A.I. "colleagues" entering the workplace

Microsoft's thinking

Excerpt: Artificial intelligence has rapidly started finding its place in the workplace, but this year will be remembered as the moment when companies pushed past simply experimenting with AI and started building around it, Microsoft said in a blog post accompanying its annual Work Trend Index report.

As part of this shift, Microsoft is dubbing 2025 the year of the “Frontier Firm.”

“Like the digital native companies of a generation ago, they understand the power of pairing irreplaceable human insight with AI and agents to unlock outsized value,” Jared Spataro, CMO of AI at Work at Microsoft, said in the post.

These so-called Frontier Firms will be built around “on-demand intelligence and powered by ‘hybrid’ teams of humans + agents, these companies scale rapidly, operate with agility, and generate value faster,” according to the report. Microsoft argued that within the next two to five years, every company will be on the journey to becoming one.

Microsoft said that 82% of leaders responded that this is a “pivotal” year to rethink key strategy and operations, while 81% said they expect agents to be “moderately or extensively” integrated into their AI strategies in the next 12 to 18 months."