Chief Scientist at Microsoft Israel R&D: "AI brings the biggest jump in productivity in 30 years"

"We are in a period of fundamental change and need to manage it," said Dr. Tomer Simon, Chief Scientist at Microsoft Israel R&D center, at Calcalist's Tech TLV conference held in collaboration with Bank Leumi and PAPAYA.

Simon lectured on how AI will impact the world of work, stating that "2023 was the first year in which we saw a big jump in productivity due to AI, with a 29% increase in the efficiency and speed of work. These figures raise questions about what it will do to us as organizations. Artificial intelligence is the most significant technology of this period—and we are only at the beginning of the road of 2024."

Tomer Simon.

Simon presented a graph that showed a minor increase in employee efficiency every year in recent years. He noted, "After an abnormal increase and a peak in the Corona years, we saw in 2022 a decrease in productivity, meaning people work more but are less efficient. This was followed by the big jump of 2023 and the continued change seen in 2024."

In the world of work, Simon observed, "Employees are exhausted, overloaded, including digital overload, which is increasing with more and more meetings." Against this background, Microsoft, examining various technological effects on the labor market, presented in its latest report how AI is changing the labor market. Simon stated, "that 77% of employees say it is impossible to go back. Every task we do with the help of artificial intelligence can help take our work forward, and employees say they are more focused. That's why we want every employee to have their own 'co-pilot,' because the impact of this is very significant."

During his lecture, Simon reviewed the AI technologies for the job market that Microsoft released, called Copilot. "Three significant announcements in the field came out this year from our development center in Herzliya," Simon said. "For example, Copilot for Microsoft 365 allows integration in natural language between many tasks. It summarizes things for me and makes everything accessible to me efficiently."

The company presents solutions for the labor market in the post-corona era, where work has become more hybrid and moved to homes for Teams calls. "The Teams Copilot, for example, allows me even when I'm late for a meeting, and it's recorded, to ask what I missed and what happened. I get a summary of the meeting, actions to be taken, information about when I was mentioned, and my projects. This allows me to concentrate on the meeting and not on technology and bureaucracy."

Simon introduced additional Copilot tools, in the world of security and programming, for example. "Programmers report a 55% increase in productivity, changing development organizations from end to end." According to him, "also the Copilot for salespeople allows them to be with customers, not just document, and provides faster access to information in natural language."

In conclusion, Simon said, "2023 was a transitional year in which we were exposed to many technologies in the field, and in 2024, it will continue to develop. We will be able to work and be more focused and more satisfied."