More workers are using AI, but they’re ashamed to admit it
Microsoft’s latest trends index shows, unsurprisingly, that workers are capitalizing on the AI craze. But Microsoft’s report also says that they’re doing so reluctantly, and not saving an enormous amount of time in the process.
Microsoft released its 2024 Work Trends Index on Tuesday, reporting what workers outside the company are telling them about how they work. Obviously, the key topic was AI, the foundation of Microsoft Copilot and Copilot-powered applications like Microsoft 365. Microsoft said that its data was acquired by surveys with 31,000 people across 31 countries, alongside “labor and hiring trends” from LinkedIn and “Microsoft 365 productivity signals.”
But the data wasn’t all positive. While employers are seeking employees with AI skills, those workers aren’t being offered training to use them. Instead, they’re learning those skills on their own.
Here are the most (un)surprising bits of data from Microsoft’s 2024 Work Index.
Workers aren’t dumb…
AI, obviously, is hot. Sixty-six percent of leaders say that they won’t hire someone without AI skills, Microsoft found. So Microsoft said that it also found that the number of workers who added AI skills like ChatGPT and Copilot to their list of LinkedIn skills increased at a whopping 142 times compared to the previous survey, with “content writers” (gulp), designers, and marketers using AI the most.