How work changes with AI and Copilots

By Janus Boye

Richard also gave two popular talks in Denmark last year at the Boye Aarhus 22 conference. One of his sessions was titled: Tackling Employee Experience Today As We Embrace The Future Workplace. Photo: Ib Sørensen

With AI Copilots already in the marketplace and many workplaces, we are now beginning an accelerated transformation of work.

How is work changing today? What's different this time? How are organisations measuring, managing and leading this change?

In a recent member’s call industry leader, Microsoft MVP and past Boye conference speaker, Richard Harbridge joined us from Toronto and shared key insights to help you better understand, prepare and lead improved AI enriched communication, collaboration and management experiences.

So work is changing, it’s going to happen and it’s coming fast, but let’s take it from the start and then move onto a few examples. Towards the end you can also download the slides and even view the entire recording.

Navigating this major change

Richard opened the call with what he called the executive discussion and emphasised the importance of this big change not just being left to the technologists.

In a busy working life, it can be hard to consider the difference between linear and exponential change, but it seems clear that change is happening fast and it’s having a big impact. Richard also used the below slide to compare with other new work eras, like the introduction of the typewriter, the computer or apps.

Richard also cited research from earlier this year, where at least a third say that their organisations already use generative AI in at least one business function; high performers deploy it in multiple business functions.

The big change here is the Generative AI part, which has led major analyst firms to move their predictions of when innovation will happen forward by years. While this might all seem overwhelming, I personally find it hard to keep up and Richard called it “Exhilarating & Terrifying”, but he also did shar two friendly recommendations for all of us:

  • Get familiar with disruptive technologies and learn how they can be a tool

  • Focus on how we can work better together

We then moved onto something more practical and moved into how you can experience the changes inside the Microsoft tools many of us use every day.

Examples of how work changes with AI

Richard started in Word and shared how we create and edit documents is changing. Using Copilot, we can create more and better content. Actually, Richard focused on how we accelerate our start, and we can get integrated assistance on how to drive from good to outstanding.

As shown on the slide, the path from creating an average piece of content to something outstanding is now faster and shorter.

We then moved onto how we access, share and amplify business documents is changing. When combined together humans and AI can create more effective forms of content, maintain that content more easily, and enable greater reach, access and insight.

There’s also video editing, which is now more accessible and faster. As Richard said we are only at the start of AI editing; it will make video far more accessible to far more people. If you can create near real time video responses, think of how that changes digital social spaces.

This is also related to how we engage and connect, which is also changing. With built in tooling it’s also easier to express more of yourself with easy editing (soon to be AI assisted) as you engage in “video conversation threads.”

How we learn and improve our work is also changing. AI can be used before, during and after to improve how we communicate. Providing us insights, skills and the ability to listen, react and understand better as employees or communicators.

Moving onto something that’s close to my heart: AI is making collaboration easier and more valuable. The collaboration can range from ideation suggestions to sense making and summarisation. To quote Richard:

“The way AI works is it gives each person their own contextualised and personalised collaborator, one that has access to an incredible number of skills, information, and processing capability.”

The big impact here is this shifts collaboration and meetings to higher value as the low value ones are often offset by using AI itself. Many meetings are only people transacting skills – those low value meetings are displaced over time and replaced by collaboration with AI. An example could be that before a meeting you might use it to generate the abstract/agenda, prepare the presentation and more. After the meeting you might use it to quickly summarise and suggest action items.

Wrapping up these examples, Richard underlined how AI can help us manage ourselves and our work better. Coming soon to a desktop near you, it might be as advanced as finding and actioning next steps across multiple apps.

This is where we got to in the member’s call, but in Richard’s familiar friendly style, he included a forward looking bonus for us (see link to download slides below).

Considerations for tomorrow

Talking about skills, what are the skills we need to think about? According to the 2023 Work Trend Index: Annual Report (PDF), the three big ones ares:

  • 30% analytical judgement

  • 29% flexibility

  • 27% emotional intelligence

Richard also made the good point that while many value handwritten cards more than computer generated, the reality is that we value both of them, and many people struggle to communicate. AI helps with this.

Specifically on Viva Engage, the tool can help inspire and aid leaders to connect with their employees more effectively through assistive prompts, inclusive communications, and valuable insights

Learn more about how work changes with AI and Copilots

The conversation naturally continues in our peer groups, notably our local chapters focused on employee experience and future workplace. Richard has been a regular guest in this community for the past decade and it’s always a treat to have him with us.

There’s also the Boye Aarhus 23 conference in November, which has several speakers and conference sessions focused on this emerging topic. Lesley Crook is another M365 MVP and she’ll be with us this year - Richard joined last year.

Richard has already written extensively about this topic and recommended this free guide on the topic: The definitive guide to Employee Experience with Microsoft 365, Viva and Copilot.

For some additional reading on how AI changes work, here’s just a few pointers from other corners of our community:

One of our Canadian members also shared this excellent long-read from The Atlantic in July: Does Sam Altman Know What He’s Creating.

Finally, you can also download the slides as PDF (6Mb) or as PowerPoint with all the animations (180 Mb). As a friendly courtesy from Richard, he added more slides based on the post session wrap up, so in the deck you’ll find a bit more context and ideas than in the recording below which you can lean back and enjoy below.