AI Collaboration Report: “Using” AI is not enough – here’s what your organization is missing

Cease “utilizing” AI. Begin collaborating with it.

Our newest analysis from Atlassian’s Teamwork Lab exhibits that in the case of getting essentially the most out of working with AI, mindset issues excess of adoption – and is vital to maturity.

Our knowledge reveals two major teams of people that interact with AI at work: one group sees it as a device, whereas the opposite treats it like a crew of skilled advisors. Individuals within the second group don’t simply use AI to automate repetitive duties, they experiment with AI to convey their concepts to life. Unsurprisingly, we see that the standard of their work is far larger than that of straightforward AI customers.

In our survey of roughly 5,000 data employees from Australia, US, India, Germany, and France, we see that individuals who most successfully collaborate with AI begin with a query. These people outline a particular process or problem, set a transparent objective, after which associate with AI to brainstorm options, discover concepts, and ship higher work.

The outcomes are clear: the way forward for work is human-AI collaboration. Our knowledge proves that essentially the most strategic AI collaborators:

• Leverage AI to get 2x the ROI on their efforts
• Save 105 minutes every day – equal to an additional workday every week
• Are 1.5x extra more likely to reinvest time saved into studying new abilities
• Are 1.8x extra more likely to be considered as modern teammates

So, what’s stopping your crew and firm from reaping the advantages of human-AI collaboration? See the important thing findings from our inaugural AI Collaboration Report and learn to transfer your folks from AI customers to AI collaborators.

The AI Collaboration Index: from easy person to strategic collaborator

For our AI Collaboration Report survey, we requested individuals to report how they give thought to and work with AI.

We then grouped individuals into two major classes:

• Easy AI customers (these in Levels 1 and a couple of) consider AI as an automatic device. They use AI solely to get duties they might doubtless do themselves performed quicker and extra simply. Assume: private assistant.
  • Easy utilization examples (Stage 1 and a couple of):
    • You wrote an e-mail, and you utilize AI to make it extra concise and efficient.
    • You utilize AI to seek for data inside your organization.
• Strategic AI collaborators (these in Levels 3 and 4) method AI as a artistic associate or a whole crew with a spread of specialised abilities.
  • Strategic collaboration examples (Stage 3 and 4):

Anu Bharadwaj, President of Atlassian, collaborates with the Customer 360 agent to rapidly pull buyer knowledge right into a web page after which spars with the agent to floor insights. AI brokers like Buyer 360 act as specialised teammates by informing technique:

Annie Dean, World Head of Group Wherever, Atlassian, leverages AI to hurry up and enhance real-time concept era:

Be aware: Respondents who recognized AI as “ineffective within the office” (Stage 0) weren’t included in these analyses, as they didn’t actively use AI of their workflow.

Essentially the most strategic AI collaborators see 2x the ROI of straightforward customers

We requested folks to estimate the period of time that AI saves them each day. Easy AI customers (particularly, these in Stage 1) save 53 minutes per day because of AI, whereas essentially the most strategic AI collaborators (these in Stage 4) save a whopping 105 minutes per day. That’s equal to over 20% of the typical workday, or a whole further workday every week.

Translating our outcomes to {dollars}: enterprise organizations that associate with AI for enhanced decision-making can obtain an ROI of $129.4 million yearly, in comparison with simply $65.1 million when AI is used for task-specific functions. That’s a possibility value of $64.3M.

Practically all of Stage 4 AI collaborators (94%) agree that the time they spend studying to work with AI pays off, in comparison with simply 59% of Stage 1 AI customers.

By shifting workers past primary AI utilization to strategic collaboration, corporations can capitalize on AI’s full potential and drive important ROI. However shifting your AI mindset isn’t just about time financial savings – it’s a lot larger than that. AI collaboration can provide corporations an extra aggressive edge by selling steady enchancment, elevating work high quality, and fueling significant innovation.

Strategic AI collaborators reinvest time saved to degree up – easy AI customers don’t

There are usually not solely large variations in how a lot time easy AI customers and strategic AI collaborators save, however in what they do with that point. Easy AI customers save 53 minutes per day because of AI, and have a tendency to spend that further time on administrative duties.

In distinction, strategic collaborators take the 105 minutes per day that they save to dive extra deeply into their work: they’re almost certainly to continue learning new abilities and producing new concepts. Our knowledge exhibits that these in Stage 4 are almost certainly to report that AI has elevated their motivation and pleasure about work. These collaborators are energized by the innovation and prospects of AI, and proceed to find new methods it will probably assist them turn out to be extra artistic and productive.

If easy AI customers undertake a collaborative method, they might turn out to be extra motivated and hold uncovering new methods to leverage AI. As an additional benefit, feeling energized at work is linked to higher job satisfaction and lower levels of burnout. Human-AI collaboration appears to be a self-perpetuating cycle: strategic methods of working with AI result in larger payoffs, which encourage additional exploration and experimentation and have a snowball impact on organization-wide innovation.

Strategic AI collaborators get higher-quality outcomes

We see the best unlock when employees begin to view AI as a part of the crew. That is when the standard of their work jumps up. Easy AI customers get issues performed quick, however their work high quality doesn’t appear to vary. As somebody turns into a extra strategic AI collaborator (Levels 3 and 4), not solely do they get work performed quicker, however the high quality of their work additionally improves drastically.

• Roughly half of Stage 1 easy AI customers (54%) agreed that “The standard of my work has improved over the previous month.”
• In distinction, a big majority (85%) of strategic AI collaborators (Stage 3 and 4) agreed that “The standard of my work has improved over the past month.”

However how precisely does strategic collaboration enhance work high quality? When easy customers have AI compile knowledge from varied sources, they cease there. They fail to ask AI to assist with evaluation or takeaways. In distinction, a Stage 3 collaborator will proceed to work with AI to construct hypotheses, ask questions, analyze findings, and pull insights.

A Stage 4 collaborator takes it one step additional. They ask AI to stipulate the professionals and cons of various choices, floor case research from comparable contexts, and record potential unintended penalties. Groups that faucet into AI’s deep data base can produce larger high quality and extra impactful work, driving strategic outcomes that remedy a bigger enterprise drawback.

Our analysis exhibits Strategic AI collaborators are 1.8x extra doubtless than easy AI customers to be seen as modern teammates. Their AI experimentation not solely enhances their very own work however evokes team-wide creativity and problem-solving.

Groups that collaborate with AI can see exponential positive aspects in each efficiency and output, setting their organizations other than the competitors. Leaders ought to spotlight situations the place a strategic collaborator partnered with AI to enhance the standard of their work, and have that worker share precisely how they built-in AI into their workflow with the bigger crew. This gives actionable insights and finest practices for others to duplicate, and raises the usual throughout the group.

Strategic AI adoption varies throughout capabilities

Completely different capabilities leverage AI in several methods, with some clear missed alternatives. Lower than half of even essentially the most strategic AI collaborators in IT at present flip to AI for higher-level work, like creating long-term plans, optimizing useful resource allocation, and constructing and testing new options. And of all entrepreneurs, solely 31% say AI helps them create insights from complicated knowledge. As advertising and marketing is changing into more and more quantitative, this stands out as an missed space for collaboration.

One other instance: essentially the most strategic AI collaborators in administration and technique roles are, unsurprisingly, additionally the almost certainly to show to AI for assist creating insights from complicated data or knowledge. Amongst these workers, 67% report leveraging AI for this process. In distinction, lower than a 3rd of Stage 4 workers in schooling and coaching do the identical.

By encouraging cross-functional data sharing, leaders have a possibility to enhance AI collaboration inside particular capabilities. Whereas the main points of how groups work with AI could also be craft-specific, merely listening to that one other perform is leveraging AI in a sure space (e.g., translating knowledge into insights) can unlock new types of experimentation and set the stage for a crowd-sourced tradition of AI collaboration concepts.

Management perspective in direction of AI issues – quite a bit

Whether or not they comprehend it or not, leaders set the tone for AI collaboration at work. In an atmosphere of worry and nervousness round AI, employees will use it minimally and should hesitate to spend the time to study extra modern strategies of collaboration. Assume, ”If I exploit it, I’m dishonest … so I’ll hold it primary” or “If I take time away to determine the best way to use AI, I’ll get behind on my work. So I’ll simply hold working like I at all times have.”

If management embraces experimentation and motivates workers to try to study AI with out worry of failure – or productiveness loss – employees develop their strategic AI collaborator muscle extra readily. Those that agree with the assertion “Management encourages me to experiment with AI” save 55% extra time a day than those that don’t (84 minutes vs. 55 minutes). We additionally see that these with management help are 2.5x extra more likely to be strategic AI collaborators.

However help alone isn’t sufficient. Leaders should make their very own AI collaboration journey seen. In case you’re a pacesetter, a strong approach to transfer your folks past AI “utilization” is to provide them examples of how AI helps you increase your work. Begin crew conferences off by sharing what agent you or your crew just lately leveraged and supply finest practices for prompting it. Contemplate making a platform (this could possibly be a Slack channel or company-wide e-newsletter) with different leaders to do the identical. Taking these steps won’t solely supply workers perception into the best way to higher work with AI, however will even set a norm of human-AI collaboration.

When leaders foster a tradition of experimentation and studying, workers usually tend to turn out to be strategic AI collaborators, leading to higher time financial savings and higher-quality outcomes. With out management help, employees might keep caught in outdated workflows (and in Stage 0-2), lacking out on AI’s capacity to drive effectivity and innovation. Embracing AI on the management degree is vital to unlocking its transformative advantages throughout the group.

How groups can turn out to be strategic AI collaborators

Having management help is simply half the equation; creating a tradition of AI collaboration is a crew effort. Listed below are a few sensible steps to get you began:

1. Foster AI experimentation by encouraging everybody to embed AI into their every day work. Don’t simply attend an hour-long coaching session. As a substitute, encourage your crew members to take a extra hands-on method to studying by setting weekly challenges for the group like, “Attempt two new AI brokers this week. Listed below are some brokers we’ve been working with…” or “Ask AI 4 questions this week.”
2. Host cross-functional studying periods centered on AI collaboration. Contemplate including a phase to team-wide conferences by which totally different folks spotlight how they’re leveraging AI to enhance their work. Make this a rotating position. If every individual is aware of upfront they’ll be requested to share their AI collaboration finest practices, they’ll be extra more likely to set up and undertake higher methods of working with AI.

Wanting forward

Based mostly on the findings detailed above, we predict:

1. Burnout will lower by 25%, pushed by a 50% burnout drop amongst Stage 4 AI collaborators. AI results in time financial savings throughout the board, however folks in Stage 4 additionally report that AI will increase their motivation and pleasure about work. These tendencies ought to scale back work-related overwhelm, resulting in noticeable enhancements in worker wellbeing.
2. The AI ROI hole will double. Strategic AI collaborators see 2x the ROI of straightforward customers, however as they proceed to experiment and develop new methods to collaborate with AI, we count on they’ll see 4x the ROI by 2026.
3. In 2025, people with robust folks administration abilities will get 75% extra worth from AI brokers – even when they aren’t in management roles. The abilities that make nice folks leaders – offering context about the issue, assembling the best crew of consultants, and delegating work – are the identical abilities wanted to efficiently use AI as a artistic associate and crew of skilled advisors.

Our findings present that strategic AI collaborators see larger ROI, work high quality, and motivation. The implications are clear: essentially the most profitable groups will likely be those that advance past easy AI utilization. It’s time for us to reset how we work with AI – from treating it as a primary device to partnering with it as a collaborative teammate.