New data reveals Singapore 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 – 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 Singapore 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.
“Our Work Trend Index reveals that Singapore is at the forefront of Asia’s AI transformation with employees already embracing generative AI technology and tools at the workplace. Leaders have the opportunity to harness this unprecedented pace of diffusion to realize the benefits that strategic AI use at scale can bring in terms of productivity gains and ROI for their business,” said Lee Hui Li, Managing Director of Microsoft Singapore.
The Work Trend Index report reveals three urgent insights that every Singapore leader and professional needs to know about AI’s impact on work and the labor market in the year ahead:
- Employees want AI at work—and won’t wait for companies to catch up:
88% of Singaporean knowledge workers use generative AI at work. 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 83% of Singaporean leaders believe their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive, 68% of Singaporean leaders worry their organization’s leadership lacks a plan and vision to implement it. So, employees are taking things into their own hands. 84% of Singaporean 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.
- For employees, AI raises the bar and breaks the career ceiling:
71% of Singaporean leaders say they would not hire someone without AI skills. 77% of Singaporean leaders say they’d rather hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills than a more experienced candidate without them.
- 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. 87% of Singaporean AI power users frequently start their day with AI and 82% use it to get ready for the following day.
“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 so it can 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 additional, the 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 in seconds for a role based on your experience and skills, 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.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission 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.