rss.livelink.threads-in-node

Research Drop: The Human Conditions Behind AI Value at Work

Megan_Benzing — Tue, 12 May 2026 15:00:00 GMT

Research Drop in Brief:

Across three surveys, the employee experience factors most predictive of AI value (assessed via Realized Individual Value of AI scale, known as RIVA) haven't behaved uniformly, and as AI embeds deeper into work, the conditions surrounding its use increasingly determine whether it delivers value.
Psychological safety and role clarity are growing as correlates of AI value, yet most employees are navigating the human-machine boundary without organizational guidance.
The engagement-RIVA relationship proved the most volatile, mapping to the emotional arc of AI adoption: early excitement, mid-period job security concerns, and a rebound grounded in agency and mastery.

Among organizations that are integrating AI, many are still grappling with how to explain why some employees are getting real value while others are not. Our research shows that the first chapter of AI transformation has been about access: deploying tools, driving adoption, and tracking usage. The next chapter is now figuring out not just whether employees are using AI but whether that use is translating into something meaningful. Perceived value, not just adoption rate, is a metric that will determine whether AI investments hold for the long-term.

We know perceived AI value is rising. In our April Research Drop, we found a consistent climb in how employees perceive the realized value of AI in their work – a metric we call RIVA (Realized Individual Value of AI). But knowing that value is increasing is just one piece of the story, we also want to better understand why it might be increasing and what organizations can do to sustain and accelerate it.

That question requires a different lens. Rather than asking who finds AI valuable, this month we asked: what conditions make AI valuable? Specifically, we examine how seven employee experience factors relate to RIVA across our three survey snapshots, and how the strength of those relationships has shifted as AI has become more embedded in everyday work.

The story is moving from outputs to inputs, and what we’re finding is that the human conditions surrounding AI use are becoming more critical than before. Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index research found that organizational climate and leadership factors contribute over twice as much to AI’s impact as individual user behavior¹. In other words, an employee’s ability to realize AI’s value hinges more on the environment their leaders create than on personal initiative alone, making these conditions essential to understand.

The EX factors behind AI value and how they’ve shifted

Humans themselves are central to AI transformation. To understand how to best evolve work processes and practices, we need to understand the human side of that transformation. Across our three panel surveys, we measured seven employee experience (EX) factors spanning three domains:

Work enablement/Culture:

Psychological Safety ("I feel free to speak my mind without fear of negative consequences")
Role Clarity ("I clearly understand what is expected of me in my role"

Productivity:

Individual Productivity ("I feel like I am productive at work")
Team Productivity ("I feel like my team is productive at work")

Engagement/Retention:

Intent to Stay ("I plan to be working at my company two years from now")
Recommend ("I would recommend my company as a great place to work")
eSat ("How happy are you working at your current company?")

We examined how each of these factors related to RIVA scores, controlling for job level and AI usage frequency. Three patterns emerge when looking across time:

Productivity items show a structurally stable relationship with RIVA across all three surveys
Work enablement/culture factors are rising in importance, as psychological safety and role clarity have grown as correlates of RIVA in the most recent snapshot
Engagement factors fluctuate, appearing to be context-sensitive rather than structurally fixed

The standardized regression coefficients above reflect the strength of each relationship. Following conventional benchmarks², values around .100 indicate a small association, .300 a moderate one, and .500 a large one. The relationships observed here range from small to moderate, meaningful in the context of real-world employee data, where large effects are rare and even modest coefficients can carry practical significance.

Productivity: A reliable, consistent correlate of AI value

The connection between AI and productivity has been central to the technology’s promise since the start³. AI is marketed as a tool to help employees perform better and faster – and as it has expanded from a personal tool to a team-level one, the expectation has grown that it will help entire teams function more effectively⁴.

It’s no surprise, then, that perceptions of both individual and team productivity have held a consistent relationship with RIVA across all three surveys. This stability is meaningful, suggesting that the productivity-value link isn’t a moment-in-time finding, but a structural feature of how employees experience AI at work, and one organizations can build on.

That said, the relationship comes with a caveat worth watching. Across our surveys, no more than 50% of employees reporting using AI daily – a reminder that AI augments productivity rather than replacing it. If the productivity-RIVA relationship becomes too strong, it may signal that employees feel their sense of contribution is becoming overly tied to AI assistance, at the expense of the creative, independent work that drives quality and innovation.

Looking ahead, an important open question is emerging: as AI agents increasingly function alongside human employees, how will the concept of “team productivity” evolve? If employees begin to mentally include agentic teammates in their perception of team performance, the construct itself may shift, and with it how we interpret this relationship.

Workplace environment: Rising in importance as AI embeds deeper

Two factors that strengthened notably as correlates of RIVA in our most recent survey were psychological safety and role clarity – both foundational to healthy, high-performing work. Their rise suggests that the conditions in which employees work are increasingly shaping whether they realize value from AI.

In our previous research, psychological safety has consistently surfaced as relevant to AI-related outcomes⁵. This makes intuitive sense: experimenting with AI, taking risks on new workflows, and pushing beyond familiar approaches all require an environment where employees feel free to try and fail. But there’s a ‘Transformation Paradox’ at play: 65% of AI users fear falling behind if they don’t adopt AI quickly, yet almost half (45%) feel it’s safer to stick with current goals rather than change how they work¹. This tension underscores why creating psychological safety is crucial, without it, employees may default to the safe road instead of the transformative one⁶.

Role clarity is facing its own inflection point. As AI agents absorb tasks once owned by employees, the boundaries of individual roles are shifting. Without a clear understanding of what to automate versus what to augment, employees face growing cognitive load – too many decisions about how to divide work between human and machine, with too little organizational guidance. This is not a niche problem as only 16% of organizations have comprehensively redesigned roles and processes to integrate AI, meaning most employees are navigating these boundaries largely on their own⁷. Our data suggests that when employees have that clarity, they’re better positioned to extract real value from AI. When they don’t, even capable tools go underutilized.

The rise of these two factors as stronger RIVA correlates reflects the broader shift in the question organizations need to ask: not just who has access to AI, but what environment are they working in when they try to use it?

Engagement: A barometer of AI value that shifts with organizational climate

The relationship between engagement and RIVA tells a different story. Unlike the consistency of productivity or the steady rise of culture factors, engagement metrics (eSat and Recommend) fluctuated substantially – dropping as correlates in July 2025 before rebounding to among the strongest in November 2025.

One hypothesis is that this pattern reflects the emotional arc of AI adoption. In the first snapshot, employees gaining AI access were energized. Excitement about new tools may have reinforced both perceived value and general engagement, the two rising together – or engaged employees may have simply been first in line, the first to seek access, raise their hand for pilots, and push their organizations toward adoption. Many articles in 2024 cited employees outpacing their organizations in AI optimism and adoption³. But by July 2025, a more complicated organizational climate had emerged, where concerns about job security and change may have decoupled the two signals. Whether someone felt good about their company became less related to whether they found value in AI, and one research article found that while AI anxiety can boost initial usage metrics/value, it eventually stalls as resistance grows⁸.

By November 2025, something shifted again – as agentic AI entered the workplace and employees began developing real agency over AI tools, a new source of engagement may have taken hold, one grounded in mastery and capability rather than just access. Almost halfway through 2026, we will need to watch for the same pattern to emerge as excitement may potentially stall.

The engagement-value relationship is not a fixed feature of AI at work. It bends with organizational context, emotional climate, and where employees are on their AI journey. And the November rebound carries a clear implication – engaged employees are positioned to get more from AI. Employees who feel connected to their work and organization are better positioned to translate AI into meaningful outcomes. When that connection is weaker, the same tools may deliver less impact, not because of the technology itself but because the conditions to fully leverage it aren’t in place for individuals.

Building the conditions for sustained AI value

The data across three surveys points to a consistent and evolving signal that AI value is not solely of function of quality or access. It is shaped by the human conditions surrounding use.

Build on the productivity-AI link deliberately. The relationship is stable and a foundation you can trust. But ensure employees retain a meaningful sense of individual contribution and creative ownership alongside AI assistance; over-reliance on AI as a productivity source is worth monitoring.
Treat psychological safety and role clarity as AI infrastructure. As AI embeds deeper into work, the quality of the environment employees operate in will increasingly determine whether AI delivers value. Cultural readiness is not a soft priority, it’s a structural one.
Track engagement as a leading indicator of AI ROI. The engagement-value relationship fluctuates with organizational context, but the pattern is clear: when employees are genuinely engaged, they extract more from AI. Organizations that treat employee experience as separate from their AI strategy are leaving measurable value unrealized.

This month’s Research Drop analyzed data from 2,331 employees across three separate panel surveys: the AI Readiness Study (n = 910, global), the Agentic Teaming & Trust Study (n = 811, global), and the AI Outcome Study (n = 610, US-only). Participants were included if they were managers or individual contributors who reported using AI at work, even if less than once a month. These samples consist of independent, point‑in‑time snapshots and do not include repeated participants; as a result, any comparisons across samples are directional only and do not imply causal effects or changes within individuals over time. Employees responded to realized AI value (RIVA) items on a 5‑point Likert scale from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree”; RIVA favorability was calculated by averaging the favorability percentages (“Agree” and “Strongly agree”) across six RIVA items. In addition to descriptive comparisons, we estimated separate cross‑sectional OLS regressions predicting RIVA from each employee experience factor (one at a time), controlling for job level and AI usage frequency. The following survey items were analyzed to conduct this research, with many as composite scales that we validated through factor analysis. All items were presented on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Psychological Safety: I feel free to speak my mind without fear of negative consequences

Role Clarity: I clearly understand what is expected of me in my role

Individual Productivity: I feel like I am productive at work

Team Productivity: I feel like my team is productive at work

Intent to Stay: I plan to be working at my company two years from now

Recommend: I would recommend my company as a great place to work

eSat: "How happy are you working at your current company?

Realized Individual Value of AI (RIVA)

AI helps reduce my overall work-related stress
AI helps me be more productive at work
AI improves the quality of my work or output
AI allows me to complete tasks faster
AI helps me make better decisions
AI simplifies my complex work tasks

Note: The referent for the RIVA items changed slightly between studies. The items said “generative AI” for the AI Readiness Study and the Agentic Teaming & Trust Study, and the items said “AI” for the AI Outcomes Study.

¹Microsoft. (May 5, 2026). Agents, human agency, and the opportunity for every organization. 2026 Work Trend Index Annual Report.

²Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

³Microsoft and LinkedIn. (May 8, 2024). AI at Work is Here. Now Comes the Hard Part. 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report.

⁴Dell'Acqua, F., Ayoubi, C., Lifshitz, H., Sadun, R., Mollick, E., Mollick, L., ... & Lakhani, K. (2025). The cybernetic teammate: A field experiment on generative AI reshaping teamwork and expertise (No. w33641). National Bureau of Economic Research.

⁵Benzing, M. (November 11, 2025). Research Drop: Empowering Managers for an AI-First Future. Microsoft Viva Blog.

⁶Seth, J. & Edmondson, A. C. (February 4, 2026). How to Foster Psychological Safety When AI Erodes Trust on Your Team. Harvard Business Review.

⁷Deloitte. (October 27, 2025). Work Design Essential to Realize AI Return on Investment.

⁸Eatough, E., Ferrazzi, K., Smith, W., & Waters, S. (February 17, 2026). Why AI Adoption Stalls, According to Industry Data. Harvard Business Review.

Posting Guidelines – Windows Insider Board (Read Before Posting)

Allen — Tue, 12 May 2026 14:52:00 GMT

Hi all,

We’ve seen an increase in off-topic posts in this board, so I want to clarify the policy here.

This space is for discussion related specifically to the Windows Insider Program — including participation, features, builds, and Insider-specific issues.

Posts that are simply asking for general computer support, and are not related to the Insider programme, will be removed as spam. The same applies to posts about other operating systems.

Please make sure your post is relevant to the Insider programme before submitting. If you are unsure, please review our Microsoft Terms of Use.

Repeated violations may result in moderation actions, including bans.

For Product questions about the released versions of windows please post here:

Windows 10 Windows 11

Esker and Source Technologies offer transactable partner solutions in Microsoft Marketplace

Nikhil_Viswanathan — Tue, 12 May 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Microsoft partners like Esker and Source Technologies deliver transact-capable offers, which allow you to purchase directly from Microsoft Marketplace. Learn about these offers below:

Esker Customer Service Suite: Esker equips B2B customer service teams with AI-driven automation that improves customer experience across inquiries, orders, and claims while reducing routine manual work. Its customer service suite helps representatives respond faster, process orders more efficiently, and manage claims more effectively, strengthening customer satisfaction and business performance.

Robotic Payments Automator: Source Technologies’ Robotic Payments Automator (RPA) helps organizations modernize vendor payments in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, transforming accounts payable from a bottleneck to a profit center. Embedded in Business Central, RPA also improves compliance and data quality through built-in vendor validation while preserving your security, workflows, and separation of duties.

How to fix this on Windows PC

Phillipforyu — Tue, 12 May 2026 12:40:47 GMT

Processor

AMD A6-3500 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 2.10 GHz

Installed memory (RAM):

6.00 GB (5.48 GB usable)

System type:

64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor

Windows 10 pro pirated

Can't find sound directory when opening patch on Windows 10

AlexanderRobinson — Tue, 12 May 2026 12:39:01 GMT

Hi, I'm a student working on a spatial audio project in Pure Data. My patch uses a relative path (../../../../../sound-directory-test/sounds/soundobjects.json) to find a folder with sound files. It works fine on the lab computer but when I open it on my laptop I get a "read failed" error even though the folder and file exist. I know the issue is that the relative path depth needs to match the folder structure, but I double checked and the number of levels should be correct for my laptop's path (Windows 10). But it still doesn't work. Can anyone help?

Suche nach Hilfe PC crasht alle 30-90 Minuten

Geraldoinms — Tue, 12 May 2026 12:36:56 GMT

Hallo zusammen, wie im Titel beschrieben crasht mein PC alle 30-90 Minuten unabhängig von der Last.

Ich habe folgende Nachricht gefunden: Der Computer wurde nach einem schwerwiegenden Fehler neu gestartet. Der Fehlercode war: 0x0000001a (0x0000000000000404, 0xfffff980e1658f08, 0x8100000766ef9867, 0xfdfff980e1658f08). Ein volles Abbild wurde gespeichert in: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\051226-18218-01.dmp. Berichts-ID: 50fc584f-bdb4-4680-9214-ffd12c765ba6.

Nach eigener Recherche auf Google bin ich leider auch nicht viel schlauer geworden. Es gab verschiedene Meinungen. Weiß jemand zufällig was diese Codes bedeuten und könnte mir helfen das Problem zu beheben?

Edit: PC Spezifikationen

AMD Ryzen 9 5900x

GPU: AMD RX 6800 XT

Mainboard: Asus Prime X570-P

Festplatten: C: Samsung 980 500 GB für Windows und D: Samsung 980 Pro 1TB

Ram: (2x16 GB) Corsair Vengeance RGB 32GB DDR4-2666 C16

Windows 10

Why Businesses Choose Rackspace to Office 365 Migration

DavisMiller29 — Tue, 12 May 2026 11:46:08 GMT

Businesses are increasingly adopting Rackspace to Office 365 Migration to improve collaboration, scalability, and security in modern work environments. As organizations grow, they require cloud platforms that offer advanced communication tools, centralized management, and seamless accessibility across devices and locations.

One major reason companies prefer Rackspace to Office 365 Migration is access to Microsoft’s integrated productivity suite. Applications such as Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Excel, and Word provide businesses with powerful collaboration capabilities. Employees can communicate, share files, and manage projects efficiently from virtually anywhere, supporting both remote and hybrid work models.

Another advantage of migrating from Rackspace to Office 365 is enhanced security and compliance. Microsoft 365 includes advanced threat protection, multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and compliance management tools that help businesses secure sensitive information. These features are especially valuable for industries with strict regulatory requirements.

Scalability is also a key factor driving Rackspace email to Office 365 migration projects. Organizations can easily add users, expand storage, and integrate additional Microsoft services as business demands evolve. This flexibility helps companies avoid costly infrastructure upgrades while maintaining operational efficiency.

Businesses also benefit from improved reliability and uptime with Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure. A properly planned migration ensures minimal disruption while transferring emails, contacts, calendars, and other business-critical data securely.

For organizations seeking professional migration assistance, Apps4Rent provides expert support to ensure a smooth and secure transition with reduced downtime.

Overall, Rackspace to Office 365 migration enables businesses to modernize communication systems, strengthen security, improve collaboration, and build a scalable foundation for long-term growth and productivity.

Windows 11 WiFi keeps disconnecting randomly

JacksonGreen — Tue, 12 May 2026 10:31:02 GMT

My Windows 11 laptop Wi-Fi disconnects randomly for no reason. The connection is unstable.

Windows 11 does not natively support creating shortcuts

AidenGarcia — Tue, 12 May 2026 10:29:19 GMT

I don't understand why you have to use the Registry Editor or import a .reg file to modify the items in the “New” menu. I hope Microsoft will provide a native settings interface to manage these shortcuts directly, without having to rely on the Registry Editor or third-party software.

Is the way mobile notifications are displayed in the new Windows 11 Start menu a bit of a letdown?

JackMoore — Tue, 12 May 2026 10:27:54 GMT

In the new Start menu, phone notifications only display “1 new notification” instead of showing the actual text of the notification. Even though there is clearly enough space to display the full message, it only shows the name of the app that sent it, which isn’t very helpful. Users still need to open the “Phone Link” app to see the specific content of the notification. Since a dedicated phone status panel has already been designed, why add this extra step? Hopefully, Microsoft will provide an option in the future that allows users to customize how notifications are displayed.

What do you think of the Windows 11 April 2026 Update (KB5083631)?

ArthurMiller — Tue, 12 May 2026 10:26:09 GMT

I'm not sure if it's because the virus wasn't completely removed earlier or if there's another reason, but I've already tried five different antivirus programs and run multiple scans. Currently, File Explorer occasionally freezes when I open it.

Anyone else having trouble transferring music to RP6 from Win 10?

Cherylkoin — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:39:36 GMT

I've just tried to move some music from one of my computers onto the SD card in my RP6. Trouble is, after I move a couple of folders, the next transfer freezes up... the file copy progress bar freezes, the window that has my RP6 folder freezes. I have to close the file copy progress window, close the RP6 window, and then disconnect and reconnect the RP6. At the rate it's going this is a totally unacceptable situation. This is on a Windows 10 machine - all up to date. I tried two different USB cables... one of which I've used to successfully transfer many music folders at a time onto my RP6 from another computer running Zorin OS. If Linux has no problem handling file transfers I have to suspect this is a Windows problem. Anyone else experiencing anything like this? The only other detail I can add is that this Windows 10 device is identifying the RP6 as "MTP USB Device"... whereas on my other Windows laptop which I've previously successfully used to transfer rom content, it displays as "Retroid Pocket 6". On my Zorin OS computer it uses yet another designation (but there haven't been any issues there, either).

Set computer to pc only and now my monitor won't work please help

Houstonptei — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:38:28 GMT

I'm using Text-to-speech because it's a lot to explain. And I'm really confused, but long story short, I had to download a secure browser to take tests for my new school, and it said that it wouldn't work with more than one monitor but I only have one monitor and Google said that I need to set it to just one. So I did the windows key plus P and did just display on PC monitor or something like that. And now my screen is black, and I don't know what to do. Please help.

Restart loop! I need Help

Geraldoinms — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:37:20 GMT

Does anyone know what is going on? Bought an HP victus used off of marketplace, it ran fine when I got home but couldn't download amd adrenaline. Read somewhere that solution was a factory reset so I did now this happened. Any solution?

Does Windows 10 have a feature similar to Samsung's One UI “Extend Unlock”?

AidenGarcia — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:31:18 GMT

I'm wondering if Windows 10 offers an Extend Unlock feature similar to Samsung's One UI. I've searched through the system settings but couldn't find any related options.

An option to Switch to a local account suddenly appeared in Windows 10Settings.

JacksonGreen — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:30:21 GMT

While browsing the settings, I found an option to switch to a local account. After switching, I was able to log in successfully using the local account. Was this option added recently, or has it always been there? Do you recommend switching? What are the benefits of using a local account? Does it reduce the likelihood of being tracked or having data collected?

Windows 10 May Be Causing Laptop Keyboards to Malfunction

ZacharyRodriguez — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:28:49 GMT

My keyboard has stopped working twice, and both times I resolved the issue by holding down the power button to force a shutdown and then restarting the computer. While this has worked for now, I’m concerned the problem might happen again. I’d like to know if this issue is related to Windows 11 and if there’s a more permanent solution.

In Windows 10, pressing the F4 key always brings up speech recognition

MateoRobertson — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:27:09 GMT

Whether I'm playing a game or using the software in other situations, pressing the F4 key triggers the voice recognition feature, which prevents the game from using the F4 key for its intended function. Is there a way to disable or change this shortcut key?

Windows11 アップグレードできない PC どうする？

Azaellow — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:23:07 GMT

こんにちは。現在Windows 10を使っていますが、Windows 11へアップグレードできなくて困っています。Windows Updateでは「このPCはWindows 11のシステム要件を満たしていません」と表示されます。

PCは数年前に買ったもので、動作自体はまだ問題ありません。TPMやCPUの問題かもしれませんが、よく分かっていません。できればファイルやアプリを消さずにWindows 11へアップグレードしたいです。

同じような経験がある方、おすすめの方法や確認ポイントがあれば教えてください。よろしくお願いします。

MATCH function over seperate tabs

WPH — Tue, 12 May 2026 08:45:01 GMT

I know a bit about functions but not enough to figure out why my formula stops working when I move the table data to a new tab.

I have a several tabs with data, which I have created the data validation drop down lists, individual small tables for several areas of the spreadsheet that all gets collected on the "Daily Working Tab". I want the next table removed from the "Daily Working" Tab and put on it's own tabs of "Payee's"

Right now, I have a formula that checks the value in column “AK” for each row in the table and returns “Y” if there’s a match or “-” if not, so I can see if I’ve added it to the relevant month for each of six months:

=IFERROR(IF(MATCH($AK8,$E$8:$E$80,0),"Y"),"-")

This works fine on the same tab, but as soon as I move the data to another tab, the updated formula

=IFERROR(IF(MATCH($AK8,'Daily Working'!E8:E80,0),"Y"),"-")

no longer works, even after fixing the “#REF!” error by pointing it to the correct tab and table to "'Daily Working'!$E$8:$E$80'".

I’ve read about using several INDEX, VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, nested IF, and MATCH combined functions, but I still can’t get it to work and baffled where or what I am doing wrong or need to do to get this to work. I have even split the information on different spreadsheets and it works but this defeats the purpose of having this all on one spreadsheet and different tabs.

Probably simple to fix. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA WPH.