Last May, the 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report was published as a joint report from Microsoft and LinkedIn, examining how AI will reshape work and the labour market broadly. The data revealed that employees are adopting AI more rapidly than their employers, often bringing their own AI tools to work without necessary training, oversight, and data protection. This trend is particularly pronounced in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), highlighting the need for SMB leaders to quickly develop a vision and plan for AI at work. Below are some key insights from the Work Trend Index report that can impact small and medium-sized business leaders, along with actions to prepare your organisation for AI and better leverage its benefits.
Leaders need to catch up with AI implementation
Many SMB workers around the world are already using AI tools. While SMB leaders recognise the importance of AI adoption for competitiveness, 61% report that their company lacks a vision and plan for AI implementation. Meanwhile, 80% of SMB employees are using their own AI tools at work, although 49% are hesitant to admit that they use AI on their most important tasks. This gap highlights an opportunity for business leaders to create a comprehensive AI strategy to free up more time to focus on customers, products, and services.
Small and medium-sized businesses see AI as a competitive advantage
SMB leaders are looking for individuals with AI proficiencies to fill roles within their companies, with over 60% indicating they would not hire someone without AI skills. Additionally, 79% of SMB employees believe that AI skills will provide them with more job opportunities. Providing training and driving AI adoption is essential for retaining employees and attracting new talent. Both employees and leaders agree that upskilling in AI is crucial.
Copilot at work: How AI is helping Joos
AI can significantly impact productivity by saving time and allowing teams to focus on priorities. Joos, a supplier of mobile charging stations based in the UK. has implemented Copilot for Microsoft 365 across the organisation. This integration streamlined operational tasks, allowing staff to devote more attention to customers.
“Since integrating Copilot, our customers have benefited from faster email responses and more personalised interactions, as Copilot enables us to better understand and anticipate our customers’ needs.” —Jeannette Ikonga, Head of Client Success and Customer Experience at Joos
The path forward for SMB and AI
SMB leaders have the opportunity to harness employee enthusiasm for AI into business transformation. This plan will vary for each business, but here’s a starting point:
Identify a business problem and apply AI. Efficiencies can be gained across functions by selecting the right process. Highlight enthusiastic employees by forming them into a small group, and asking them to be AI champions. Track the impact of AI on the business process, such as improvements in customer service response times.
Integrate AI tools across your organisation. Use AI within your existing infrastructure to deliver personalised, relevant, and actionable responses. For effective data protection and privacy management, choose AI tools that align with your business’s security measures and conduct a privacy audit before implementation.
Adopt a top-down, bottom-up approach. Engage all levels of your business in AI adoption. Ensure alignment with a vision you’ve already established through a clear process that activates AI for teams and within daily tasks. AI champions can facilitate smoother deployment and encourage skill development, encouraging creative AI usage. Deploy AI widely to enable knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Prioritise training. Ongoing training is a key component for workers to better understand how to use AI for both universal tasks and role-specific applications. Online resources such as LinkedIn Learning’s AI courses and the Copilot Scenario Library offer guided examples for AI use in workflows. You can also enhance your AI Skills with our new free training course. Group training is also important, providing a platform to discuss AI’s effects across the business and identify potential AI champions.
Get started with AI
If you are not already using Microsoft 365, explore how Microsoft could help you with your business and find out how Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help you transform everyday work life.
Learn how to make Copilot part of your everyday business activities by exploring the Copilot Success Kit for Small and Medium-Sized Business, which provides resources on licensing, technical requirements, and AI capabilities.
