With the introduction of AI agents to the workplace, we are beginning to blend machine intelligence with human judgment1, and AI agent teammates are starting to enhance collaboration2. AI at work is no longer just about using generative tools for daily tasks, it’s driving a complete rethink of workflows and talent strategies. This summer, the Microsoft People Science team set out to better understand how organizations and employees are adapting to these changes, exploring the dynamics and challenges of integrating AI agents into human teams.
Our latest research, “The 2025 Agentic Teaming & Trust Research Report,” delves into how agentic AI is reshaping how organizations and teams work together. Overall, we found that employees are eager to embrace AI agents, seeing them not just as tools, but as collaborators that can unlock new levels of efficiency and creativity. But most companies are just getting started, and our research shows that building trust and strong role models for AI use is key to success.
Here is a sneak peek at what is to come from this report:
Chapter 1: Ready for agents
Employees are excited about agents – 73% see the value of integrating agentic AI at work. And 90% of employees have a strong preference for different agent capabilities: 34% want a versatile agent, 41% want a domain expert agent, and 38% want an automated process agent.
However, only 1 in 6 leaders report that their organization has fully established transformation strategies, the majority are still in planning or early implementation stages. Leaders are taking a systematic approach to organizational readiness. Across eight readiness activities, 81% of leaders reported they were in the same “stage” for half or more of the activities, such as evaluating which workflows can be automated, augmented, or redesigned with agentic AI. This suggests agentic AI transformation may look more stage-based, rather than activity-based.
Chapter 2: The multiplier effect
AI adoption is higher in companies that adopt people centric practices, such as recognizing employees for adopting AI. Employees who see their leaders role model effective AI use report up to 17-percentage points more agentic AI value than employees who don’t.
Still, 1 in 2 employees report facing moderate to extreme difficulty in navigating daily work activities related to their employee experience, struggling to navigate basic activities, such finding information, setting goals, sharing feedback, and collaborating. Things that should be simple are feeling more challenging and complex. With rising productivity pressures, agentic AI offers a chance to reduce friction and reimagine how employees use their time and define productivity.
Chapter 3: Trust 360
AI trust is growing as 2 in 3 employees reported trusting AI agents. However, 60% of employees reported feeling confident enough in the output from AI that they don’t need to check its accuracy and 1 in 3 employees have experimented with AI tools from outside their company in the past 6 months. This combination of blind trust and shadow AI can create complicated situations where human judgement is more important than ever but challenging to enforce. It becomes critical to prioritize training on AI security and critical thinking when it comes to adopting AI agents.
Enduring trust can grow when leaders role model AI, with up to 30-percentage point differences in trust and critical thinking between employees who have leadership role modeling and those who do not. It also requires trustworthy systems that are reliable, clear, and accountable, indicated by employees as top system drivers of trust.
Chapter 4: Beyond tools
AI agents are seen as team catalysts: 71% of employees report agents will help them better achieve team goals. But only 16% of leaders report having established a talent strategy that upskills employees to be agent bosses.
Agent readiness requires a mindset shift – viewing agents as teammates over tools. High “agent ready” teams that have aligned on what activities, skills, and outcomes they want to achieve with AI agents reported that agentic AI improved knowledge sharing, goal alignment, and problem-solving on their teams – leading to better efficiency and output quality. We found that about 45% of the impact that teams get from using agentic AI can be traced back to how ready the team is to work with AI agents and how well they collaborate once they are introduced. To prepare, help teams identify which tasks are best suited for agents versus humans, align on desired outcomes, and upskill employees to work effectively with agents. Create a safe environment for experimentation with new team structures and processes.
Together, these findings illustrate how agentic AI is already reshaping the employee experience by streamlining daily tasks, fostering new forms of collaboration, and driving measurable improvements in team performance. We’re starting to see employees’ mindsets shift toward managing agents and organizations start to strategize on re-engineering job roles and responsibilities for a world where Frontier Firms aren’t just adopting AI, they are redefining what it means to lead, compete, and thrive in the age of digital labor. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of rich insights we’ll share in “The 2025 Agentic Teaming & Trust Research Report,” so keep a lookout for the chapters to be released soon on the Microsoft Viva Community Blog.
The Agentic Teaming & Trust Study was conducted by the Microsoft People Science team utilizing an Online Panel Vendor, commissioned by Microsoft, with 1,800 full-time employees across nine markets between June 11, 2025 and July 7, 2025. This survey was 12 minutes in length and conducted online. Global results have been aggregated across all responses to provide a total or average. Each sample was representative of business leaders across regions, ages, and industries (i.e., Construction, Financial & Professional Services, Retail, Food, & Beverage, Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, Technology, Transportation, Travel, & Hospitality). Each sample included specific parameters on company size (i.e., organizations with 1,000+ employees) and job level (i.e., business leaders/business decision makers, those in mid- to upper job levels such as C-level executive, VP or director, Manager). The overall sampling error rate is 2.31 percent at the 95 percent level of confidence. Markets surveyed include Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom, and the United States. Findings represent aggregated responses and may not reflect all organizations or industries.
References
1Microsoft Work Trend Index Annual Report. 2025: The Year the Frontier Firm is Born. April 23, 2025.
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