The 2023 Labor Trends Index, a yearly survey conducted jointly by Microsoft Argentina and Edelman Data and Intelligence, has revealed its findings. This comprehensive study explores the impact of AI on the job market and the transformative shifts set to occur in the years to come.
Microsoft Argentina has unveiled the findings of the 2023 Labor Trends Index, an annual study conducted in collaboration with Edelman Data and Intelligence. This report delves into the influence of Artificial Intelligence on the labour landscape and the changes it poses for the future.
The study was carried out based on the experience of 31,000 workers and business leaders from 31 countries – 1,000 for each one – who were surveyed virtually from February 1 to March 14, 2023. In Argentina, the survey identified the main trends as a) technological debt costs innovation; b) the emergence of an alliance between employees and Artificial Intelligence; and c) the job will require new skills in Artificial Intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence is a technology that Microsoft has been developing for decades with the goal of accelerating the transfer of technology from research to products on an enterprise scale. The practical implementation of this technology is reflected in the co-pilot strategy carried out by the company.
Microsoft Copilots are Artificial Intelligence tools that integrate with Microsoft 365 applications – Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams or Viva – to help people work more creatively, productively and collaboratively. The same technology is present in other tools such as Dynamics, Power Platform and, more recently, in Bing and Edge search engines, transforming the browsing experience through conversational search on the Internet.
Digital debt costs innovation
Workers around the world accumulate a digital debt generated by the difficulty of correctly managing and processing the increasing volume of chats, emails and data they receive daily. Every minute that the worker dedicates to managing that digital debt is a minute that he stops dedicating to creative work.
According to the survey, 60% of Argentine workers claim to have struggled to have enough time and energy to finish their work (compared to 64% globally). These workers are in turn 2.9 times more likely to say they struggle with innovation and strategic thinking (versus 3.5 times globally).
Similarly, almost three out of four Argentine leaders (71%) said they were concerned about the lack of innovation (compared to 60% globally). Only 39% of Argentine workers considered that their colleagues would miss them if they did not join most of the meetings (compared to 35% globally) and 66% stated that they did not have enough uninterrupted concentration time during their workday (compared to 35% overall) to 68% of global workers.
In recent years, Microsoft has accompanied Banco Comafi in the transformation and change strategy of its internal communication channels through the implementation of collaborative management tools such as Teams and Viva Engage, which adjust to the needs posed by the hybrid work modality that the bank uses.
“In 2022, we began a transformation of our internal communication channels. Our main limitations were unilateral communication and channel diversification. For this reason, we needed an innovative social network from an aesthetic point of view and user-friendly, which would also allow us to integrate the different collaboration tools,” said Gonzalo Casielles, Manager of Talent and Development at Banco Comafi.
“Since the pandemic, the levels of adoption of digital tools have grown a lot – basically, through Teams, which we started to use a lot because we have a hybrid model where we go to the office in person for this purpose.
“The next steps will be to generate influencers and internal ambassadors that promote the use of VIVA Engage and, also, promote this use in the 77 branches that we have throughout the country, generating greater participation and being able to continue co-creating material that allows us to feed our network.”
The unexpected alliance between AI and employees
For more and more workers, the fact that Artificial Intelligence can significantly ease and simplify their tasks far outweighs any qualms they might have about its implementation. In the same way, more and more managers are looking to empower their employees by incorporating this technology.
According to the study, 63% of Argentine workers said they were willing to delegate as many tasks as possible to Artificial Intelligence to reduce their workload (compared to 70% of workers globally and 67% in Latin America).
In this sense, more than three out of four Argentine workers considered that they would feel comfortable using Artificial Intelligence not only for administrative tasks (77%), but also for analytical work (82%) and even for creative aspects of their role (74%) (against 76%, 79% and 73% globally, respectively).
In the same line, Argentine business leaders and entrepreneurs were two and a half times more likely to consider that Artificial Intelligence adds value to the work environment by boosting productivity, instead of representing a means to reduce current staff (against 1.9 times globally).
Microsoft has been developing important digital modernization work with YPF, the country’s main energy company. Within this framework, technology is implemented to bring together the collaborators of an organisation with a presence throughout Argentina.
Marisól Cordón, Manager of Culture and Change at YPF, said: “Since 2018, we have worked tirelessly to incorporate technology into everything we do and into our daily habits. We added Microsoft 365 and it changed our entire reality because we were able to get closer and reach each person, wherever they are.”
“For us, the live Teams were a discovery and made it possible for us, from the CEO, the Vice President or any manager of the organization, to be in real time with all their collaborators and it did not matter if they were in the tower of Puerto Madero, in Capital or Neuquén, they all shared the same place and that allowed us to get closer.”
The job will demand new AI skills
Soon, every employee will need new basic skills such as the use of AI-powered tools. This was recognised by 82% of the Argentine leaders surveyed, who were assured that the employees they hire will need new skills to be prepared for the growth of Artificial Intelligence (compared to 82% of world leaders).
In the same sense, 54% of Argentine workers stated that they currently lack the adequate skills to carry out their work (compared to 60% of global workers).
Wunderman Thomson has been implementing technology to achieve greater interaction and rapprochement among its employees. For this company that is dedicated to the world of communication and digital technology with human impact, strengthening the bond with its collaborators is essential.
Natalia Fernández Cánepa, Wunderman Thompson’s Chief People Officer for Argentina and Chile, said: “Expanding meeting places, whether virtual, digital or face-to-face, becomes essential with the lifestyle we have today. Our biggest challenge is to trace the path of where we want the people who work in our organization to go in terms of communication.”
“We have multiple channels within Teams, outside of Teams, within Microsoft tools, outside, emails… there is too much information and what we want is to start reducing that amount of information and make the communication journey much more intuitive, easier, more agile and, above all, that it makes less noise because we are very focused on health.”