Research Drop: Diving into AI Transformation Profiles to Understand Unique Needs Across Employee Personas

Research Drop in Brief:

• We discovered five AI transformation profiles: Multipliers, Advocates, Persuadables, AI Skeptics, and Change Pessimists. These AI transformation profiles highlight key differences in how employees approach AI at work, shaped by their engagement levels, experiences with change, and attitudes.
• AI transformation needs and expectations are not one-size-fits all; this is illustrated by statistically significant differences in AI usage frequency and perceived value of AI between profiles.
• We provide a recommendation on how to craft a nuanced AI transformation strategy that is inclusive of all employee profiles’ needs, bolstering the likelihood of success in your own AI transformation.

As AI technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, we are witnessing a profound transformation in the workforce that aims to enable people to be more efficient, productive, and creative than ever. To better understand this experience from the employee perspective, the Microsoft Viva People Science team published The 2024 State of AI Change Readiness eBook, which outlines findings from our recent external panel study on AI Transformation and provides practical guidance for leaders and HR on how to best support people through this change. 

Involved in our analysis this external panel data for this eBook was a closer look at the employee profiles you may uncover during an AI transformation, deepening our ability to understand and empower employees to adopt AI by meeting them where they are on their AI journey. To do this, we conducted a latent profile analysis (LPA) of our data, which groups respondents by similar response patterns to items on the survey, allowing us to identify profiles. The advantage of LPAs is that they allow you to use data to discover invisible clusters of respondents who share similar beliefs or feelings, removing the potential for assumptions or biases to influence groupings. 

Specifically, we examined respondents’:

• Engagement: Their current employee engagement levels
• Change Experience*: Individual-level experiences with past change initiatives at their organization
• AI Sentiment: How optimistic and ready they are for AI at work

*Assessed at three dimensions: vision (i.e., feeling ownership and clarity over the change vision), communication (i.e., seeking and sharing information on the change), and competence (i.e., proactively upskilling and advocating for the change).

Our findings: The five employee AI transformation profiles

Within our data sample, we found five AI transformation profiles: Multipliers, Advocates, Persuadables, AI Skeptics, and Change Pessimists. 

 
At a high-level, the distribution of these profiles is encouraging – more than 70% of the employees in our study fell into the Multiplier or Advocate profiles! These employees are engaged, have had positive change experiences, and are excited and ready for AI at work. 

Every organization and employee base will be different based on their unique culture and experiences, but discovering these five profiles in our dataset helped to ground us in an understanding that employees will be at all ends of the spectrum in their personal change and AI journey. Acknowledging the differences helps us to not only describe the potential AI user base, but also hypothesize what key needs exist for each profile to support them through this workforce transformation. 

These profiles are specific to the study sample and were generated based on the sentiment data available within that study. Therefore, it's important to consider what additional aspects of the employee experience would be relevant when thinking about the profiles that might exist in your organization. 

Consider your organization and AI transformation:

• What other considerations (e.g., leadership support of AI, culture of innovation, job security concerns) will you include when thinking about different experiences that employees may have within your organization? 
• How are you considering multiple profiles in your change initiatives?
• When thinking about employee profiles in your organization, what unique experiences do they bring to the table? 
• What change barriers might exist in your organization and what do you have in place that may help employees overcome those barriers? How might those change enabler efforts differ across your employee profiles?

Adoption looks different across AI transformation profiles

Looking at employee adoption behaviors across your organization can provide early indicators of how successful various change initiatives are and for whom. At the beginning of your transformation when you are still iterating and refining your long-term vision and goals, it can be helpful to examine usage metrics to see how often the AI tools are being used. 

In our study we asked respondents how often they use AI at work and sorted responses into four groups:

• High frequency (at least once a day)
• Moderate frequency (at least once a week)
• Low frequency (a few times a month or less)
• Never 

From this we found a large and meaningful relationship between AI transformation profiles and AI usage frequency. 

We can see that employees who are the most likely to engage with AI tools are the Multipliers – highly engaged employees who have had positive previous change experiences and have positive AI sentiments. Usage frequency follows a consistent downward pattern for the profiles, with the highest usage group for Advocates being Moderate Frequency, the highest usage group for Persuadables being Low Frequency, and the highest usage group for AI Skeptics and Change Pessimists being Never. 

What we learned from this was that change initiatives will not necessarily have the same impact on all employees. Seeing how each profile leverages AI to a different extent provides a key insight into how we can better target those groups. For example, reaching those AI Skeptics and Change Pessimists who never use AI might look different. For AI Skeptics, they are likely unsure about the technology in general, whereas Change Pessimists may not be using AI because they are overwhelmed by the associated business and workplace changes. Uncovering these profiles and knowing how they are adopting AI can better inform your AI transformation strategy. 

Certain profiles realize differentiated value from AI

Further, it’s not just usage that will help you evaluate your change initiatives – how employees feel about using AI at work also provides a deeper level of context that helps change leaders provide a holistic transformation experience. 

In our study we explored a set out outcomes we call RIVA, or Realized Individual Value of AI. RIVA captures a myriad of ways that employees might see a direct impact of AI use on their day-to-day. Looking at RIVA enables us to see not just that people are using AI at work, but also that they actively recognize positive results from using AI. When comparing AI transformation profiles for RIVA scores overall (only for respondents who use AI at least at a low frequency), we found meaningful differences in RIVA between AI transformation profiles. In other words, how much value people were seeing from their AI use differed across the AI transformation profiles. The graph below outlines the six survey items that make up RIVA and presents percent favorable (Agree + Strongly Agree) scores for each profile.

  
Our Multiplier and Advocate groups reported the highest RIVA of all the profiles, followed by the Persuadables. Only a small subset of AI Skeptics (25%) and Change Pessimists (43%) use AI and were therefore included in this analysis. Interestingly, of these employees, Change Pessimists reported higher RIVA than AI Skeptics, likely because AI Skeptics have the most negative sentiments toward AI. 

Even with the small number of AI Skeptics and Change Pessimists who do use AI, it’s interesting to see where they are more likely to see value in AI. Around half of AI Skeptics, Change Pessimists, and Persuadables agree that AI allows them to complete tasks faster – an often described “quick win scenario” of leveraging AI. However, when the value becomes less tangible, such as reducing stress or improving decision-making, then we start to see a drop off in favorability. This suggests that change leaders may need to provide additional support and use cases to translate the more “transformational” benefits of AI usage to all employee profiles.  This can be done by sharing tactics for leveraging AI that aligns with key business needs specific to the users’ role. Consider the examples in the Microsoft Copilot Scenario Library which provides a variety of AI use-cases across functional areas.

We also see nuances in what value AI Skeptics and Change Pessimists see in AI at work. Where AI Skeptics more often report that AI simplifies their complex tasks, Change Pessimists more often report that AI helps them be more productive and make better decisions. This distinction is important because it shows that even though both profiles are hesitant about AI, their reasons for hesitation and the value they see in AI are not the same.

Putting all of this into context, it becomes clear that our AI transformation initiatives should be mindful that while AI adoption might feel like flipping a switch for some employees, with certain profiles jumping right into AI transformation, for other groups, it will be more gradual. Better understanding the profiles of those groups can indicate where additional, nuanced support may be required.

Change the context, not the person

Where an employee may currently fall in a particular AI transformation profile is not static – meaning that as an employee’s environment and experiences change, so will their sentiments around engagement, change, and AI, causing shifts between profiles. Therefore, if you want to increase the likelihood that employees will use AI and see value, AI transformations must embody the basics of change best practices and address the unique needs for employees across the profiles. Each of the AI transformation profiles brings a unique set of strengths and needs to your organization’s AI transformation and change initiatives – supporting the need for targeted approaches that meet employees where they are.

While these actions will look different for the employee profiles in your organization, the critical takeaway is that all types of profiles can be an asset to your AI transformation. For example, your Multipliers may have higher Daily Active Usage, but your Change Pessimists may help you create a training program that works for all skill and interest levels. 

Our takeaway from this AI transformation profile deep dive is further underscoring that everyone has different feelings and perspectives that shape their AI adoption journey and how immediately they will be ready to for your company’s AI transformation. Organizations who succeed in bringing their employees along, through clear communication and ongoing employee feedback, are likely to craft a change strategy that meets their people where they are without judgement. We learned that it’s not solely interest in AI that drives adoption, but also current engagement and previous experience with organizational change. Focusing on critical EX moments and relying on strong change management fundamentals remain critical during this transformation to ensure that no employee groups get left behind. 

As we continue to navigate the developing landscape of AI, we will continue to learn what our employees need to feel empowered as their skills expand, their tasks evolve, and their work transforms. By seeking to understand the unique employee profiles in your organization, you can better tailor your support to meet their specific needs, fostering a more inclusive and effective AI transformation.

Stay tuned for our December Research Drop to keep up with what the Viva People Science team is learning!