AI power users are pulling away from everyone else, Microsoft says

The company’s 2026 Work Trend Index shows ‘frontier professionals’ creating higher-value work and deciding when to rely on AI.

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Artificial intelligence is helping knowledge workers do things that weren’t previously possible, according to a new report from Microsoft.

In the company’s 2026 Work Trend Index report, which includes results from a survey of 20,000 knowledge workers who use AI at work, 66% of the AI users surveyed say that AI allows them to spend more time on high-value work, and 58% reveal that they’re producing work they couldn’t have produced just one year ago. That number rises to 80% among a category........

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