According to a new research, about 83 percent of Indian employees would delegate as much work to AI as possible to reduce their workloads.

According to the findings of Microsoft's 2023 Work Trend Index, which polled 31,000 people across industries in 31 countries, including 1,000 in India, more than three-quarters of Indian workers would be comfortable using AI not only for administrative tasks (86 percent) but also for analytical work (88 percent), and even creative aspects of their role (87 percent).

Furthermore, according to Microsoft research, Indian managers are 1.6x more likely to believe that AI would add value in the workplace through increasing productivity rather than reducing manpower.

Bhaskar Basu, country head — modern work, Microsoft India, stated during a virtual Microsoft round-table that almost all organizations are carrying digital debt, which is impeding innovation.

According to Basu, the average person spends 57 percent of their time speaking and only 43 percent creating under Microsoft 365. Likewise, 78 percent of Indian workers think that they do not have uninterrupted focus during the workday.

Based on the report, eight out of ten CEOs are concerned about a lack of innovation. Inefficient meetings, as stated by 46 percent of Indian professionals who believe their absence in half or more of their meetings will go unnoticed by colleagues, are progressively interrupting production, according to Basu.

Having said that, the entire AI ecosystem is still in its infancy, and every employee needs AI ability.

According to the Microsoft report, “every employee, not just AI experts, will need new core competencies such as prompt engineering in their day-to-day activities.”

Inevitably, the data revealed that 90 percent of Indian leaders believe the personnel they hire will require new skills to be ready for the AI future. However, 78 percent of Indian workers feel they don't currently have the required capabilities to get their task done, demonstrating that both job seekers and employers are facing issues due to a mismatch between in-demand and available talents.

Basu stressed on the need to create an AI skilling ecosystem to reduce this demand-supply gap. “The opportunity and responsibility for every organization and leader is to get AI right — testing and experimenting with new ways of working to build a brighter future of work for everyone,” he said.
Nonetheless, AI can play a significant role in reskilling by delivering personalized learning experiences and assisting individuals in more quickly acquiring new abilities, according to Basu.

Referring to tools such as ChatGPT, he mentioned that “the next generation of AI will unlock a new wave of productivity growth, removing the drudgery from our jobs and freeing us to innovate and create values”.