision and plan to implement it. So,
employees are taking things into their own hands. 78% of AI users
are bringing their own tools to work — Bring Your Own AI (BYOAI) —
missing out on the benefits that come from strategic AI use at
scale and putting company data at risk. The opportunity for every
leader is to channel this momentum into business impact at
scale.
- For employees, AI raises the bar and breaks the career
ceiling: Although AI and job loss are top of mind for
many, the data offers a more nuanced view — one with a hidden
talent shortage, employees eyeing a career change, and massive
opportunity for those willing to skill up on AI. A majority of
leaders (55%) are concerned about having enough talent to fill
roles this year with leaders in cybersecurity, engineering and
creative design feeling the pinch most. And professionals are
looking. Forty-six percent across the globe are considering
quitting in the year ahead — an all-time high since the Great
Reshuffle of 2021. A separate LinkedIn study found U.S. numbers to
be even higher with 85% eyeing career moves. Although two-thirds of
leaders (66%) wouldn't hire someone without AI skills, only 39% of
users have received AI training from their company and only 25% of
companies expect to offer it this year. So, professionals are
skilling up on their own. As of late last year, we've seen a 142x
increase in LinkedIn members adding AI skills like Copilot and
ChatGPT to their profiles and a 160% increase in nontechnical
professionals using LinkedIn Learning courses to build their AI
aptitude. In a world where AI mentions in LinkedIn job posts drive
a 17% bump in application growth, it's a two-way street:
Organizations that empower employees with AI tools and training
will attract the best talent, and professionals who skill up will
have the edge.
- The rise of the AI power user — and what they reveal about
the future: Four types of AI users emerged in the research —
from skeptics who rarely use AI to power users who use it
extensively. Compared to skeptics, AI power users have reoriented
their workdays in fundamental ways, reimagining business processes
and saving over 30 minutes per day. Over 90% of power users say AI
makes their overwhelming workload more manageable and their work
more enjoyable, but they aren't doing it on their own. These users
are 61% more likely to have heard from their CEO on the importance
of using generative AI at work, 53% more likely to receive
encouragement from leadership to consider how AI can transform
their function, and 35% more likely to receive tailored AI training
for their specific role or function.
"AI is redefining work, and it's clear we need new playbooks,"
said Ryan Roslansky, CEO of
LinkedIn. "It's the leaders who build for agility instead of
stability and invest in skill building internally that will give
their organizations a competitive advantage and create more
efficient, engaged and equitable teams."
Microsoft is also announcing Copilot for Microsoft 365
innovations to help people get started with AI.
- A new auto-complete feature is coming to the prompt box.
Copilot will now help people who have the start of a prompt by
offering to complete it, suggesting a more detailed prompt based on
what is being typed, to deliver a stronger result.
- When people know what they want, but don't have the right
words, the new rewrite feature in Copilot will turn a basic
prompt into a rich one with the click of a button.
- Catch Up is a new chat interface that surfaces personal
insights based on recent activity and provides responsive
recommendations. For example, Copilot will flag an upcoming meeting
and provide relevant information to help participants prepare.
- And new capabilities in Copilot Lab will enable people to
create, publish and manage prompts tailored to them, and to their
specific team, role and function.
These features will be available in the coming months.
LinkedIn is also providing AI tools to enable you to stay ahead
in your career.
- For upskilling. LinkedIn Learning offers more than
22,000 courses, including more than 600 AI courses, to build
aptitude in generative AI, empower your teams to make GAI-powered
business investments, or simply to keep your skills sharp. This
includes over 50 new AI learning courses to empower professionals
at all skill levels. New courses are free and available for
everyone to use through July 8.
Additionally, our new AI-Powered Coaching in LinkedIn Learning
helps learners find the content they need to grow their skills
faster, with greater personalization and guided conversational
learning.
- For career advancement. For LinkedIn Premium
subscribers, AI-powered personalized takeaways on LinkedIn Feed on
posts, articles or videos (from the article to the commentary) can
also help you daily in your career with personalized, relevant
insights and opportunities including ideas and actions you can
take.
- For job seeking. And if you're looking to change your
job, we're also making it easier and faster to find your ideal job.
With new AI-powered tools, you can now assess your fit for a role
in seconds based on your experience and skills, get advice on how
to stand out, and subscribers will also see nudges, for example
suggestions for skills to build, professionals in your network to
reach out to, and more. So far, more than 90% of subscribers
who have access shared it's been helpful in job search.
To learn more, visit the Official Microsoft Blog, the 2024 Work
Trend Index Report, and head to LinkedIn to hear more from the
company's Chief Economist, Karin
Kimbrough.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft)
creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative
solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The
technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and
doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and
every organization on the planet to achieve more.
About LinkedIn
LinkedIn connects the world's
professionals to make them more productive and successful and
transforms the way companies hire, learn, market and sell. Our
vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the
global workforce through the ongoing development of the world's
first Economic Graph. LinkedIn has more than 1 billion members and
has offices around the globe.
1 Courses will be available for free until
July 8, 2024.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.