92% of Indian office workers rely on AI: Microsoft-LinkedIn survey

Hyderabad: Microsoft and LinkedIn on Thursday released the findings of the ‘2024 Work Trend Index’ on the state of AI (Artificial Intelligence) at work in India.

The report titled, ‘AI at work is here. Now comes the hard part’ highlights the influence of the latest tech evolution on office workers. The report said that employees showed a strong desire for AI integration in the workplace, the opportunities it creates for career growth, and the emergence of AI power users in the future of work.

The findings were based on a survey of 31,000 people in 31 countries, labour and hiring trends on LinkedIn, trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals and research with Fortune 500 customers.

Some of the major trends of AI usage at work highlighted in the report are:

Employees want AI at work and won’t wait for companies

India’s workforce is very optimistic about AI, the report claimed. Ninety-two per cent of knowledge workers in India use AI at work as compared to the global figure of 75 per cent, reflecting employee confidence in AI to save time, boost creativity, and focus. Ninety-one per cent of leaders in India also believe their companies need to adopt AI to stay competitive and 54 per cent worry their organisation lacks a plan and vision for implementation.

While leaders feel the pressure to turn individual productivity gains into organisational impact, employees aren’t waiting to reap the benefits: 72 per cent of Indian AI users are bringing their own AI tools to work (BYOAI).

AI raises the bar in hiring

According to the survey, 75 per cent of employers stated that they wouldn’t hire someone lacking in AI skills, outpacing the global average of 66 per cent. Interestingly, AI skills outweigh experience, with 80 per cent of leaders in India preferring to hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills, over a more experienced candidate without them.

As of late last year, there has been a 142x increase globally in LinkedIn members adding AI skills like Copilot and ChatGPT to their profiles and a 160 per cent increase in non-technical professionals using LinkedIn learning courses to build their AI aptitude.

Rise of AI power users

Compared to sceptics, AI power users have fundamentally reoriented their workdays with 90 per cent of Indian AI power users beginning their day with AI and 91 per cent relying on it to prepare for the next day. They are also 37 per cent more likely to seek guidance from co-workers regarding useful prompts and 47 per cent more likely to experiment with AI.

“AI power users are nearly 20 per cent more likely to receive training, particularly on prompts and role-specific AI usage, compared to other employees. They are also 65 per cent more likely to receive communication from the CEO on generative AI, 34 per cent more likely from the function or department lead and 44 per cent more likely from their manager’s manager,” the report said.