Overview
- The Microsoft Work Trend Index, released Thursday, showed 32% of Indian AI users qualify as “Frontier Professionals” who run multi-step agent workflows, about double the 16% global share.
- Indian users report big gains from AI with 78% saying it enables work they could not do a year ago and 87% saying they retain responsibility for final judgment of AI outputs.
- Major Indian IT firms have rapidly scaled Microsoft 365 Copilot, licensing more than 400,000 seats in under six months and reporting monthly active use above 85% and reported productivity improvements in research, content and cycle times.
- Companies emphasise human oversight and new roles as they scale AI, with 63% prioritising quality control, 59% naming critical thinking a key skill, and leaders calling for wide skilling, governance and clearer permission to experiment.
- This shift follows a year of pilots and is likely to change jobs and workflows across sectors by creating new specialist roles, speeding routine tasks, and forcing firms to invest in training and governance to sustain benefits.