Microsoft Unveils 2025 Work Trend Index: AI and Human Collaboration in Indonesia

As Indonesia enters a pivotal year for digital transformation, Microsoft has released new, Indonesia-specific findings from the 2025 Work Trend Index. The report highlights how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the rules of business and the way people work. Notably, 97% of business leaders in Indonesia say 2025 is the year to rethink core facets of strategies and operations, outpacing global trends.

This shift marks more than a technology trend – it reflects a fundamental change in how work gets done. Unlocking the potential of the new AI economy and seizing the momentum means going beyond technology adoption and embracing a new mindset: combining human leadership with intelligence on tap – readily accessible insights and capabilities powered by AI. Organizations across industries are navigating a rapid move toward human-AI collaboration, where digital agents work alongside people, enabling a new type of organization structured around intelligent workflows, agent-led teams, and a new leadership role – the agent boss. These are the hallmarks of what the study calls the Frontier Firm.

Dharma Simorangkir, President Director of Microsoft Indonesia, noted, “The Frontier Firm is more than a new business model but a leapfrog opportunity for Indonesia. In an era where AI is reshaping every aspect of work, this moment allows us to bypass traditional limitations and drive breakthrough gains in productivity and innovation. With the right mindset and investments, Indonesian organizations can harness human-AI collaboration to unlock entirely new ways of working. One that is faster, smarter, and more impactfully. This is how we shape globally competitive businesses that reflect our local ingenuity and ambition.”

Drawing on insights from 31,000 workers across 31 countries, LinkedIn hiring trends, and trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, the report titled “2025: The Year the Frontier Firm is Born” reveals how organizations are evolving from traditional hierarchies into fluid, intelligence-driven ecosystems. These hybrid teams—humans working alongside AI agents—are enabling companies to move faster, make better decisions, and unlock new value across all levels of work.

The path to becoming a Frontier Firm unfolds in three key phases. First, AI serves as an assistant, eliminating repetitive tasks and boosting efficiency. Next, agents take on defined roles as digital colleagues, supporting tasks like research or project planning. In the final phase, AI agents begin to autonomously run entire workflows, with humans steering strategy and stepping in to resolve exceptions.

This evolution is not just theoretical; it’s emerging as a powerful economic driver, enabling businesses to leapfrog legacy systems and compete more effectively on the global stage. By adopting the Frontier Firm model, Indonesian companies have a unique opportunity to improve productivity, accelerate innovation in sectors like financial services, public services, as well as small and medium businesses, thereby fueling inclusive growth that supports Golden Indonesia 2045 Vision.

The study also highlights three key takeaways for leaders and professionals in Indonesia as AI begins to reshape the way we work and impact the job market in the coming year:

Investing in Intelligence on Tap to Fill the Capacity Gap

Around 63% of leaders in Indonesia say productivity must increase but 88% of the workforce—both employees and leaders—say they’re lacking enough time or energy to do their work. To address this, 95% of business leaders in Indonesia say they’re confident to use AI agents as supporting digital team members to extend work capacity within the next one or two years. Over half (52%) rank expanding team capacity with digital labor as a top priority, followed by capacity enhancement through upskilling. Employees at Frontier Firms in Indonesia are more than twice as likely to say their company is thriving—reflecting a stronger sentiment than global and Asia-Pacific averages. Nearly three times as many report feeling optimistic about managing higher workloads and getting the chance to focus on more meaningful tasks.

Human-AI Agent Teams Will Reshape Organizational Structures

In Indonesia, 59% of leaders say their company is already using AI agents to automate workflows—slightly higher than the Asia-Pacific average of 53%. Indonesian employees are also increasingly turning to AI because of its availability and utility. Nearly half (48%) say they prefer using AI over a colleague because it’s available 24/7. Others cite speed (28%) and creative thinking/ideas (38%) as key advantages. Interestingly, 66% of workers view AI as a brainstorming partner, while 33% of them see it more as a command-based tool.

Now, Every Employee Can Instruct and Manage Their Own AI Agents

In the next five years, leaders in Indonesia expect their teams to take on new tasks, such as redesigning processes with AI (48%), building multi-agent systems (63%), and training (60%) and managing AI agents (58%). As AI redefines team responsibilities, 65% of managers expect AI training and upskilling to become a key responsibility for their teams. However, a noticeable gap remains: while 87% of leaders are familiar with AI agents, only 56% of employees share the same level of understanding. Bridging this gap is essential to ensuring inclusive AI adoption and long-term workforce resilience.

As 2025 will be remembered as the year the Frontier Firm was born, companies are poised for a digital transformation where AI agents become essential team members. To successfully integrate AI into the workforce, organizations must begin their AI-adoption journey by hiring digital employees, defining roles that can be automated, and treating AI as a crucial part of the team.

Yet adoption alone is not enough. Organizations must also determine the right balance between humans and AI (the human-agent ratio) to ensure that AI complements human creativity and judgment. Additional investments in AI literacy and continuous upskilling for employees will be key to enabling them to manage and collaborate effectively with AI.

Dharma added, “While the promise of AI is transforming the way we work, its true impact will only be realized when every employee is empowered to lead alongside it. In Indonesia, the gap in AI familiarity between leaders (87%) and employees (56%) is not just a statistic—it’s a call to action. This is our opportunity to invest in people, nurture new skills, and create a culture where everyone is equipped to become an agent boss. By closing this gap, we’re not only embracing technology—we are unlocking the full potential of our workforce, shaping a future of work that is more inclusive and innovative.”

Enabling the Era of Human-Agent Collaboration with Microsoft 365

Alongside the 2025 Work Trend Index, Microsoft also announced the Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 spring release, introducing new features designed to support the next era of human–AI collaboration, including:

• AI-powered Search** to help users quickly find relevant information at the workplace.
• Create** experience for business that unlock design and content creation skills for everyone, bringing ideas to life.
• Copilot Notebooks** for transforming data into actionable insights.
• Agent Store** to access and deploy AI agents tailored to specific tasks within the workflow.

Ricky Haryadi, Sr. Go To Market Lead – AI at Work (ASEAN) Microsoft, stated, “The latest updates from the Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 spring release mark a significant leap in how we work with AI, unlocking a new path of working. Features like Copilot Search, Agent Store, new Create and Notebook capabilities, general availability of frontier agents such as Researcher and Analyst show we are entering a future where humans and AI don’t merely coexist, but collaborate. This aligns with our goal to empower every individual and organization in Indonesia to work smarter, faster, and more creatively, a Copilot for every employee, an agent for every business process—while building the skills to thrive in the era of human–agent teamwork.”

For further reading, visit [Microsoft’s Official Blog](https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/04/23/the-2025-annual-work-trend-index-the-frontier-firm-is-born/), [Work Trend Index 2025 Report](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/2025-the-year-the-frontier-firm-is-born), and [Microsoft 365 news](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2025/04/23/microsoft-365-copilot-built-for-the-era-of-human-agent-collaboration/) announcement to learn more about the new era of human-agent collaboration.