5 hours Ago By Danielle Popov
A new hybrid office model consisting of humans and AI agents, known as the “frontier firm”, is starting to emerge, with over 75 per cent of Hong Kong company leaders expecting to expand their digital workforce in the next 12 to 18 months, according to new research from Microsoft. Microsoft’s Work Trend Index report, based on an international survey of 31,000 people and “trillions” of digital traces from the company’s ubiquitous systems, found that the integration of human and AI teams in offices is accelerating. The report, published on Thursday, included a section on Hong Kong that said 50 per cent of the city’s workforce was already using AI agents to automate their workflows and processes.
The report also found that 76 per cent of Hong Kong company executives were “confident” they would use “digital labour” to expand workforce capacity in the next 12 to 18 months, meaning they would likely deploy AI agents in offices. “Intelligence is becoming abundant, affordable, and available on demand”, Microsoft said in the report. While 61 per cent of respondents said they aimed to improve productivity, 86 per cent of the workforce reported insufficient time or energy for their tasks, suggesting a need for AI agents in the workplace.
“Employees are interrupted 275 times per day by a meeting, email, or chat – once every 2 minutes during work hours,” Microsoft said. As such, AI agents should be adopted so that humans can work smarter and “take control of their career in the age of AI”, the report added..
