New data reveals APAC employees are engaging with AI to enhance skills amidst limited organizational support— leaders must now harness this for tangible business impact.

SINGAPORE, May 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- 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."

Alongside this research, Microsoft announced new capabilities in Copilot in Microsoft 365, and LinkedIn unlocked more than 50 learning courses for LinkedIn Premium subscribers designed to empower professionals at all levels to advance their AI aptitude.

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.

2024 is the year of AI at work. The use of generative AI at work has nearly doubled in the last 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. However, with many leaders in Asia worried that their company lacks an AI vision and with 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.

"The pace of diffusion of generative AI tools at the workplace is remarkable. Employees are empowering themselves by adopting agile and innovative tools, oftentimes not pausing for the rollout of a coherent AI vision and roadmap from their organizations. Leaders must demonstrate more appetite for rapid experimentation to realize the benefits of both productivity and increased metabolism in the industries they operate in," said Ahmed Mazhari, President of Microsoft Asia.

The Work Trend Index report reveals three urgent insights that every APAC leader and professional needs to know about AI's impact on work and the labor market in the year ahead:

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

83% of knowledge workers in APAC 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.

While 84% of the APAC leaders believe their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive, 61% worry their organization's leadership lacks a plan and vision to implement it. So, employees are taking things into their own hands. 79% of APAC 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 ROI.

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

A majority of global 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.

• 76% of APAC leaders say they'd rather hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills than a more experienced candidate who lacked them.
• As of late last year, we've seen a 142x increase in members globally adding AI skills like ChatGPT and Copilot to their LinkedIn profiles.
• AI mentions in LinkedIn job posts drive a 17% bump in application growth.

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

AI power-users have reoriented their workdays, saving 30 minutes per day. 88% of APAC power users bookend their day with AI, using AI to get started in the morning and get ready for the following workday.

"Asia Pacific is witnessing a transformative shift at the workplace due to AI, prompting the need for fresh business approaches," stated Feon Ang, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, LinkedIn. "With how rapidly our ecosystem is evolving, leaders who prioritize agility and invest in skill development gain a competitive edge by fostering an equipped workforce that is ready for AI. 76% of APAC leaders would hire someone who is less experienced with AI skills, which emphasizes the urgency and importance for professionals to focus on advancing their AI aptitude through upskilling."

Microsoft is also announcing Copilot for Microsoft 365 innovations to help people get started with AI.

• Copilot will become more conversational by suggesting follow-up prompts or asking clarifying questions to provide the best response possible.
• A new chat interface in Copilot will proactively offer timely recommendations based on recent activity, like "You missed Tuesday's sales meeting. Here's a quick summary" or flagging an important email for follow up.
• The prompt box in Copilot will now have an auto complete experience, allowing users to get better results from their prompts. If you've already written the prompt, a new rewrite feature will turn basic prompts into rich ones, grounded in your work meetings, documents and emails.
• Updates to Copilot Lab will allow employees to create, publish, and manage prompts that are expressly tailored to their team.

LinkedIn is now providing AI tools to enable you to stay ahead in your career, with over 600 AI courses currently and 50 new AI learning courses available for everyone for free through July 8.

• In addition, AI-powered coaching offers personalized content and conversational learning.
• For LinkedIn Premium subscribers, new AI-powered personalized takeaways on LinkedIn Feed offer you insights, ideas and actions to take.
• AI-powered tools make it easier to assess your fit for a role in seconds based on your experience and skills. You can also get advice on how to stand out and suggestions for skill building.

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.

*Asia Pacific markets in the study include Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

About Microsoft 

Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is 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.