AI is gaining popularity among Indian leaders and employees due to its ability to save time, boost communication and efficiency, and help with brainstorming.
Zoom and Morning Consult commissioned a recent Global Collaboration in the Workplace report, highlighting India’s leadership in leveraging AI to enhance workplace collaboration. The report revealed that Indian CEOs are among the world’s most avid users of AI, with 80% reporting daily or regular usage. This high AI adoption rate ranks second only to leaders in the Netherlands (85%). The polled majority of Indian leaders and employees perceive AI as a critical tool for collaboration, surpassing other areas in understanding its benefits.
In 16 countries, including 750 respondents from India, the report surveyed nearly 8,000 leaders and employees from various age groups (Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers) to investigate the impact of collaboration tools and apps, the challenges they face, and how to support them in collaborating more effectively in today’s hybrid workplace. The poll identifies significant AI usage trends among Indian leaders and staff, providing insights into how AI might help firms improve productivity and optimize operations.
Effective collaboration is crucial for an organization’s productivity. Colleagues in your department or from different functions contribute by generating new ideas, making decisions, executing strategies, and completing projects of various scales. Contemporary collaboration is more complicated than when everyone shares an office. Teams are collaborating in hybrid settings with a mix of remote and in-office colleagues. Organizations often have numerous generations working together, each with unique communication styles.
Collaboration challenges faced by team leaders
Indian CEO’s spend more time on collaboration duties than employees. 62% of Indian leaders said canceling a meeting could enhance their productivity. According to the report, 52% of Indian leaders believe they are over investing in virtual meetings, 50% in in-person meetings, and 49% say emails consume too much of their time. Switching between tasks significantly impacts productivity, with 34% of Indian leaders losing focus for 10-15 minutes or even 15-30 minutes.
The consequences of insufficient teamwork are apparent. Approximately three out of every ten Indian team leaders spend an hour or more per day resolving collaboration challenges, such as attending meetings with unclear outcomes or negotiating team misunderstandings. Indian team leaders are also more likely to follow up on projects than their teams, with 43% checking project statuses for 30 minutes to an hour, which is more than employees (38%).
If they had additional time in their workday, 54% would choose to invest it in strategic initiatives or workflow improvement. This emphasizes the need for more efficient tools and communication tactics to free up leaders’ time for high-impact projects.
According to Indian leaders and employees, in-person meetings are crucial for better engagement. The report states that 82% of Indian employees and 80% of Indian leaders believe in-person meetings are always or often useful. While they acknowledge the misuse of meetings, in-person connections remain highly valued. However, striking a balance between synchronous and asynchronous communication techniques may assist in avoiding meeting overload and boosting overall efficiency.
Hence, to overcome these difficulties, many Indian leaders are turning to AI to improve procedures and decrease inefficiencies. According to the report, 80% of Indian leaders utilize AI daily or weekly, compared to 70% of employees—the highest figure internationally. Furthermore, 86% of CEOs feel AI has the ability to considerably boost productivity, while 78% of employees share this view. In contrast, the United States leads with 40% of employees regularly utilizing AI, while Singapore and the UAE both report 37% frequent usage. At the same time, Indian leaders and employees remain among the top AI adopters.
Indian leaders who have already incorporated AI into their team workflows are reporting positive results, with 90% indicating that it has improved the quality of their team’s work, surpassing the global average. As, AI enhances creativity, communication, and productivity. The benefits of AI include:
95% of the time is freed up for higher-priority tasks
Facilitating better communication across teams (95%)
Improve brainstorming and idea-generating (95%)
Improved team performance (94%)
Indian employees, too, understand the benefits of AI at work. It saves time (94%), facilitates improved communication (94%), improves brainstorming ideas (91%), and improves alignment among coworkers (90%).
While AI acceptance among leaders and employees is increasing, many individuals, particularly those in a multigenerational workforce, may need more assistance with AI technologies or be hesitant to utilize them. Leaders must guarantee that these tools are available to their whole workforce—across all age groups—and provide targeted training to assist employees, ranging from Gen Z to Baby Boomers, realize the full potential of AI in their roles. This strategy will help create a more inclusive workforce capable of harnessing AI to improve collaboration and productivity.