Did you sign off on those expenses in Concur? Ever feel too busy at work to get any actual work done? Well, apparently you are right. According to a new report from Microsoft, our workplaces have a serious productivity problem. The study – which surveyed nearly 31,000 full-time employed or self-employed workers across 31 markets between 1 February 2023 and 14 March 2023 – found that 64% say they struggle with having the time and energy to do their job.

Customer service workers at a Fortune 500 software firm who were given access to generative artificial intelligence tools became 14% more productive on average than those who were not, with the least-skilled workers reaping the most benefit. That's according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who tested the impact of generative AI tools on productivity at the company over the course of a year. The research marks the first time the impact of generative AI tools on work has been measured outside the lab. Prior studies have benchmarked the capabilities of large language models against tasks in fields like law and medicine -- showing that, for example, GPT-4 aces the bar exam in the 90th percentile. Other research has tested the tech's impact on workers' performance of isolated writing tasks in small-scale laboratory settings.

Warehouse inventory management has become critical in light of pandemic-related supply chain issues. Unfortunately, it's a practice that can sometimes fall by the wayside. According to one estimate, 43% of businesses in the U.S. don't track inventory or do so using a manual system. Inventory accuracy often suffers as a result. A 2017 Peoplevox survey found that 34% of businesses have shipped an order late because they inadvertently sold a product that was not in stock.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not likely to make humans redundant. Nor will it create superintelligence anytime soon. But like it or not, AI technologies and intelligent systems will make huge advances in the next two decades--revolutionizing medicine, entertainment, and transport; transforming jobs and markets; enabling many new products and tools; and vastly increasing the amount of information that governments and companies have about individuals. Should we cherish and look forward to these developments, or fear them? There are reasons to be concerned. Current AI research is too narrowly focused on making advances in a limited set of domains and pays insufficient attention to its disruptive effects on the very fabric of society. If AI technology continues to develop along its current path, it is likely to create social upheaval for at least two reasons. For one, AI will affect the future of jobs. Our current trajectory automates work to an excessive degree while refusing to invest in human productivity; further advances will displace workers and fail to create new opportunities (and, in the process, miss out on AI's full potential to enhance productivity). For another, AI may undermine democracy and individual freedoms. Each of these directions is alarming, and the two together are ominous. Shared prosperity and democratic political participation do not just critically reinforce each other: they are the two backbones of our modern society. Worse still, the weakening of democracy makes formulating solutions to the adverse labor market and distributional effects of AI much more difficult. These dangers have only multiplied during the COVID-19 crisis. Lockdowns, social distancing, and workers' vulnerability to the virus have given an additional boost to the drive for automation, with the majority of U.S. businesses reporting plans for more automation.

The direction of AI development is not preordained. It can be altered to increase human productivity, create jobs and shared prosperity, and protect and bolster democratic freedoms--if we modify our approach. The direction of AI development is not preordained. It can be altered to increase human productivity, create jobs and shared prosperity, and protect and bolster democratic freedoms--if we modify our approach. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not likely to make humans redundant. Nor will it create superintelligence anytime soon. But like it or not, AI technologies and intelligent systems will make huge advances in the next two decades--revolutionizing medicine, entertainment, and transport; transforming jobs and markets; enabling many new products and tools; and vastly increasing the amount of information that governments and companies have about individuals. Should we cherish and look forward to these developments, or fear them? Current AI research is too narrowly focused on making advances in a limited set of domains and pays insufficient attention to its disruptive effects on the very fabric of society. There are reasons to be concerned. Current AI research is too narrowly focused on making advances in a limited set of domains and pays insufficient attention to its disruptive effects on the very fabric of society. If AI technology continues to develop along its current path, it is likely to create social upheaval for at least two reasons. For one, AI will affect the future of jobs. Our current trajectory automates work to an excessive degree while refusing to invest in human productivity; further advances will displace workers and fail to create new opportunities (and, in the process, miss out on AI's full potential to enhance productivity). For another, AI may undermine democracy and individual freedoms. Each of these directions is alarming, and the two together are ominous. Shared prosperity and democratic political participation do not just critically reinforce each other: they are the two backbones of our modern society.

The next great period of growth in manufacturing productivity will be driven, at least in part, from advances in machine sensing, engineering, and machine learning, which will provide robots with the capability to collaborate closely with workers and overcome variability. The original introduction of industrial machines and the production of goods in factories resulted in a dramatic increase in worker productivity over the course of the industrial revolution. In contrast, in the last 40 years, inflation-adjusted worker productivity in the United States has declined slightly, from nearly 65% in 1970 to under 57% in 2017. Specifically, in the period after the Great Recession, worker productivity in the manufacturing sector has shown, relatively, very little growth (seen below), though there has been substantial growth in robotics in the logistics and supply sector. Interestingly, there has also been little growth in the rate of purchases of industrial robots in the United States in this same time frame, while there has been significant investments in robotics in the logistics and supply space as warehouses become increasingly automated.

Artificial intelligence will drive worker productivity in the years ahead primarily through decision support as humans everywhere get a crutch when it is time to make a call, according to a Gartner estimate. Gartner estimates that artificial intelligence augmentation will create $2.9 trillion in business value and 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity in 2021. The general idea from Gartner is that augmented intelligence won't take over human tasks, but improve learning, decision making and experiences. This combination of human and AI knowhow will drive productivity for enterprises. What is artificial general intelligence?

Business managers currently spend 54% of an average work day on administration, according to an Accenture survey published in the Harvard Business Review. The research surveyed 1,770 managers from 14 countries and interviewed 37 executives in charge of digital transformation at their organisations. It found that after administrative chores, only 7% of time was left to develop people and engage with stakeholders, with 10% of time spent on strategy and innovation, and 30% on problem solving. If you ask me, this sounds like my dream role! Just take The Associated Press, for example, which expanded quarterly earnings by using AI to increase reporting from 300 stories to 4,400.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept; it's here and, for all its imperfections and shortcomings, has already begun to change the way some businesses operate. For starters, just the sheer number of businesses adopting some sort of AI application has risen significantly in recent years. According to a recent report by Narrative Science, 38% of executive respondents said that in 2016 they used AI in some manner in their business. Twelve months later, 61% of respondents were harnessing AI applications in their day-to-day, and that number is only predicated to grow in the coming years, across virtually all industries. But how are AI and machine learning being used in early 2019? Currently, the most common uses for both are in improving efficiencies or worker productivity, informing future business decisions, and streamlining processes, at 51%, 41%, and 39%, respectively--and both small and large businesses alike are steadily implementing AI as part of their short- and long-term objectives.

The way we work is fast changing, and a lot of credit for it goes to artificial intelligence. Two years ago, Gartner reported that "7 per cent of top-performing companies rank AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) as a game-changing technology." But within a year, that figure swelled to 40 per cent. A Gartner report mentions that the augmentation of AI technology will generate $2.9 trillion in business value and recover 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity in 2021. One of the critical aspects of AI is how it can be utilized to enable individual knowledge workers, boosting their productivity and feeding them timely information furthering key business objectives.