It's a good time to look back at the formation of common and emerging trends in workplace research in the middle of the year. This is what we can draw conclusions so far:
Workforce members remain ambiguous about the role AI plays in their work
Multiple studies documented the sustained resistance of workers to hype about AI improving their day-to-day work experience. Unily's AI reality check was discovered in January Only 20% of employees who think AI is “essential” for business competitionand “36% believe that more AI adoption will not affect company performance.”
This past week. GoTo has released that report.”Work Pulse in 2025: Trends, Truths, and AI Practical“And we recorded both AI skepticism among workers (“62% of employees believe that AI is significantly exaggerated”), and the assumption that AI releases workers' time to increase productivity – workers, only 53% of managers, are just 53% of managers).
The main productivity challenge is still hindering workers
Switching between applications is a permanent drainage of workers' productivity and time, reducing this friction and keeping workers in one continuous environment has long been the goal of the enterprise collaboration platform – witnesses Microsoft is promoting this until 2018, The rise of whiteboard apps for 2021-2022 To concentrate people in one communal space, Zooms product announcements aimed at reducing mode switching 2023, Slack advocates for a reduction in app switching later that yearand the vendor will kick in the news in 2024 They focused on reducing app switching.
One recent debate in favour of agent AI is the promise of organizing agents to automate workflows by tapping on specific apps, so AI bots switch apps rather than end users. February this year Vendors have begun to connect dots to previous research:
The term “busy work” did not appear in Asana's Work Global Index 2023 anatomy, but the work management platform defined something similar, and the numbers were not great.
“Work about work” [is the] I spent time juggling duplicate work, unnecessary meetings, too many apps. Work related jobs account for 58% of work days, skilled jobs account for 33%, and strategic jobs account for just 9%.
The anatomy of the Work Global Index identified a major boost to productivity – it wasn't AI. Rather, workers complain that they have to use too many applications, and app juggling will do more work to collaborate, act on new information, or try to do “real” work that does the work assigned in a timely manner.
Of the workers using more than 16 apps, 25% said they missed messages and actions, but they used 1-5 apps, and 15% used 6-15.
Loss of focus is another side effect. 23% of workers using the apps over 16 people said that switching apps reduced their attention span.
The more apps your app uses, the more likely it is to say it is less efficient. Of those using more than 16 apps, 26% said that switching apps is less efficient.
Will adding AI tools help with the challenges that apps switch? It depends on whether AI streamlines existing workloads or whether its output will be another thing to review and manage before proceeding with skill-based or strategic work. Workers don't run towards technology – They employ solutions to their problems.
Savvy workers use AI to increase their human value
As more workflows are automated, more employers are achieving exactly what people bring to the equation – soft skills that make them exist and adaptable. According to LinkedIn, seven of the “rising skills” in demand for employment platforms are Human-centered skills such as customer engagement and competitor mitigation.
and As more people use generative AI, people's critical thinking skills may be appreciated more – “A study by Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon that found workers were confident in their AI's ability to complete tasks shows that they can feel they can let go of their hands more often.” So, relying on critical thinking by treating AI skeptical can boost both AI-driven outcomes and human performance to shape it.
