How Microsoft is Making Power Users out of Some of its Biggest Skeptics

Microsoft is turning AI skeptics into power users by actively integrating AI into the workplace and leveraging employee enthusiasm to drive business value.

Adding critical new capabilities to Copilot: In response to customer feedback, Microsoft has enhanced its Copilot AI tool with several new features:

• Workplace-specific prompts, function-specific prompts, and the ability to share and reuse prompts
• Auto-complete and rewrite features to assist in the prompt-writing process
• Scheduling prompts to run at specific times

Measuring the impact of generative AI: Microsoft has shifted its approach to quantifying the impact of AI in the workplace:

• Initial focus was on time savings and productivity gains across common knowledge work tasks
• Research showed 20-40% time savings for knowledge workers
• Current focus is on understanding business problems AI is best positioned to solve and identifying relevant KPIs across various functions
• Examples: 12% faster case resolution in customer service, hours-long finance tasks reduced to 10 minutes

The future of work, AI, and AI-powered work: Microsoft envisions a fundamental change in knowledge work as AI adoption grows:

• Employees will transition from doers to supervisors of their own work and AI-generated output
• AI will handle backend tasks, enabling employees to focus on higher-value work
• Training is crucial for creating a flywheel of AI usage, but only 39% of AI users have received training

Turning skeptics into power users: Microsoft is conducting internal experiments to understand effective training interventions:

• Power users embrace experimentation, persist when faced with unexpected results, and report higher productivity and work enjoyment
• Line leaders play a key role in communicating the importance of AI for transforming functions
• AI adoption is a journey, with some functions within Microsoft already applying AI to transform significantly

Broader implications: As AI continues to permeate the workplace, organizations must actively guide its integration to drive business value while supporting employees in developing new habits and skills. The shift from individual experimentation to organization-wide adoption requires a strategic approach that addresses training, metrics, and change management. Microsoft’s own journey highlights the importance of customer feedback, iterative improvement, and function-specific applications in realizing AI’s potential to transform knowledge work.