Leading the AI revolution: Insights from Microsoft’s Work Trend Index

Three things to consider when leveraging AI agents to superpower your workforce

Microsoft has released its annual Work Trend Index, uncovering a profound shift redefining how organizations operate. This comprehensive report combines data from Microsoft 365 productivity signals, LinkedIn labor trends, and insights from Fortune 500 companies, AI-native startups, economists, scientists, and academics—offering a clear view of the evolving workplace and what it means for business leaders moving forward. 

85% of business leaders across the Eastern U.S. believe this is a pivotal year to rethink core aspects of strategy and operations. Many believe AI agents will play a critical role in their evolution with 82% planning to use agents to expand their workforce capacity in the next 12-18 months. 

With AI agents that operate around the clock, scale instantly, and are cost-effective, Frontier Firms—companies that employ a combination of human and AI agent teams—can significantly enhance productivity, performance and morale to gain a competitive edge and position themselves as industry leaders. 

Here are a few strategies to help your organization join the ranks of Frontier Firms and lead the way in an AI-driven world.

1. Evaluate which teams in your company could benefit most from AI personal assistants or agents. 

Human-agent teams are the new hybrid workforce, with AI agents acting as on-demand personal assistants. These AI agents can handle tasks, drive workflows, and keep working around the clock. Start by identifying teams that can benefit most from AI agents to boost both individual and team productivity. Leaders in the Eastern U.S. were surveyed and welcomed this added 24/7 support.

• 50% of respondents said their organization is using AI agents to automate workstreams or business processes for entire teams or functions.

• The top reason employees turned to AI over a colleague is its 24/7 availability (47%)—followed by speed and quality of work (29%) and the provision of unlimited creative ideas (23%).

Sales, Operations, and Finance are evolving into “agent-first” functions, where AI handles the heavy lifting while HR, Strategy, and other decision-making roles remain “human-first.” This new structure will enable agile, fluid human-AI teams to produce high-value work efficiently. For your business, this might mean investigating teams like Customer Service, R&D, or Marketing as a first step to test AI agents.

One great example is Holland America who recently used Microsoft Copilot Studio to build complex, AI-driven customer support agents.

It took just three months to build a chatbot agent—named Anna—to support new and existing customers in booking cruises, adding products and services, and responding to general questions. “Our goal was to create an agent that could address a wide range of customer questions and requests with natural language—just like a live agent, and with 24/7 availability,” said Scot Pettit, Senior Director, E-commerce, Holland America Line.

Holland America has continued to learn from this pilot to refine their approach so they can begin to roll out the Anna chatbot in other global markets.

“What we’re finding is that when customers engage with Anna, they are more likely to find the right cruise that fits their needs than if they do not engage at all,” said Scot Pettit, Senior Director, E-commerce, Holland America Line.

Research shows that individuals with AI perform better than teams without it, but teams with AI outperform them all. Getting this balance right will reshape organizational charts and boost productivity, but doing it successfully requires ongoing attention.

2. Look for teams where AI can take on mundane tasks to help re-energize and refocus employees.

Employees drive business impact; however, our survey found that employees continue to feel stretched thin and drained from low-value tasks like email triage or invoice review.

Adding agents to your teams can offload routine tasks to AI, empowering employees to focus on more creative and strategic work. This shift has the potential to reshape entire industries and transform collective productivity.

Husch Blackwell—a law firm serving the energy sector—is a strong example of this. When they experienced a significant increase in cases, they needed a solution to help lawyers increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve relationships by aiding in the completion of routine tasks.

Microsoft 365 Copilot helped their lawyers complete everyday tasks like summarizing meetings, interrogating documents, and drafting correspondences. Copilot saved their team an estimated 8,800 hours that they could spend providing value to their firm and clients. These results are in line with research, which shows that employees can focus their energy and time on the most impactful work when AI lifts mundane tasks from their plates.

3. Consider adding an Agent Resources (AR) Team for Long-Term Success and AI Skilling

Leveraging both human and AI agents in hybrid teams requires long-term planning. Creating hybrid teams will take some trial and error to learn what works best for your organization. Many businesses are considering adding AR teams to oversee the human-agent ratio, ensuring the right balance between efficiency and human creativity.

Consider your business’s unique needs to determine where to start. How many agents do you need? Do you have the right human to agent ratio? Are your employees prepared to fully utilize the agents once deployed, or is additional training necessary?

While 82% of leaders in the Eastern US say they plan to hire for AI-focused roles in the next 12–18 months, success isn’t just about hiring new AI-savvy talent. It’s also important to ensure your existing employees are upskilled in AI to extract the most value from the technology.

• While 73% of leaders are familiar or extremely familiar with AI agents, only 45% of employees say the same.

• 50% of managers expect AI training or upskilling to become a key responsibility for their teams in the next five years.

Last year, we helped train and certify more than 23 million people around the world in digital skills. We’re excited about our new collaboration with Pearson to expand on this by providing AI-powered products and services to help prepare the workforce for an AI-driven economy. To get started with establishing an AR team, check out our AI Skills navigator to provide your employees with a personalized learning path that suits their unique role and goals.

The competition to secure AI-skilled talent is fierce. Read more in this year’s Work Trend Index to learn how you can leverage agents to handle routine tasks, empower your employees’ ingenuity, and position your business for success to stay ahead of the curve. After all, the future favors those who adapt.

Explore the full Work Trend Index here.