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The 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report from Microsoft and LinkedIn states that 2024 is the year AI at work gets real. Use of generative AI has nearly
doubled in the last six months, with 75% of global knowledge workers using it. And employees, struggling under the pace and volume of work, are bringing their own AI to work. While leaders agree AI is a business imperative, many believe their organization lacks a plan and vision to go from individual
impact to applying AI to drive the bottom line. The pressure to show immediate

ROI is making leaders inert, even in the face of AI inevitability. Just as with the advent of the internet or the PC, business transformation comes with broad adoption. Organizations that apply AI to drive growth, manage costs, and deliver greater value to customers will pull ahead.

At the same time, the labor market is set to shift again—with AI playing a major role. Despite fears of job loss, leaders report a talent shortage for key roles. And as more employees eye a career move, managers say AI aptitude could rival experience. For many employees, AI will raise the bar but break the career ceiling.

To help leaders and organizations overcome AI inertia, Microsoft and LinkedIn looked at how AI will reshape work and the labor market broadly, surveying 31,000 people across 31 countries.

<strong>Findings:</strong>
75 percent of knowledge workers use AI at work. Employees want AI at work—and they won’t wait for companies to catch up.

46 percent  of users started using it less than six months ago. Users say AI helps them save time (90 percent), focus on their most important work (85 percent), be more creative (84 percent), and enjoy their work more (83 percent).

The heaviest Teams users (the top 5 percent) summarized 8 hours of meetings using Copilot in the month of March, the equivalent of an entire workday.

While most leaders agree AI is a necessity, the pressure to show immediate ROI is making leaders move slowly.

79 percent of leaders agree their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive, but 59% worry about quantifying the productivity gains of AI.

This uncertainty is stalling vision: 60 percent of leaders worry their organization’s leadership lacks a plan and vision to implement AI.

Without guidance or clearance from the top, employees are taking things into their own hands and keeping AI use
under wraps:

78 percent of AI users are bringing their own AI tools to work (BYOAI)—it’s even more common at small and medium-sized companies (80 percent).
And it’s not just Gen Z—BYOAI cuts across all generations.

52 percent of people who use AI at work are reluctant to admit to using it for their most important tasks.

53 percent of people who use AI at work worry that using it on important work tasks makes them look replaceable. This approach means missing out on the
benefits that come from strategic AI use at scale. It also puts company data at risk in an environment where leaders’ #1 concern for the year ahead is cybersecurity and data privacy.  

BYOAI Is Not Just for Gen Z. Employees across every age group are bringing their own AI tools to work. 78% millennials, 76% GenX and 73% boomers use BYOAI.

Another driver of BYOAI: work has accelerated faster than employees’ ability to keep up. 68% of people say they struggle with the pace and volume of work, and 46% feel burned out.

Email overload persists—85% of emails are read in under 15 seconds, and the typical person has to read about 4 emails for every 1 they send. Meetings and after-hours work are holding steady at their post-pandemic highs, and the workday still skews toward communication: in the Microsoft 365 apps, users spend 60% of their time on emails, chats, and meetings, and only 40% in creation apps like Word and PowerPoint.

As AI use surges ahead, leaders who are “extremely familiar” with AI see its potential to be as transformational as the shift from a typewriter to a computer. Within the next five years, 41% of these leaders expect to redesign business processes from the ground up with AI. In the same time frame, they anticipate orchestrating (38%) and training a team of AI bots (42%), and ensuring the ethical use of AI (47%) will be a core part of their job.

The data is clear: People are overwhelmed with digital debt and under duress at work— and they are turning to AI for relief. The opportunity for every leader is to channel this momentum into ROI.


75 percent people use AI at work: Report

Spotify released a research, ‘Audio: Where Creators Come To Pause’ report that puts the spotlight on the daily lives and challenges of India’s content creator community, and how they deal with emotions.  

The study, conducted with musicians, podcasters, and social media content creators in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, presents a comprehensive understanding of creators’ mental well-being. Nearly 80% of the respondents experience excessive stress or pressure in their work at least once every week. They also shared the coping mechanisms and practice, including the pivotal role of consuming audio, to navigate their content creation journey. 

For actor and comedian Mallika Dua, “One of my greatest joys in life is music, it’s a big part of self-care and my way to gain inner peace. Music is like a person who is always with me in my room, making sure I never feel alone”.

 
A few of the key findings that the Spotify research are:

There are five main types of challenges that content creators deal with:

Intellectual: The constant need to keep up with changing algorithms and posting frequencies builds high pressure to post content regularly.
Emotional: Negative feedback and comments significantly affect creators’ self-esteem, with nearly 40% facing  ‘fear of the future’.
Physical: Almost 40 percent of creators spend more than 3 hours a day to make content, leading to exhaustion and an adverse impact on health.
Social: Creators face loneliness and isolation within their circles, with nearly 65 percent of them feeling inadequately supported by the creator community.
Financial: Content creation is not always financially rewarding, especially during the early stages.
 

Audio plays a key role in coping with these challenges, and Spotify is the number one choice for content creators when it comes to audio platforms.
50% of the respondents use music as a coping mechanism.
 
7 out of 10 creators agree that music, podcasts, audiobooks & guided meditations help them deal with stress.

More than 40% of creators listen to audio to lift their mood, feel inspired, or calm their nerves.

1 in 4 creators use audio to enhance creativity as well as boost productivity.
 

Female content creators are more likely to feel stressed (33%) than their male counterparts (20%). A similar pattern is also seen in the creators from the age group of 30-45 years (35%) compared to 18-29 year olds (24%).
 

“Nowadays, it’s important for creators to realise that we need time to kind of distance ourselves from the screens, from social media and think about how much toll it’s taking on our mental health”, said content creator and actor, Dolly Singh.

Nearly 45% of the respondents feel that their current coping mechanisms are ineffective, and are facing a range of need gaps, including inclusive and accessible support tools like therapy and counselling, and a safe space where creators can have open conversations while being vulnerable and protecting their privacy.

Vasundhara Mudgil, Head of Communications, Spotify India, said, “Content creators are a part of an industry where the entry barriers are low, burnout is always just around the corner, and constant comparison with other creators is common. The Spotify study highlights some of the most relevant issues that the creator community in India faces, and the role that audio plays in supporting their overall well-being. Through this initiative, and on-ground sessions with mental health experts, we want to encourage the creator community to see audio, and Spotify, as a place where they can come to pause”.

65 percent content creators feel inadequately supported by creator community: Report

Elevation Capital today announced the launch of its report “What If…We Win? Unlocking The India Consumer Tech Opportunity.” The report addresses multiple whitespaces for large, scalable tech-enabled consumer businesses that founders can build in India. The country’s online consumer spending is expected to reach $300 Bn by 2030, creating massive value-creation opportunities for founders building new consumer marketplaces, businesses catering to India’s wealthy, new-age D2C brands tapping discretionary categories, and social & content platforms that leverage newer monetization strategies. 

In a joint statement, Mukul Arora, Co-managing Partner and Mayank Khanduja, Partner, who leads Elevation’s Consumer Tech investments, said, “Of late, India’s startup ecosystem has started questioning the viability of delivering new high-quality businesses in the consumer tech space. With all our conviction, we say yes, these businesses can be built. This is not just because we have partnered with multiple category winners in the past consumer tech waves but because all markers today strengthen our conviction. Our consumer tech portfolio and 100+ consumer tech founders we meet every month show that the market is only getting deeper. With more disposable income in the hands of the consumer, large share of the new revenue and profit pools would accrue to the consumer tech companies.” 

The report presents five data and research-backed theses covering large value-creation opportunities for founders to build large, enduring companies. 

Indian Media Platforms Will Monetize Users Directly At Scale: 

While horizontal social platforms command more than 50% of the $8Bn Indian digital ads market, emerging marketplaces and e-commerce platforms such as Amazon India, Swiggy, Nykaa, and Meesho have also entered the ads business, cornering nearly 15% of this pie..

Monetization strategies beyond digital ads are gaining momentum among Indian consumer apps. Social and content platforms like Moj, Sri Mandir, Seekho, STAGE, FRND, and AstroTalk have scaled on the back of newer direct forms of user monetization, including subscriptions, microtransactions, and digital services. 

India’s top 2% are a $100 Bn opportunity: 

India’s top 5Mn households (~2%) hold more than 50% of country’s wealth and also contribute disproportionately to consumption. Over the next decade, their discretionary spend pool will climb to $100Bn.

Pets ($7 Bn opportunity), Premium Leisure Travel ($20 Bn opportunity), Home Rentals ($8 Bn opportunity), and Premium Healthcare ($10 Bn opportunity) are some of the themes founders can capitalize on when building for this audience, which has unique needs and desires premium quality. 


Many Massive Marketplaces Are Waiting To Be Built: 

Online consumer marketplaces will shape India’s consumption across various categories, including shopping, travel, grocery, mobility, health, education, local services, and real estate.

Platform businesses capture 80% of India’s online consumer spends, estimated to reach $300Bn by 2030.

Marketplaces that solve for secondary home transactions ($30bn opportunity) through a ‘Spinny’ model, vertical platforms for home furnishing ($23bn opportunity) and novel marketplaces that build for new consumer archetypes like the GenZ and Bharat consumers are some emerging opportunities awaiting founders


New-Age Consumer Brands Will Create $50 Bn Of Listed M-Cap

The combined revenue of new-age consumer brands in India today stands at $5.6bn and continues to scale at a rapid clip.

India will have 300+ new-age brands surpassing the ₹100 Cr revenue mark in the next three years as several enablers for D2C brand-building converge.

25-30 breakout consumer brands across categories like home, footwear, durables, QSR, toys, etc., will account for a listed market cap of ~$50bn by 2030.

Offline-Dominant Models Will Unlock Deep Customer Value Across Education, Healthcare and Consumer Brands

Some of the successful new-age consumer brands have also leveraged offline retail for growth, including Mamaearth, Lenskart, and boAt.

In Education, test prep, upskilling and pre-school are categories where an offline-dominant approach is a superior model to pure online learning.

Fertility, women and child, oncology, dermatology, diagnostics and pain management are a few single-specialty offline-dominant categories in healthcare where deep customer value can be unlocked.

India's online consumer spending expected to reach $300 Bn by 2030: Elevation Capital report

REPORT