Blog post
Rebalancing the work equation with AI
AI: A paradigm shift in the workplace
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the world of work in profound ways. It is not only automating and optimizing tasks, but also creating new opportunities and possibilities for organizations and employees. But how do we measure the impact of AI on our work and lives? How do we make the most of the time and resources that AI frees up for us? And how do we ensure that AI is aligned with our values and goals as professionals and people?
In the final blog post in our series, we will share some of the insights and experiences that we have gained from deploying generative AI tools within Microsoft Advertising. We will explore how AI helps us save time, improve quality, and increase volume in our work, and how we reinvest that time into more strategic, creative, and meaningful activities. We will also discuss how AI enhances our job satisfaction, career development, and work-life balance, and how it enables us to collaborate and communicate more effectively with our clients and colleagues. We will show you how AI is not only a powerful tool, but also a transformative experience that can help us achieve our aspirational potential.
AI: The time-saving revolution
One of the most obvious and immediate benefits of AI is that it can save us time by automating and optimizing tasks that are repetitive, tedious, or even complex. By using AI, we can focus on the aspects of our work that require more human skills, such as creativity, problem-solving, and relationship-building. But how much time can we actually save with AI? And what kind of tasks can AI help us with?
To answer these questions, we measured Microsoft Advertising’s use of generative AI tools, such as Copilot and Microsoft 365, that we use in our daily work. We asked our employees to report how much time they saved by using AI for different types of tasks, and how they used that time for other purposes. Here are some of the key findings from our data:
A graphic showing the correlation between time saved and time reclaimed.
- 82% of our employees use AI to save time for meeting-related work, such as planning, preparing, and debriefing.
- 57% of our employees use AI to save time for searching and information retrieval, such as finding relevant data, documents, or contacts. This is helpful for navigating the vast amount of information that we deal with every day, and for staying updated and informed to better service our clients.
- 42% of our employees use AI to save time for simplistic tasks, such as email, and document creation. This is beneficial for improving quality and increasing efficiency.
- 23% of our employees use AI to create new workflows and optimizing their work for long term time savings. This is important for adapting to the changing needs and expectations of our work, and for leveraging the full potential of AI.
Strategic reinvestment: AI's ripple effect on business
Now that we know how much time we can save with AI, the next question is how do we use that time for other purposes? How do we reinvest that time into activities that add more value, meaning, and satisfaction to our work and lives? And how do we balance the benefits for ourselves, our clients, and our organization?
Our data showed that our employees used the time saved by AI in various ways, depending on their personal and professional goals, preferences, and needs. Here are some of the main categories of time reinvestment that we observed:
- 75% of our employees reinvested the time saved by AI into the business, such as doing more strategic work, spending more quality time with clients, or pursuing new opportunities. This is advantageous to enhance outcomes like client satisfaction.
- 49% of our employees reinvested the time saved by AI into their job satisfaction and career development, such as learning new skills, taking on new challenges, or seeking feedback. This is favorable for improving performance, advancing career prospects, and achieving personal growth.
- 39% of our employees reinvested the time saved by AI into attending beneficial meetings, such as those that are informative, collaborative, or inspirational. This is useful for gaining knowledge, building relationships, and sharing ideas.
- 37% of our employees reinvested the time saved by AI into their work-life balance, such as rest. This is beneficial for enhancing well-being and maintaining a healthy lifestyle to ensure team members are performing at their best.
Conclusion
In this blog series, we have shared with you some of our learnings, insights and experiences that we have gained from deploying generative AI tools within Microsoft Advertising in hopes it will inspire and help you accelerate your time to value with your own AI deployments. We have shown how AI can help us save time, improve quality, and increase volume in our work, and how we can reinvest that time into more strategic, creative, and meaningful activities. We have also discussed how AI can enhance our job satisfaction, career development, and work-life balance, and how it can enable us to collaborate and communicate more effectively with our clients and colleagues.
We hope that you have learned from our stories and our journey with AI. We invite you to join us in embracing this new dawn of AI, and to discover how it can transform the way you work and live. Until next time, stay curious, keep trying new things, and be part of the AI revolution!
