While 96% of employees are confident their organisations and IT teams have the knowledge and resources to scale AI, far fewer feel the same way about how their people-centred processes will empower and protect employees. About half (49%) are not fully confident that their organisation’s risk management processes are adequate for an enterprise-wide technical integration of generative AI. Even fewer (48%) say their organisation has put in place a complete set of specific guidelines/policies for responsible AI.

Most employees look forward to using AI co-pilots, and 79% anticipate that generative AI tools like Microsoft Copilot will impact up to 20 hours of their work week. But their responses indicate they are short on skills and support to use them effectively and responsibly. 98% agree that support will be required to onboard/train employees to use generative AI tools like Microsoft Copilot, and 50% agree this training effort will demand significant support.

Nearly all (94%) organisations are increasing their digital investments due to generative AI, but inconsistencies emerge when it comes to how those digital investments are being prioritised to help test, learn and iterate to scale AI responsibly. Most important? IT employees rank their data and analytics platform (such as Databricks or Microsoft Fabric) among top priorities to scale AI in 2024. Accurate, unified data is key for AI, but today less than half (48%) of employees completely trust AI’s results.