Companies using AI see a sharp rise in employee engagement, which HP says can lead to increased profitability.
“Only 28% of knowledge workers have a healthy relationship with work,” Ertug Ayik, VP and MD of HP MEA, told Gadget on the sidelines of the HP Future of Work event in Johannesburg last week.
This finding was revealed in the 2024 Work Relationship Index (WRI), which tracked how employees’ relationships with work are evolving. Ayik said that this improvement reflects broader changes in how people work, with hybrid models and flexible environments now firmly established in the modern workplace.
He told Gadget: “When a company uses AI, the work relationship index score rises significantly – from around 28% to above 40%. It’s still not perfect, but it’s a notable improvement.”
He said employees with a healthy relationship to their work are more engaged, more productive, and more likely to contribute to their organisation’s long-term success.
Ayik said the trends apply to emerging markets such as South Africa, even though it was not included in the research, because the country’s advanced adoption of digital technology in some areas places it on par with mature markets.
“The adoption of digital technologies, including AI, is advanced, and the move from transactional to service-based and contractual engagements is well underway. Although being a growth country, SA is very mature in certain topics, so it has similarities to both developed and emerging countries.”
He said this confirm HP findings that intelligent devices can help employees shift from repetitive, low-value tasks to more fulfilling work.
“I don’t think [a teacher] was inspired to sit at a desk and do Excel work. If a lot of things can be done automatically, now you have much more time to sit with a student, consult them, teach them, inspire them, understand them.”
This ability to redirect time and focus, Ayik said, is a major reason why AI-enabled workplaces report higher engagement, and business growth.
Matching devices to needs
While enthusiasm for AI is high, providing employees with the right devices remains a challenge.
“If you ask an employee what kind of a device you want, they say: I want the best in class, the highest,” Ayik said. “Companies are always, understandably, looking for a cost and performance kind of trade-off.”
He said HP addresses this by using telemetry data built into devices, allowing organisations to monitor utilisation. Over time, this data can help profile different roles and ensure each has the most appropriate hardware.
“You can see the utilisation of any device in any department. After a while you can have a persona profile – maybe accounting needs a more powerful device, while sales can work with a different one.”
The other major barrier, Ayik said, is figuring out how to use AI effectively.
“Everybody’s super excited, but then comes the question: what can I do in my company with AI? We work with a lot of customers, directly or through our partners, on how AI can be used in their own environment.”
Hybrid work here to stay
Ayik said HP is certain that hybrid work is now the norm.
“None of us are going to go fully back to the office, or be working fully at home. People are going to look for the flexibility to work from anywhere with exactly the same capabilities and security levels.”
This means ensuring that employees can work securely on public networks, protect sensitive data in shared spaces, and maintain high-quality communication in noisy environments.
“When you are having a conference call on a train, you don’t want the other person to hear a huge noise. We create technologies that block that noise so it feels as if you are in a quiet room.”
Looking ahead
The WRI highlighted changing priorities among younger workers entering the workforce.
“They are a completely different generation,” said Ayik. “They say: I’m ready to give a portion of my salary if I am going to have a more personal and flexible work environment.”
This willingness to trade pay for flexibility did not exist 20 years ago, he said, and it is shaping how technology companies design products and services.
Referring to the shift in priorities, Ayik said: “All of these are actually pushing us, technology companies like HP, to create solutions that enable that, because that is definitely what we see.”
The 2025 edition of the Work Relationship Index will likely begin in September, with results expected before the end of the year. Ayik said he is eager to see whether the positive correlation between AI adoption and engagement has strengthened over the past 12 months.
“The technology is here to help people focus on what really matters in their jobs. When we give them that capability, engagement improves – and that’s good for employees and for organisations.”
* Jason Bannier is a data analyst at World Wide Worx and deputy editor of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Bluesky at @jas2bann.