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Report finds 74% of regular AI users now pose questions to AI instead of human colleagues

New workers are missing out on vital social interactions for company culture

Employees say they feel more self-sufficient and comfortable making decisions

While the jury is still out on whether AI could be set to replace human workers or severely impact their scopes by automating major parts of their workflows, one thing is clear – humans are increasingly happy to use AI as a colleague and collaborator.

A new MyIQ analysis of nearly 22,500 adults found around three in four (74%) regular AI users now pose the questions they would formerly have asked colleagues to AI.

As a result, around half (48%) now report fewer spontaneous conversations during the working day, suggesting that the effect may extend beyond deliberately redirecting questions to AI with it now having a more profound impact on the social elements of work.

Return-to-office (RTO) mandates now face a complex paradox

While the report doesn’t explicitly cover it, the data presents interesting takes on modern workplace habits.

Post-pandemic layoffs and work-from-home mandates were quickly followed by urgent return-to-office mandates, with CEOs globally encouraging in-person working due to the collaborative nature of shared environments, and the opportunities to have ad-hoc conversations that spark learning and broader thinking.

With around half now saying this doesn’t happen so frequently, the findings beg the question whether commuting to the office might be all that necessary after all in an AI-first era.

Roughly two in five (38%) also noted that newer employees now have fewer natural opportunities to build relationships because routine questions are being redirected to AI, not human colleagues.

“Repeated across a working week, those missing exchanges can mean fewer opportunities to build trust, share judgment, and become known inside a team,” MyIQ Managing Director Sarah Meyer wrote.

Around half (53%) of the respondents also described their work as more transactional since adopting AI, marking a major shift in workplace dynamics.

AI might be more efficient, but it’s still lacking in certain areas

But despite the negative social implications, AI’s role in brainstorming, questioning and critical thinking could be seen as positive, too. For example, nearly two-thirds (62%) say they feel more comfortable making decisions independently than they did a year ago, with nearly three-quarters (71%) feeling more self-sufficient at work.

The report also warns that, while a chatbot can supply an immediate and often factually correct answer, it lacks the accompanying social information and organizational knowledge that a colleague would bring to the table.

Interestingly, a similar SurveyMonkey study revealed that 77% want more opportunities to brainstorm with colleagues and 61% want stronger connections across teams even though workers are increasingly settling for the first AI-generated answer, instead of digging deeper.

Together, these two reports imply that workers are increasingly seeking the efficiency that AI promises and they’re willing to ask questions for a quicker answer, but they still value the collaborative nature of human interactions within the workplace.

What’s less clear is how employers could implement these opposing forces into one unified workforce, while delivering the hybrid approach that workers have come to value with working from home and benefiting from going to the office.

“As AI makes solitary problem-solving easier, organisations may need to pay closer attention to the forms of workplace learning and social connection that efficiency alone does not capture,” the MyIQ study concludes.

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Anthropic’s new “Teach Claude a skill” feature lets you record your screen and narrate a task, allowing Claude to learn and reuse that workflow later.

The update is designed to reduce repetitive prompting, making Claude better at handling recurring tasks like reports, spreadsheets, and file organization.

The feature is rolling out now to Claude Pro, Max, and Team subscribers through the Claude desktop app’s Cowork interface.

Teaching AI how you like things done isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. You can explain the same task over and over, save detailed prompts, or upload documents full of instructions, yet there’s still a good chance the AI will miss a step or do something differently the next time you ask. It’s a little like training a new coworker who keeps forgetting the workflow.

That’s exactly the problem Anthropic is trying to solve with a new Claude Cowork feature called Teach Claude a skill . Instead of typing out long instructions, you simply record your screen while completing a task yourself and explain what you’re doing as you go. Claude watches the entire process, learns it, and saves it as a reusable skill that it can perform again later.

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Ukraine’s sports chief slammed the International Olympic Committee for ushering Russian athletes back into the fold even as Moscow continues to wage its war on Ukraine.

The IOC announced last week it had “provisionally lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee,” ending a ban that has been in place since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the winter of 2022 and paving the way for Russian athletes to return to the Games.

Ukrainian Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi said in an interview that the IOC is “effectively functioning as a pressure release valve” for Russia.

“Why now? I have no answer on this question. I can’t see any reason for it,” said Bidnyi, a former bodybuilder. “Undermining the collective pressure that the international community has been building against the aggressor … it’s not a very honorable role for this organization.”

The IOC said that the reversal did not represent any change in its view of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which it still condemns. However, it said the ban was relaxed because the Russian committee removed regional sports organizations ​from Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories from its membership, which was the reason it was sanctioned.

Bidnyi said the IOC had fallen for a “primitive legal trick” and that Russia had simply restructured its Olympic committee to circumvent the IOC’s ban.

“We do not believe the IOC fails to understand this,” he said. “This is a deliberate decision to ignore reality, which completely ruins their own credibility.”

Moscow has repeatedly used international sport to maintain a foothold in Western institutions despite its broader diplomatic isolation since the war in Ukraine began. That has included influencing the world of chess , international fencing and lobbying for the gradual return of Russian athletes to global competitions .

European sport ministers have also reacted with anger to the IOC’s decision, with ministers from nine countries — Sweden, Estonia, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Finland and Denmark — calling for the EU to cut funding for the Olympics.

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told POLITICO in a statement that sport and politics cannot be separated, as “Russia continues to use sport as an instrument of state propaganda.”

“We should not pretend that sport exists in a vacuum separate from the brutal, ongoing war,” he said. “A return to business as usual would send the wrong message: It would disregard the suffering of the Ukrainian people and risk normalising Russia’s aggression.”

The IOC has not yet decided on whether the Russian flag and national anthem will be allowed at future Olympic events, including the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 2028.

But Bidnyi said the IOC’s decision had already encouraged other sports governing bodies, such as the International Handball Federation, to relax their bans on Russian athletes.

“We can see the consequences of it [the IOC’s decision],” he said. “Our diplomatic work became much more difficult.”

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Samsung has started rolling out a redesigned Galaxy Wearable app just hours before Galaxy Unpacked.

The update introduces a cleaner interface, a revamped Home screen, improved navigation, and a redesigned watch face browser.

Samsung has wasted no time bringing one of its upcoming One UI 9 Watch changes to users. Just hours before Galaxy Unpacked kicks off, the company has started rolling out a redesigned version of the Galaxy Wearable app, giving Galaxy Watch owners an early taste of what’s coming with the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 .

The update, which was previously spotted in leaked screenshots earlier this month, is now beginning to reach users.