Microsoft New Future of Work Report 2023
- Jenna Butler ,
- Sonia Jaffe ,
- Nancy Baym ,
- Mary Czerwinski ,
- Shamsi Iqbal ,
- Kate Nowak ,
- Sean Rintel ,
- Abigail Sellen ,
- Mihaela Vorvoreanu ,
- Najeeb G. Abdulhamid ,
- Judith Amores ,
- Reid Andersen ,
- Kagonya Awori ,
- Maxamed Axmed ,
- danah boyd ,
- James Brand ,
- Georg Buscher ,
- Dean Carignan ,
- Martin Chan ,
- Adam Coleman ,
- Scott Counts ,
- Madeleine Daepp ,
- Adam Fourney ,
- Daniel G. Goldstein ,
- Andy Gordon ,
- Aaron L Halfaker ,
- Javier Hernandez ,
- Jake Hofman ,
- Jenny Lay-Flurrie ,
- Vera Liao ,
- Siân Lindley ,
- Sathish Manivannan ,
- Charlton Mcilwain ,
- Subigya Nepal ,
- Jennifer Neville ,
- Stephanie Nyairo ,
- Jacki O'Neill ,
- Victor Poznanski ,
- Gonzalo Ramos ,
- Nagu Rangan ,
- Lacey Rosedale ,
- David Rothschild ,
- Tara Safavi ,
- Advait Sarkar ,
- Ava Scott ,
- Chirag Shah ,
- Neha Parikh Shah ,
- Teny Shapiro ,
- Ryland Shaw ,
- Auste Simkute ,
- Jina Suh ,
- Siddharth Suri ,
- Ioana Tanase ,
- Lev Tankelevitch ,
- Adam Troy ,
- Mengting Wan ,
- Ryen W. White ,
- Longqi Yang ,
- Brent Hecht ,
- Jaime Teevan
MSR-TR-2023-34 |
Published by Microsoft
In the past three years, there have been not one but two generational shifts in how work gets done, both of which were only possible because of decades of research and development. The first shift occurred when COVID made us realize how powerful remote and hybrid work technologies had become, as well as how much science was available to guide us in how to (and how not to) use these technologies. The second arrived this year, as it became clear that, at long last, generative AI had advanced to the point where it could be valuable to huge swaths of the work people do every day.
We began the New Future of Work Report series in 2021, at the height of the shift to remote work. The goal of that report was to provide a synthesis of new – and newly relevant – research to anyone interested in reimagining work for the better as a decades-old approach to work was challenged. The second New Future of Work Report, published in 2022, focused on hybrid work and what research could teach us about intentionally re-introducing co-location into people’s work practices. This year’s edition, the third in the series, continues with the same goal, but centers on research related to integrating LLMs into work.
Throughout 2023, AI and the future of work have frequently been on the metaphorical – and often literal – front page around the world. There have been many excellent articles about the ways in which work may change as LLMs are increasingly integrated into our lives. As such, in this year’s report we focus specifically on areas that we think deserve additional attention or where there is research that has been done at Microsoft that offers a unique perspective. This is a report that should be read as a complement to the existing literature, rather than as a synthesis of all of it.
This is a rare time, one in which research will play a particularly important role in defining what the future of work looks like. At this special moment, scientists can’t just be passive observers of what is happening. Rather, we have the responsibility to shape work for the better. We hope this report can help our colleagues around world make progress towards this goal.