Microsoft has just released a new study into how we're using AI at work.

Here's what it tells us (without the hype)...

The study is based on 200k conversations with Microsoft Bing CoPilot.
Be mindful this is probably quite a narrow audience.
Based on Bing usage, that's likely to be people who are 45+, affluent and in an office setting (if anyone has any better data please let me know below).

The study was focussed on the activities people actually do with generative AI at work, not which jobs AI will "replace".

The study breaks down AI interaction into two sides: Users work goals (what people want help with) and the AIs action (what AI does).

These often aren't the same. For example the user wants to gather information, the AI provides guidance or explains concepts.

Most common uses for AI are: gathering information, writing, editing documents, and communicating. The AI mainly helps by providing information, advice, teaching, and assisting people (not doing manual work).

AI is most useful in jobs that are about knowledge, communication, and information, for example sales, admin, IT, business, media, and education.

Every occupation could potentially benefit in some area, but jobs with a mainly physical/manual focus show much lower usage (this is fairly obvious, but note my comment above about a narrow audience for this study).

The research does not make claims about jobs being replaced or eliminated. Instead, it measures which work activities (not whole jobs) AI can assist with, and how successfully it does so.

There’s a big difference between “task automation” and “task augmentation”: AI often augments (adds value to) knowledge work, rather than entirely replacing human workers.

Overall, the study finds that people are using AI to augment their skills on tasks involving information, communication, and creativity. Not to fully automate or eliminate jobs, yet.

That said, we know AI is impacting jobs, based on the redundancies big companies are making, and is likely to have a greater impact as AI agents become more advanced.

But, the “AI will replace these jobs” narrative based on this study is an oversimplification of what the study is telling us.

Instead, this study is a good pointer as to how all of us, and our teams, can make our jobs easier and more effective.

Link to full study: https://lnkd.in/egpH7Tan

Agree? Disagree? Is this how you are using AI?
I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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I’m Sam, CEO and Founder of 7DOTS, a digital innovation agency that helps considered purchase brands grow through people-first digital experiences.

I’m passionate about making digital feel more human, building trust through clarity, creativity and commercial sense. If you’re facing a complex challenge, I’d love to connect.

I write all my LinkedIn posts and comments myself, and I’m dyslexic, which is why they’re definitely not perfect!