Vietnam, June 12, 2025 – Microsoft Vietnam officially announces the 2025 Work Trend Index report, based on a survey conducted with the participation of 31,000 knowledge workers across 31 countries, including Vietnam.
Unlike previous years, this year’s report adds deeper perspectives from local AI startups, economists, scientists, and academics — all pointing to a pivotal shift underway, with 91% of surveyed leaders in Vietnam stating that this year is a critical time to review business strategies and operations (the global figure is 82%).
According to the Work Trend Index report, 2025 sees the emergence of an entirely new organizational model: Frontier Firm, built around intelligence on tap, human-agent teams, and agent boss. Data shows that while only 37% of employees globally say their company is growing rapidly, this figure is double among Vietnam’s frontier firms.
Ms. Nguyen Quynh Tram, General Director of Microsoft Vietnam, said: “We are living in an era where every organization and business — large or small — has the opportunity to break through thanks to the power of technology. Artificial intelligence (AI) has opened the door to knowledge that was previously accessible only to large corporations, enabling every individual and business to achieve outstanding success no longer limited by workforce size or expertise.
However, technology only truly creates value when people are ready to embrace and accompany it. This requires leaders not only to invest in technology but also to prioritize developing digital mindsets and skills for their teams, and to foster effective collaboration between humans and AI agents. This is the key factor for Vietnamese businesses to accelerate and break through in the AI era,” Ms. Tram emphasized.
We can buy intelligence on demand
This year’s Work Trend Index report highlights a growing capability gap. In Vietnam, while 67% of surveyed leaders believe productivity must increase, 84% of surveyed workers admit they lack the time or energy to complete their work (the global figures are 53% and 80%, respectively). On average, every two minutes, employees are interrupted by a meeting, an email notification, or an invitation to join a conversation.
The rapid development of AI allows intelligence to no longer be limited by workforce size or expertise, but to become a “sustainable resource” characterized by abundance, essentiality at reasonable cost, and scalability on demand. According to the survey, 95% of Vietnamese leaders expect to use digital labor to expand their workforce within the next 12 to 18 months (the global figure is 82%).
Digital labor will drive transformation even among the most established businesses and give rise to new companies we have yet to imagine. On LinkedIn, leading AI startups are hiring at twice the rate of major tech corporations. Most talent is leaving big tech companies and choosing to join the startup world, indicating a profound shift where innovation and opportunity are on the rise. As established businesses adapt and new companies scale up as we saw during the dot-com boom, the rules of talent and competition will be reshaped.
Human-agent teams will change the organizational chart
As AI continues to democratize expertise, there will be a shift from the traditional, rigid hierarchical organizational chart (Org Chart) to a more flexible, outcome-focused “Work Chart.” These structures can flexibly adapt to business needs, leveraging the combination of humans and agents to get work done. Although each department will evolve at different speeds and scales, 65% of leaders in Vietnam say their organizations are using agents to fully automate certain workflows or business processes, with customer service, marketing, and product development being top priorities for AI investment (the global figure is 46%).
To optimize the impact of human-agent teams, organizations will need to consider a new metric: the human–agent ratio. Leaders must ask two key questions: (1) How many agents are needed for each role and task? (2) How many humans are needed to guide them? Determining the right ratio is crucial to defining how work is accomplished and how success is measured.
Every employee becomes an “agent boss”
As agents increasingly become part of the workforce, we will see the rise of agent bosses: those who build, assign, and manage agents to enhance work efficiency in the AI era. From managers to frontline staff, everyone will need to think like a CEO of a startup run by agents. In fact, surveyed leaders in Vietnam expect their teams to train (54%) and manage (48%) agents within five years (globally, these figures are 41% and 36%, respectively).
For employees ready to seize the opportunity, AI will become a launchpad for career advancement. But at present, leaders are one step ahead, with 82% of surveyed leaders in Vietnam saying they are quite familiar with agents (compared to 71% of employees).
However, this shift will not stop at the leadership level. As agents are deeply integrated into daily work, roles at all levels and departments will evolve along with the overall workforce. While only 38% of surveyed Vietnamese leaders are considering staff reductions, 91% are considering hiring for new AI-related roles such as AI agent specialists, AI professionals, and AI workforce managers (globally, these figures are 33% and 78%, respectively).
Looking ahead
Survey results indicate that early adoption of the AI agent wave by Asia-Pacific countries like Vietnam will bring a clear competitive advantage in the coming decade.
Just as the Internet era created billions of new knowledge jobs, from social media managers to UX designers, the AI era is also creating entirely new roles. Preparing for the future is no longer a choice. Employees must build AI skills, and businesses must support them with appropriate tools and training programs.
This moment calls for candid conversations, intentional communication, and real investment in reskilling. Businesses that invest now will not only keep up with the trend but will also be the ones shaping the future. Organizations that adopt the “Frontier Firm” model early will lead the race in innovation speed, operational efficiency, and talent attraction.
Copilot will be the new user interface for AI
Alongside the 2025 Work Trend Index report, Microsoft also announced the latest updates to Microsoft 365 Copilot to drive the next era of collaboration between humans and agents:
Researcher and Analyst agents, powered by OpenAI’s deep reasoning models, will be deployed through the Frontier program. At the same time, users can easily search for and use agents from partners such as Jira, Monday.com, Micro, or custom agents on the new Agent Store.
Create integrates AI image generation tools from GPT-4o into the work environment, making it easy for everyone to design, edit brand images, and create marketing content aligned with approved brand identities.
Copilot Notebooks turn documents, notes, and data into analyses and actions, and can even summarize content with audio for quick, flexible, and dynamic updates.
Copilot Search is an intelligent enterprise search tool, helping users instantly retrieve information from all applications and data within the organization as well as from third parties, from Servicenow to Google Drive, Slack, Confluence, Jira, etc.
Copilot Control System gives IT departments the ability to control agent access permissions, ensuring the right people, for the right purposes.