Latest news with #JaredSpataro
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
How Microsoft Is Reimagining The Future Of Work Using AI
| Jun 10, 2025, 03:30PM EDT Microsoft's CMO of AI at Work, Jared Spataro, explains why AI is the single most important technology for businesses navigating today's volatile landscape.
Bloomberg
29-04-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Microsoft on the Future of Human and AI Work: Tech Disruptors
'The average knowledge worker is interrupted every two minutes during work hours.' Mentions Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Jared Spataro, 'You're getting an email, a meeting kind of request, a chat coming in, and if you do the math, that's 275 times a day.' On this episode of Tech Disruptors, Spataro joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Anurag Rana to discuss emerging trends in they way employees work and how AI is already changing the game. The two define the 'Frontier Firm' and why this is a big year for them, the introduction of new research and analyst AI agents, and the future of headcount and staffing needs.
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Microsoft says everyone will be a boss in the future
Microsoft has good news for anyone with corner office ambitions. In the future we're all going to be bosses – of AI employees. The tech company is predicting the rise of a new kind of business, called a 'frontier firm', where ultimately a human worker directs autonomous artificial intelligence agents to carry out tasks. Everyone, according to Microsoft, will become an agent boss. 'As agents increasingly join the workforce, we'll see the rise of the agent boss: someone who builds, delegates to and manages agents to amplify their impact and take control of their career in the age of AI,' wrote Jared Spataro, a Microsoft executive, in a blog post this week. 'From the boardroom to the frontline, every worker will need to think like the CEO of an agent-powered startup.' Microsoft, a major backer of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, expects every organisation to be on their way to becoming a frontier firm within the next five years. It said these entities will be 'markedly different' from those we know today and will be structured around what Microsoft calls 'on-demand intelligence'. 'These companies scale rapidly, operate with agility, and generate value faster,' the company said in its annual Work Trend Index report. It expects the emergence of the AI boss class to take place over three phases: first, every employee will have an AI assistant; then AI agents will join teams as 'digital colleagues' taking on specific tasks; and finally humans will set directions for these agents, who go off on 'business processes and workflows' with their bosses 'checking in as needed'. Microsoft said AI's impact on knowledge work – a catch-all term for a range of professions from scientists to academics and lawyers – will go the same way as software development, by evolving from coding assistance to agents carrying out tasks. Using the example of a worker's role in a supply chain, Microsoft said agents could handle end-to-end logistics while humans guide the system and manage relationships with suppliers. Microsoft has been pushing AI's deployment in the workplace through autonomous AI agents, or tools that can carry out tasks without human intervention. Last year it announced that early adopters of Microsoft's Copilot Studio product, which deploys bots, included the blue-chip consulting firm McKinsey, which is using agents to carry out tasks such as scheduling meetings with prospective clients. AI's impact on the modern workforce is one of the key economic and policy challenges produced by the technology's rapid advance. While Microsoft says AI will remove 'drudge' work and increase productivity – a measure of economic effectiveness – experts also believe it could result in widespread job losses. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion This year, the UK government-backed International AI Safety report said 'many people could lose their current jobs' if AI agents become highly capable. The International Monetary Fund has estimated 60% of jobs in advanced economies such as the US and UK are exposed to AI and half of these jobs may be negatively affected as a result. The Tony Blair Institute, which supports widespread introduction of AI across the private and public sectors, has said AI could displace up to 3m private sector jobs in the UK. However, job losses will ultimately number in the low hundreds of thousands because the technology will also produce new jobs, the institute estimates.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Businesses tap agentic AI to bridge persistent skill shortages
This story was originally published on CIO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CIO Dive newsletter. As agentic AI offerings evolve, more than 4 in 5 business leaders expect to deploy the tools in response to workforce capacity constraints, according to Microsoft's annual Work Trend Index. The company commissioned Edelman Data & Intelligence to survey 31,000 knowledge workers for the Wednesday report. Nearly half of decision-makers say their companies have fully automated workflows or business processes through the use of agents. Customer service, marketing and product development are the top three priorities for AI investments. The downstream effect of agentic AI adoption remains unclear. One-third of surveyed leaders are considering headcount trims in response to the shifts, while more than three-quarters say they will expand hiring to fill new AI roles. Agentic AI took over enterprise technology discourse this past year, promising productivity gains and improved customer experiences. Adoption plans are already reshaping enterprise workforce strategies. Entire roles and industries will be redrawn as businesses plug AI into more parts of their operations, according to Jared Spataro, Microsoft CMO for AI at Work. 'Just as the internet era created billions of new knowledge jobs — from social media managers to UX designers — the AI era is already giving rise to new roles, with many more to come,' Spataro said in a Wednesday blog post. 'Preparing for what's next is no longer optional. Employees must build AI skills and companies must support them with the right tools and training.' In addition to the report, Microsoft announced a slew of updates in its Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 spring release, aimed at improving what it calls 'human-agent collaboration.' Updates include the new Researcher and Analyst agents, which use OpenAI's deep reasoning models, and enhanced agent access controls for IT. Microsoft isn't alone making the case for agentic AI. An ongoing vendor push is underway to plug automation into more workflows, with Salesforce, Google, SAP AWS and others launching agent platforms. Widespread adoption obstacles remain — despite vendor enthusiasm — including concerns over governance and the current condition of data infrastructure. Still, more than two-thirds of surveyed employees say AI will help accelerate their careers, even though just 40% say they're familiar with AI agents. 'This moment calls for honest conversations, intentional communication and real investment in reskilling,' said Spataro. 'The companies that invest now won't just keep up — they'll shape what comes next.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Microsoft thinks AI colleagues are coming soon
Artificial intelligence has rapidly started finding its place in the workplace, but this year will be remembered as the moment when companies pushed past simply experimenting with AI and started building around it, Microsoft said in a blog post accompanying its annual Work Trend Index report. The Sun Belt housing market is so weak the largest U.S. homebuilder pulls back Rite Aid bankruptcy update: report says pharmacy chain may be facing insolvency as more locations close Bot farms invade social media to hijack popular sentiment As part of this shift, Microsoft is dubbing 2025 the year of the 'Frontier Firm.' 'Like the digital native companies of a generation ago, they understand the power of pairing irreplaceable human insight with AI and agents to unlock outsized value,' Jared Spataro, CMO of AI at Work at Microsoft, said in the post. These so-called Frontier Firms will be built around 'on-demand intelligence and powered by 'hybrid' teams of humans + agents, these companies scale rapidly, operate with agility, and generate value faster,' according to the report. Microsoft argued that within the next two to five years, every company will be on the journey to becoming one. Microsoft said that 82% of leaders responded that this is a 'pivotal' year to rethink key strategy and operations, while 81% said they expect agents to be 'moderately or extensively' integrated into their AI strategies in the next 12 to 18 months. The results are a culmination of survey data from 31,000 workers across 31 countries, LinkedIn hiring and labor market trends, trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, and conversations with experts, and AI-native startups. Microsoft expects the transition to the Frontier Firm to play out in three phases. The first, it said, is that AI will act as an assistant to streamline work tasks. Second is the addition of AI agents as 'digital colleagues,' which can take on specific tasks. The third step calls for a lot more freedom: it's when humans set direction for agents that run entire business processes and workflows, with the human checking in as needed. It gives the example of a supply chain role. Agents can handle end-to-end logistics, while humans can guide the agents, resolve exceptions, and manage supplier relationships. AI agents are still in the early days, but companies are placing big bets that agentic AI represents the next major frontier and are rapidly innovating. OpenAI recently released 'Operator,' a tool that automates web-based tasks, along with Deep Research, which it says can gather information from across the web and summarize it into digestible reports. Amazon launched a model designed to take over a user's web browser and perform simple tasks. Anthropic, the creator of Claude, and Google have also introduced AI agents. 'This shift is multifaceted—every industry and role will evolve differently as the technology diffuses across business and society,' the report said. 'Just as the internet era created billions of new knowledge jobs—from social media managers to UX designers—the AI era is already giving rise to new roles, with many more to come.' This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter: Sign in to access your portfolio
