Each year, the Microsoft Work Trend Index brings together one of the most comprehensive views of how work is changing. The 2025 report draws on survey data from 31,000 people across 31 countries, LinkedIn labor market insights, and trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, combined with interviews with business leaders, economists, and AI experts. Its findings shape how organizations think about talent, technology, and operations, and illuminate the central role of Windows 11 and modern endpoints in enabling this shift.
This year’s report makes it clear that when it comes to AI, many companies are moving from experimentation to broader adoption. Results show that 82 percent of leaders expect AI agents to expand workforce capacity within the next 18 months, and organizations are already redesigning workflows to take advantage of them. Much of this innovation will be powered by the cloud, but the PC has a critical role in ensuring those AI experiences are fast, seamless, and secure. AI-native devices, such as Surface Copilot+ PCs, extend the value of cloud platforms by providing local AI processing, various connectivity options, and enterprise-grade security at the point of work.
Why AI-enabled endpoints matter to Frontier Firms
The Index describes the Frontier Firm as blending machine intelligence with human judgment to operate with agility, scale rapidly, and generate value faster. These organizations are moving beyond adding AI to existing processes and are rethinking workflows from the ground up. That shift creates new demands on endpoints. Devices are now where cloud intelligence, local processing, and user context converge, enabling the hybrid AI experiences the Index points to as the future of work.
Three aspects of AI adoption where the endpoint really matters
Responsiveness: The Index notes that employees are interrupted an average of 275 times a day, and that context switching undermines productivity. If an AI workflow slows due to latency or poor connectivity, or if interacting with AI feels unnatural, adoption suffers. Hybrid AI execution—running models locally, in the cloud, or in combination—helps avoid these pitfalls. Local inference allows AI to operate smoothly even in low-connectivity and offline environments and enables sensitive data to be processed without leaving the device. Developers can also take advantage of tools like Windows AI Foundry to build and optimize on-device AI experiences tailored for Surface Copilot+ PCs.
Options such as high-quality 5G connectivity, available on devices like Surface Laptop 5G for Business, increase the ability of employees to rely on cloud-based tools. The cloud provides scale, access to shared context, and continuous model improvement. Together, cloud and on-device AI create a single, seamless experience that can keep pace with the fragmented reality of modern work.
Ease of interaction: The Index emphasizes that employees want AI to fit into the rhythm of their work, not disrupt it. Device design directly influences that fit. High-quality microphones and cameras improve multimodal interactions like voice input and transcription.
Adaptive displays make visual AI tools easier to use across environments, with finely tuned color calibration and high-contrast technology that keep information accurate and legible in any setting. High-resolution PixelSense™ displays enable visual fidelity for design, data, and multimedia work, while features like adaptive color and contrast automatically adjust to ambient light.
Combined with input methods such as touch and pen, these design choices reduce friction when working with spatial or visual information. These capabilities, built into Surface Copilot+ PCs, support the type of thought-partner relationship with AI that the Index identifies as key to getting the highest-quality results.
Trust: As AI agents take on system-level tasks and handle sensitive business data, the endpoint becomes an integral part of the organization’s security perimeter. The Index projects that AI will increasingly run core processes, from customer service to product development, which raises the stakes for device-level protections.
Hardware-based identity protection, safeguards against firmware-level attacks, and continuous monitoring help enforce a Zero Trust approach. Surface Copilot+ PCs meet Secured-core PC standards, with protection that reaches down to the firmware layer, and run Windows 11. Windows Hello ensures that only an authorized user can access the device, while memory-safe drivers built with Rust improve resilience at the software level.
This security foundation extends to management. IT teams can use the Surface Management Portal—now with integrated access to Microsoft Security Copilot—for unified visibility into their device fleet. With natural language prompts, admins can act on live insights, resolve issues faster, and strengthen endpoint protection within the same trusted environment they already use. Together, these measures maintain the informed trust the Index identifies as the foundation of effective human–agent collaboration.
Now is the moment to leap ahead
The Index’s Frontier Firms are already benefiting from this approach. They are deploying AI organization-wide, using agents across functions, and seeing measurable gains in capacity and innovation. Planning now for AI-native endpoints—devices that support hybrid AI workloads, enable intuitive interaction, and are designed for modern security needs—positions organizations to perform at that level.
Surface Copilot+ PCs combine local AI acceleration, modern connectivity, and enterprise-grade security, helping deliver AI capabilities in a way that is responsive, reliable, and trusted across the workforce.
In today’s AI-enabled workplace, the PC’s role is expanding. It is not only a tool for accessing cloud services, but also an active participant in delivering them—processing workloads locally, securing sensitive interactions, and shaping how employees experience AI in the moment. Aligning endpoint strategy with AI strategy is one potential way to capture the opportunities the Work Trend Index describes. Learn more at Surface.com/business
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