KUALA LUMPUR (June 6): 77% of Malaysians have expressed that they don’t have enough time and energy to get their work done, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. In light of the circumstances, 84% of people in Malaysia have started using artificial intelligence (AI) to save time, boost creativity and help focus on their most important work.

According to the 2024 Work Trend Index released by Microsoft Corp and LinkedIn, 56% of employees use AI to conduct their catch-up work, such as staying updated by having AI summarise missed meetings. The joint report is based on a survey of 31,000 people across 31 countries, with 1,000 Malaysians interviewed.

“The amount of work has, in fact, increased post-Covid. Every email that [is sent] out, they get four return emails that they have to manage, if not more. So, people are spending a lot more time doing the work and less time being creative. There’s a lot more time spent on what we call ‘doing the work for the work to be done’,” said K Raman, managing director of Microsoft Malaysia.

The rapid growth of AI has led to a rise in “AI power users”, who Raman defined as people who use AI every day. He said that AI power users save about 10 hours of work a month and 85% of them use AI to start their day, while 82% prepare for their following days with AI.

92% of AI power users have also said that AI taking over mundane tasks have made their workload more manageable and increased their job satisfaction. This is due to their newfound capacity to allocate their attention on creative works in the time that has been saved.

The wide adoption of AI has raised concerns, however, “on the bring your own AI” (BYOAI) concept. BYOAI, which is the use of external AI for company-related tasks, increases the risk of data breaches in companies without a responsible AI deployment strategy. This is further exacerbated as 52% of people who use AI at work are reluctant to admit their use of AI.

Aside from working trends, AI has also shifted the employment ecosystem as more job-seekers and employers are embracing AI.

Rohit Kalsy, LinkedIn’s head of sales, emerging markets, Southeast Asia, shared that there has been a 142 times increase of AI-related skills and projects like ChatGPT or Copilot mentioned in resumes.

On the employer’s end, 62% of business leaders said they would not hire a candidate without AI skills, while 65% would rather hire someone who is acquainted with AI, over a person with no AI skills, regardless of their previous experiences.

“This underscores that AI competency is no longer an ‘X’ factor but a necessity in today’s workplace. This past year has indicated that professionals are aware of the need to adequately upskill themselves for the age of AI — we have seen a record number of learners undertaking the top AI courses on LinkedIn since January 2023 across Southeast Asia, Australia and India,” said Rohit.