The Effects of Generative AI on Collaboration and Social Networks Among Knowledge Workers

Will generative AI make knowledge workers rely less on their colleagues, or more? AI output still has to be interpreted, checked and approved by people, so it could just as well increase collaboration. We follow more than 12,000 knowledge workers over thirteen months of a staggered Microsoft Copilot rollout, using passively collected behavioural data and two quasi-experimental designs.

AI use increased the time people spent collaborating across communication channels and reshaped their networks: users reached more colleagues and their networks became less clustered, while they concentrated more of their collaboration on long-standing, trusted ties. Generative AI changes how people work together, but it does not replace working with people.