Distributed teams in the modern era are perpetually seeking avenues to enhance productivity while fortifying seamless communication. However, collaboration often involves arduous tasks like disseminating meeting summaries and organising information, inadvertently leading to a drain on productivity. Leveraging AI to either automate or support these tasks could potentially resolve this collaboration paradox.

Zoom recently unveiled its latest report on artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace, delving into the sentiments, experiences, and perceptions of over 11,000 employees and leaders across eight global markets regarding AI adoption and its perceived benefits and challenges.

Across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region encompassing Australia, Japan, and Singapore, the survey revealed that 70% of employees agreed that leveraging AI at work could offer more advantages than drawbacks, marking the highest consensus across regions. Simultaneously, 73% of APAC leaders expressed a positive inclination towards AI.

Ricky Kapur, Head of Asia Pacific at Zoom, remarked, "Distributed workforces aren’t a novel concept. Businesses have long supported global teams. Today, we have a new tool to bolster modern collaboration by streamlining workflows, automating tasks, and more. This empowers teams—both employees and leaders—to concentrate on impactful activities such as creative ideation and decision-making, amplifying output and fostering substantial business growth."

The report underscored that saving time emerged as a paramount benefit of AI adoption in the workplace. When probed about the most advantageous aspects, both employees and leaders highlighted time-saving benefits, including reducing repetitive tasks, expediting work, and allocating saved time to other pursuits.

In Singapore specifically:

• 94% of employees cited the reduction in repetitive tasks and the availability of more time for other tasks as top AI benefits.
• 91% of leaders acknowledged fewer repetitive tasks as a key advantage, alongside faster task completion.
• Furthermore, almost half of Singaporean leaders whose teams utilized AI at work perceived additional benefits, such as a happier team (49%) and improved decision-making (48%).

Despite a mutual agreement on time-saving benefits, disparities surfaced regarding the specific AI applications preferred by employees and leaders. Singaporean employees leaned towards AI tools for enhancing efficiency and automation, while leaders sought AI support during and after meetings.

Preferences in Singapore:

Employees favoured using AI to:

• Automate repetitive tasks (46%)
• Receive real-time assistance during meetings (41%)
• Summarize meeting content, chat messages, and notes (41%)

Meanwhile, leaders preferred AI for:

• Real-time assistance during meetings (39%)
• Enhanced sound and video quality during meetings (36%)
• Drafting emails and chat messages (35%)

Barriers to AI adoption were prevalent, with 56% of Singaporean employees attributing non-usage to their company's lack of AI integration. Among AI users, 59% had access to AI tools, highlighting a need for self-initiated tool exploration among the remaining 41%.

Interestingly, impediments to adoption, as cited by Singaporean leaders, placed the onus on employees. A notable 80% highlighted team resistance to new tools, paralleled by an equal percentage expressing a team preference for traditional work methods—a rate that surpassed other surveyed markets.

Kapur emphasised, "APAC emerges as an AI enthusiast, but internal organizational barriers impede teams from harnessing the collaborative and productivity enhancements of AI. Addressing the perceptual gap between leaders and employees is pivotal to unlocking AI's true business potential."