Microsoft: Leave the mundane to the robots — AI is an “opportunity for humans to become more human”

IT leaders need to be proactive to help their business embrace AI, Microsoft says

Features By Ellen Jennings-Trace published 28 September 2024

Although now a popular sight in workplaces (with research claiming many of us have already tested it out) the number of workers use Artificial Intelligence in their daily lives remains small - at least for the time being. The buzz around AI is unavoidable, and most of us think it could make our lives easier, so how do we make that happen?

It’s undoubtedly here to stay, but more businesses need to embrace AI to see its value. Or at least, that’s what Microsoft thinks.

TechRadar Pro spoke to Rob Smithson, Microsoft’s UK Business Applications Lead, to hear about how AI will affect the job market of tomorrow.

Motivate and incentivize

“There's great opportunity for small businesses and it's not beyond them to be able to afford the products that enable them to sort of keep up, or even take a step ahead of their competitors that don't have the best," Smithson says, noting how AI can be used by businesses of any size to reduce workloads and streamline processes.

Microsoft is keen to market AI as a great leveller, particularly for smaller businesses who perhaps don’t have the resources to employ big teams; for example, in designing and programming HR workflows,

“Get the AI to do a lot of that manual programming," Smithson notes. “So not only does it require a lot less effort from that team, but that team can then spend their time elsewhere in the projects or the project ends up being shorter, potentially better value for the customer.”

Evolved, not eliminated

That doesn't necessarily mean a loss of jobs, Smithson says, but rather an evolution. In the Microsoft vision, workers who handle the more menial stuff, data entry, for example, will simply shift into a more ‘value add’ position, such as data analysis.

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