While half, or 49%, of workers say they are worried AI will replace their jobs, even more, 70%, would delegate as much work as possible to AI to lessen their workloads, according to survey research from Microsoft.

Microsoft’s Work Trend Index survey was conducted by an independent research firm, Edelman Data & Intelligence, among 31,000 full-time employed or self-employed workers across 31 markets.

Approximately 76% of workers said they would be comfortable using AI for administrative tasks (76%). Furthermore, most workers (79%) also said they would be comfortable using it for analytical and even creative work (73%). Workers are also looking for AI to assist with finding the right information and answers they need (86%), summarising their meetings and action items (80%), and planning their day (77%).

Workers also believe it can enhance creativity, from formulating ideas for their work (76%) to editing their work (75%).

The data also shows that business leaders are looking to empower people with AI rather than replace them as they are two times more interested in using AI to increase productivity than to cut headcount. Reducing headcount was last on the list of what leaders would value from AI. 

When asked what changes they value most, workers imagined producing high-quality work in half the time (33%), being able to understand the most valuable ways to spend their time (26%) and energy (25%), and never having to mentally absorb unnecessary or irrelevant information again (23%). 

The majority, or 82%, of leaders said in the survey that their employees will need new skills to be prepared for the growth of AI.

Meanwhile, workers report that the number one productivity disruptor is inefficient meetings. Most workers say it’s difficult to brainstorm in a virtual meeting (58%) or catch up if they joined a meeting late (57%), that next steps at the end of a meeting are unclear (55%), and that it’s hard to summarise what happens (56%)

With the balance of work hours spent communicating, 68% of people say they don’t have enough uninterrupted focus time during the workday.

“This new generation of AI will remove the drudgery of work and unleash creativity,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “There's an enormous opportunity for AI-powered tools to help alleviate digital debt, build AI aptitude, and empower employees.”

Microsoft refers to digital debt as the inflow of data, emails, meetings, and notifications that has outpaced humans’ ability to process it all.