Microsoft Warns That AI Alone Won’t End the ‘Infinite Workday’ Without Fundamental Business Changes

In this edition of Eye on AI, key topics include OpenAI’s $200 million Pentagon contract, Salesforce’s findings on AI models’ inefficiencies in CRM software, and a study revealing that AI scrapers are overwhelming cultural institutions by flooding their servers. Microsoft’s recent research highlights the phenomenon of the “infinite workday,” where employees experience staggering interruptions averaging 275 per day, significantly hindering productivity. Microsoft’s chief scientist Jamie Teevan suggests that while AI offers potential productivity gains, its current application often exacerbates existing work burdens rather than alleviating them. The ideal approach, as indicated by successful “Frontier Firms,” involves using AI as a digital colleague, focusing on impactful tasks, and redesigning workflows rather than merely automating them. Additionally, cultural institutions face challenges from aggressive AI scraping, which can disrupt access to online resources, placing them at risk with limited IT support. Ultimately, for AI to truly enhance productivity, companies must rethink their structures and workflows.

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