Microsoft's Work Trend Index, produced with LinkedIn data and published in the spring of 2025, draws on a 31,000-person survey across 31 countries alongside Microsoft 365 usage data. It introduces the "Frontier Firm" concept - organizations restructuring around hybrid human and AI-agent teams - and finds 82 percent of leaders planning to use AI agents to expand workforce capacity within 12 to 18 months.
The report's "Frontier Firm" framing has been widely adopted across enterprise AI commentary as shorthand for organizations actively restructuring roles and workflows around agentic AI rather than simply layering AI tools onto existing processes.