AI at Work · Source published 23 April 2025
Research signal
Microsoft’s April 2025 Work Trend Index introduced its ‘Frontier Firm’ framing for organisations combining people and AI agents.
Source: Microsoft — 2025 Work Trend Index · 23 April 2025.
Event Systematic perspective
The practical issue is how work is assigned, checked and completed. A team does not become effective simply by adding an agent to its communication channel. The manager must define the outcome, information access, human decision points and the evidence required before work is accepted.
Consider a supplier-research process. An agent might collect approved public information and organise it into a comparison. A person still needs to assess relevance, investigate inconsistencies and make the commercial judgement. Write that handoff explicitly, then test it with ordinary and awkward cases. The operating model should make responsibility easier to understand.
Put it into practice
- Draw the workflow from request to accepted output and mark every decision owner.
- Define a small set of measurable outcomes, including correction effort and response quality.
- Train managers to inspect exceptions and improve the process instead of merely increasing automated activity.
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