The way we work has fundamentally changed over the past several years, enabling employees to have more flexible working environments. At the same time, the rising number of meetings and hours spent working has led to digital exhaustion. In Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index Report, a global external study revealed that 54% of respondents reported feeling overworked and 39% said they were outright exhausted. Employees will frequently endure the daily meeting marathon, with many finding themselves needing to multitask as other work-associated tasks arise.

Our goal is to make work more sustainable for everyone by leveraging technology to increase focus, productivity, and wellbeing. We are investigating AI enabled applications that utilize multiple modalities for passive biosensing, working in conjunction with the Microsoft ecosystem to provide a personalized health and user experience. We are developing generalized machine learning models to detect emotional and physical state in real-time, based on multimodal sensing data. With this information, we can better adapt our digital workspaces to reduce fatigue and encourage self-care and awareness.

As Microsoft continues to design innovations that empower people to do more, we are working to help ensure we are developing products that improve the wellbeing of everyone. We are engaged with product teams to understand the impact that new features have on fatigue and look for ways to improve the way we work in this increasingly digital environment.