• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

My TechDecisions

  • Best of Tech Decisions
  • Topics
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Mobility
    • Unified Communications
    • IT Infrastructure
    • Network Security
    • Physical Security
    • Facility
    • Compliance
  • RFP Resources
  • Resources
  • Podcasts
  • Project of the Week
  • About Us
    SEARCH
IT Infrastructure, News, Unified Communications

Microsoft’s 2023 Work Trend Index: AI Can Help Employees, Not Replace Them

Microsoft's 2023 Work Trend Index dives into workplace habits and explores how AI can help solve workload issues.

May 11, 2023 Zachary Comeau Leave a Comment

ChatGPT, AI, Microsoft, Work Trend Index, Generative AI
Wanan/stock.adobe.com

With Microsoft forging ahead with its GPT-4-powered Copilot AI solution and integrating it across its enterprise productivity suite, it’s no surprise that the company’s 2023 Work Trend Index focused on AI and how it can help organizations be more efficient rather than replace employees.

The company’s Work Trend Index, an annual study of corporate work habits and how technology can help solve issues, analyzes trillions of aggregated productivity signals in Microsoft 365, along with labor market trends on LinkedIn, with past issues focusing on pandemic-era themes such as videoconferencing, distributed work and burnout.

With ChatGPT and generative AI capturing the attention of Microsoft and dozens of other enterprise tech firms, Microsoft used this year’s report to paint a picture of how AI can help solve today’s workplace issues, with burnout at the top.

What Microsoft’s Work Trend Index says about digital debt and burnout

The Redmond, Wash. tech giant’s Work Trend Index devotes an entire section of the report to worker burnout and how we just can’t keep up with the amount of work, data, emails, meetings and notifications.

According to the report, 64% of workers say they are struggling with having enough time and energy to do their jobs, and those same people are 3.5x more likely to also struggle with innovation and strategic thinking.

In addition, 60% of leaders are seeing those impacts play out, expressing concern with the lack of innovation or breakthrough ideas.

With organizations still adopting hybrid work models, the balance of work hours are spent communicating, leading to 68% of people saying they don’t have enough uninterrupted focus time during their workday.

Microsoft’s Work Trend Index includes collaboration patterns across Microsoft 365 from a rolling 28-day period ending in March, excluding weekends, that found that time spent in Teams Meetings, Teams Chat and email outweighs time spent in productivity apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote by a margin of 57% to 43%.

What the 2023 Microsoft’s Work Trend Index says about AI’s capabilities

Microsoft opens this section of the report attempting to quell fears of AI replacing jobs, despite the fact that some organizations have openly said that they plan to replace jobs with AI, including IBM, which is eyeing about 7,800 jobs that can be replaced with AI. To that end, Microsoft’s Work Trend Index finds that 49% of people are worried that AI will replace their jobs.

However, Microsoft has positioned its Copilot tool as an AI assistant designed to help workers do their jobs rather than replace them, which makes sense when considering that 70% of workers told Microsoft that they would delegate as much work as possible to AI to help lessen their workloads.

Further, 76% would use AI for administrative tasks, 79% would use it for analytical, and 73% would use it for creative. In addition, users also want AI as a virtual assistant, with 86% saying they would leverage AI to help them find the right information, 80% would use it to summarize meetings and action items, and 77% would use it to plan their day.

Per Microsoft’s research, increasing employee productivity was the most popular answer to how AI in the workplace can benefit an organization at 31%, while reducing headcount was just 16%, the least popular response.

Other popular answers include helping employees with repetitive tasks, increasing employee wellbeing, eliminating time spent on low-value activities, enhancing employee capabilities, accelerating pace of work and several others.

Similarly, workers want tools that can help save them time, work smarter, and end information overload, per Microsoft’s annual study.

What Microsoft’s Work Trend Index says about necessary AI skills

Despite the clear desire for AI to help make workers more productive and stress-free, it’s not a simple plug and play, as Microsoft posits that workers will need to develop AI aptitude to realize the full benefits of the technology.wq

According to Microsoft’s research, users will need to understand when it is appropriate to leverage AI, evaluate accuracy and fairness of content generated by AI, and ask the right questions.

More than 80% of leaders told Microsoft that employees will need additional skills to be prepared for the growth of AI, and they’ll need to start doing so today, as there are 33 times as many LinkedIn posts mentioning topics such as generative AI and GPT than there were a year ago.

What Microsoft says organizations should do about AI

For productivity issues, Microsoft suggests organizations should identify productivity issues, rethink the workday as AI helps free up time, and encourage users to leverage AI-powered meeting recaps.

When it comes to actually leveraging AI, Microsoft recommends that business leaders proceed responsibly when rolling out AI tools, targeting low-hanging fruit first.

Similarly, organizations will need to educate employees on AI and help them embrace a new way of working, the company says.

Read Microsoft’s 2023 Work Trend Index for more information.

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!

Tagged With: ChatGPT, Copilot, Generative AI, Microsoft, Microsoft 365, OpenAI

Related Content:

  • Cloud, SASE, Aryaka How the Cloud is Redefining Media Production and…
  • Singlewire Software mass notification interview Singlewire Software on Mass Notification Solutions
  • URI catchbox 1 Catchbox Plus: The Mic Solution That Finally Gave…
  • Engaging virtual meeting with diverse participants discussing creative ideas in a bright office space during daylight hours Diversified Survey: Workplace AV Tech is Falling Short,…

Free downloadable guide you may like:

  • Practical Design Guide for Office SpacesPractical Design Guide for Office Spaces

    Recent Gartner research shows that workers prefer to return to the office for in-person meetings for relevant milestones, as well as for face-to-face time with co-workers. When designing the office spaces — and meeting spaces in particular — enabling that connection between co-workers is crucial. But introducing the right collaboration technology in meeting spaces can […]

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Downloads

Practical Design Guide for Office Spaces
Practical Design Guide for Office Spaces

Recent Gartner research shows that workers prefer to return to the office for in-person meetings for relevant milestones, as well as for face-to-fa...

New Camera Can Transform Your Live Production Workflow
New Camera System Can Transform Your Live Production Workflow

Sony's HXC-FZ90 studio camera system combines flexibility and exceptional image quality with entry-level pricing.

Creating Great User Experience and Ultimate Flexibility with Clickshare

Working and collaborating in any office environment today should be meaningful, as workers today go to office for very specific reasons. When desig...

View All Downloads

Would you like your latest project featured on TechDecisions as Project of the Week?

Apply Today!

More from Our Sister Publications

Get the latest news about AV integrators and Security installers from our sister publications:

Commercial IntegratorSecurity Sales

AV-iQ

Footer

TechDecisions

  • Home
  • Welcome to TechDecisions
  • Contact Us
  • Comment Guidelines
  • RSS Feeds
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin

Free Technology Guides

FREE Downloadable resources from TechDecisions provide timely insight into the issues that IT, A/V, and Security end-users, managers, and decision makers are facing in commercial, corporate, education, institutional, and other vertical markets

View all Guides
TD Project of the Week

Get your latest project featured on TechDecisions Project of the Week. Submit your work once and it will be eligible for all upcoming weeks.

Enter Today!
Emerald Logo
ABOUTCAREERSAUTHORIZED SERVICE PROVIDERSYour Privacy ChoicesTERMS OF USEPRIVACY POLICY

© 2025 Emerald X, LLC. All rights reserved.