'2025 Work Trend Index' Press Briefing
"Opportunities to Learn and Gain Experience with AI Technologies Are Essential"
Dividing Tasks Between Humans and AI... Creating Agents Is a Must
Global IT company Microsoft (MS) has predicted the arrival of the "Agent Boss" era, in which every worker will create, delegate tasks to, and manage their own artificial intelligence (AI) agents.
Additionally, nearly half (45%) of major business leaders worldwide have identified expanding team capabilities through digital labor, such as AI, within the next 18 months as their top priority.
Oseongmi, Head of Modern Work Business at Microsoft Korea, is presenting the key contents of the report at the "2025 Work Trend Index" press briefing on the 28th. Photo by Microsoft Korea
AI Becomes a Team Member... Utilization Skills Are Key
On April 28, Microsoft Korea held a press briefing at its Jongno headquarters in Seoul to announce its annual "2025 Work Trend Index" report, sharing insights that business leaders and employees should pay attention to in the age of AI.
The findings are based on a survey of 31,000 workers in 31 countries, including Korea, focusing on the changes AI has brought to the global work environment and labor market.
Oseongmi, Head of Modern Work Business at Microsoft Korea, projected, "Organizations and industries that invest in AI capabilities will become future leaders." She emphasized, "Employees need opportunities to learn AI technologies and gain practical experience," and advised, "Companies should actively provide training and tools for this purpose."
Forty-five percent of global leaders (44% in Korea) cited expanding team capabilities through digital labor as their top priority for the next 12 to 18 months. Especially amid rising economic uncertainty and declining job security, the ability to utilize AI is expected to become even more important.
Furthermore, AI agents are emerging not only as handlers of repetitive tasks but also as assistants and partners to employees. Oseongmi stated, "AI agents will become active members of teams performing tasks," and predicted, "When people provide direction, AI agents will be able to deliver the results."
Frontier Companies That Excel at AI Grow Faster
This year's report introduced the concept of "frontier companies" for the first time, referring to companies that lead their industries with AI. Frontier companies redesign their organizational strategies based on AI, enable humans and AI agents to work together as teams, and achieve rapid growth.
At frontier companies, even new hires can become AI managers from their first day, and are expected to take on complex and strategic tasks early in their careers, according to MS.
Among the 31,000 respondents, 71% of the 844 employees working at frontier companies said their companies are growing rapidly?about twice the global average of 37%.
For example, German pharmaceutical company Bayer reported saving six hours per week in the product development stage by utilizing AI agents, and is currently pursuing product development for agricultural innovation. Dow Chemical has improved logistics accuracy with AI, resulting in cost savings of several billion won.
Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft AI, said, "AI is transforming not only organizational management strategies but also our concept of knowledge work," and added, "2025 will be the year frontier companies are born, and in the coming years, the boundaries of employee roles will be redefined in most industries and organizations through AI."
Every Worker Will Create and Manage AI Agents
With the full-scale adoption of AI agents, MS expects the "Agent Boss" era to arrive. The Agent Boss concept means that every worker will create and manage AI agents and adopt a CEO-like mindset, as seen in AI agent-based startups. Oseongmi commented, "Beyond simply increasing productivity with AI agents, the very structure of organizations will change."
Currently, company leaders are more prepared for the Agent Boss mindset than employees. While 67% of leaders (70% in Korea) said they are familiar with AI agents, only 40% of employees (32% in Korea) said the same. In addition, 51% of managers (39% in Korea) expect that within the next five years, training employees in AI and enhancing their capabilities will become part of their job responsibilities.
It was also noted that, in this process, a new profession could emerge: the "ROI (Return on Investment) Analyst," who evaluates whether AI agents are delivering results and assesses productivity and efficiency.
MS emphasized that now is the decisive moment for companies to take action to respond flexibly in the AI era. To this end, the company suggested: ▲ hiring AI agents as digital employees and clearly defining their roles; ▲ establishing a collaborative structure by setting efficient work ratios between humans and AI agents; and ▲ viewing AI adoption as an organizational innovation task and promoting it company-wide.
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