The Era of AI-Powered Productivity

How is your business preparing for AI?

The way we now work—defined by an era of digital transformation—is evolving at such a pace that keeping up has become a challenge for many organizations. Business leaders are recognizing the enormous opportunity that modern work solutions like AI tools present and are now exploring ways to use them to their best advantage.

That means implementing AI in a way that allows employees to be more engaged and productive, focusing on the work that matters most.

AI helps your employees offload time-consuming tasks by jumpstarting the creative process, analyzing trends, and summarizing email threads and key discussion points from meetings. Less time spent on more tedious tasks grants employees the freedom to focus on the work that matters most.

Organizations that made employee engagement a top priority have performed twice as well financially as businesses that deprioritized an engaged workforce (2). And AI is poised to empower employees to be more engaged through opportunities for creativity, skill building, and increased productivity.

Discover What’s Possible with AI

Imagine a workforce driven by the powerful combination of irreplaceable human ingenuity and skill with the innovative capabilities of a secure, user-friendly AI system. With the right tools and mindset, any organization can embrace the transformation to an AI-powered workforce.

Responsible AI Practices

With all the potential that working with AI holds, it’s critical to remember to take an approach of preparing for AI that prioritizes fairness, transparency, and accountability. Microsoft is a leader in the development and implementation of AI systems, which includes creating guidance on principles and best practices for responsible AI use—and ensuring those principles are at the foundation of Microsoft’s AI technology. Only with responsible AI implementation can your organization unlock the full potential of what’s possible with AI.

Credit: Microsoft

AI Readiness

How do you know your organization is prepared for AI?

The platform shift to AI isn’t one that can be made without clear leadership and focused investment. Implementing AI technology can be complex, especially without a well-defined plan in place. It requires a culture of productivity and collaboration, a secure foundation for endpoint management, and the willingness to embrace change in order to outpace it.

What does AI readiness look like? An organization ready to embrace AI understands its potential as a strategic asset, how it can be used to benefit the business, and the ability to guide employees and customers in responsible AI practices.

Assessing your readiness level is the first step toward transforming your organization into one that can outpace the changes and challenges of this new era of working with next-generation technologies like AI.

Assessment: Evaluating Your AI readiness

To help you begin the transformation to an AI-powered organization, we’ve compiled a quiz with questions aimed at evaluating readiness level.

The quiz is in five parts and assesses your organization's:

• Relationship to change and productivity
• Relationship to AI
• Willingness to use AI
• Investment and funding abilities
• Endpoint management and security capabilities

Choose the answer that sounds most like where your organization currently stands and keep a tally of your answers as you go. At the end of the quiz, you’ll be able to estimate whether your organization is Very Ready, Almost Ready, or Needs More Guidance in preparing for AI to begin the transformation to an AI-powered workforce.

Part 1: Your organization’s relationship to change and productivity

Rate your organization’s openness to change and innovation.

1. Very open: We welcome and seek out opportunities for change and innovation.
2. Somewhat open: We approach opportunities for change and innovation with caution.
3. Not very open: We don’t take on many opportunities for change and innovation.

How confident are you that your current technology empowers your employees to be productive?

1. Very confident: Our technology greatly improves employee productivity
2. Somewhat confident: Our technology somewhat improves employee productivity.
3. Not very confident: Our technology does not support employee productivity

Part 2: Your organization’s relationship to AI

How fundamental is AI to the success of your business?

1. Very important: AI will greatly improve the success of our business.
2. Somewhat important: AI will support the success of our business, but it isn’t necessary.
3. Not very important: AI would be beneficial in other ways but won’t affect the success of our business.

Rate your employees’ current willingness to adopt new technologies, including AI

1. Very willing: Employees are excited to learn about and use new technologies like AI.
2. Somewhat willing: Employees are cautiously optimistic about new technologies.
3. Not very willing: Employees are resistant to new technologies, including AI.

Part 3: Your organization’s willingness to use AI

How important is it to provide secure, user-friendly AI systems to your workforce?

1. Very important: We want our employees to be able to learn and use AI as soon as possible.
2. Somewhat important: We’re interested in adopting user-friendly AI but want to learn more first.
3. Not very important: User-friendly AI systems are a “nice-to-have” but not currently a priority.

How much, if at all, has your organization’s leadership bought into the business value of AI-powered tools?

1. All in: Our leadership is ready and willing to begin transitioning to AI-powered tools.
2. Somewhat in: Leadership understands the importance of AI but needs some convincing on the business value of adopting it.
3. Not at all in: Our leadership doesn’t understand the importance or value of AI just yet

Part 4: Investment and funding

How strong is your investment in change management and training to support the transition to AI-powered processes and systems?

1. Very strong: We could begin the transition immediately.
2. Somewhat strong: We could begin the transition soon but have some challenges to overcome first.
3. Not very strong: We need a lot of support and training in preparing for AI before we can begin the transition.

Does your organization have funding for deploying and implementing a secure, user-friendly AI system?

1. Fully funded: Our organization is ready and able to invest in AI technologies.
2. Some funding: Our organization can afford to transition, but leadership is unsure the benefit outweighs the cost.
3. No funding: We’re working toward a place where we can invest in AI technologies, but we’re not quite there yet.

Part 5: Endpoint management and security capabilities

How confident are you in your organization’s current endpoint management capabilities to enable employees that are preparing for AI to help them do their best work, regardless of where they work and what device they use?

1. Very confident: Our endpoint management capabilities allow employees to work where and how they feel they can be most successful.
2. Somewhat confident: Our endpoint management capabilities are stable for certain experiences but could be improved.
3. Not very confident: We need a better system to support endpoint management for employees working anywhere and from any device.

Rate your organization’s current security foundation for enabling AI-powered work from any endpoint.

1. Very secure: Our systems are built on a robust security foundation and support our strong endpoint management capabilities.
2. Somewhat secure: We have strong security systems but aren’t confident they can support the additional requirements of using AI-powered tools.
3. Not very secure: We need a more secure system to protect our organization’s data and ensure our employees can confidently work from anywhere.

Results

Mostly A’s: Very Ready (GREAT NEWS)

Your organization has put the work in preparing for AI and true transformation is underway. The Microsoft 365 team is excited to help you move forward. A couple of key notes for Very Ready organizations:

• If you already have Microsoft 365, your organization has a head start, as it’s required to implement Copilot.
• If you haven't deployed Microsoft 365 yet, we can help make that happen so your organization is set up with a Zero Trust foundation and strong endpoint management capabilities.

Having that baseline productivity in place will enable your employees to start exploring the benefits of Copilot as soon as possible. You can find a link to get started at the end of this blog.

Mostly B’s: Almost Ready (GOOD NEWS)

Your organization is nearly there. Like Very Ready organizations, your Almost Ready business should consider deploying Microsoft 365, if you haven’t already. Help your employees learn their way around Microsoft 365 now so that it's easier for them to adopt the AI integrations down the road.

A couple of notes for Almost Ready organizations:

• As you continue preparing for AI, there is a wealth of guidance online to help you familiarize your teams with Microsoft AI capabilities before deploying the tools.
• Microsoft 365 representatives are available to help you understand what steps specific to your organization will take you from Almost Ready to Very Ready

Mostly C’s: Need More Guidance (IT'S OKAY)

It sounds like your organization could benefit from personalized guidance on implementing AI tools. For more information on the requirements and benefits of a secure, user-friendly AI system, Microsoft can help!

A couple of notes to get organizations that Need More Guidance started:

• Speak to a Microsoft 365 representative to learn more about the benefits of adopting Microsoft 365 so your organization can build a foundation that will get you Very Ready for AI transformation.
• Visit the Microsoft AI homepage for a number of resources on responsible AI principles, specific AI capabilities, and guidance on how to build an AI ready organization.

Next steps

Unlock the potential of AI with Microsoft 365 and Copilot

An organization that is preparing for AI and ready to unlock all that's possible, has a strong foundation in security, streamlined endpoint management, and an openness to innovation that improves productivity. With Microsoft 365, your organization can achieve those checkpoints with one complete solution.

With Microsoft 365, your organization's technology landscape will be grounded in Zero Trust, ensuring a secure foundation for all of your endpoints, no matter where access is coming from. A Zero Trust security foundation in turn makes endpoint management safer and less complex, so you can efficiently grant employees access to all the tools they need to be more productive than ever.

Microsoft offers decades in future forward technology expertise, and that experience is built into the features that make Microsoft 365 so powerful. Now, with Copilot, your organization can extend the capabilities of Microsoft 365 even further.

Microsoft 365 delivers a secure, productive working experience. With Copilot, it becomes an intuitive, next-generation productivity partner that works alongside your employees, empowering them to collaborate and work more efficiently to become more productive contributors to business outcomes.

Copilot can empower your team to tap into the rich functionality available throughout Microsoft 365, making employees better at what they’re already good at and mastering what they’ve yet to learn. It integrates seamlessly with the apps your teams already use and is designed to unlock their untapped potential.

Ultimately, Copilot elevates the powerful capabilities of Microsoft 365 to enhance your workforce’s productivity, creativity, and skills—benefits your organization can experience when you make the transformation to AI.

What can Microsoft 365 with Copilot do for your organization?

• Secure any endpoint with robust protocols grounded in Zero Trust
• Automate time-consuming, repetitive tasks so employees can focus on more meaningful work
• Reduce your organization’s software footprint
• Lower costs of deployment and implementation
• Improve employee productivity and engagement
• Drive higher financial performance and positive business outcomes

Ready to see what Microsoft 365 Copilot can do for your organization? Learn more.

Sources: 1 “Will AI Fix Work?” Work Trend Index, May 9, 2023. Microsoft. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/ work-trend-index/will-ai-fix-work. 2 “The New Performance Equation in the Age of AI.” Work Trend Index, April 20, 2023. Microsoft. https://www. microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/the-new-performance-equation-in-the-age-of-ai. 3 “A Whole New Way of Working.” Work Trend Index. Microsoft. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/ai[1]a-whole-new-way-of-working.

©2023 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This document is provided “as-is.” Information and views expressed in this document, including URL and other Internet website references, may change without notice.