AI frontier professionals: Brazil leads in advanced adoption, but companies lag behind

Who are these frontier professionals?

Microsoft defines frontier professionals as individuals who go beyond basic text assistant usage. They create automated workflows using AI agents, develop multi-agent systems, redesign processes, and identify repetitive tasks that can be automated. An AI agent performs semi-autonomous tasks based on instructions, while a multi-agent system combines multiple agents, each with a specific function. For instance, a financial analyst could set up one agent to gather report data, another to detect inconsistencies, and a third to generate a weekly summary.

Data shows rapid progress in Brazil

The Work Trend Index 2026 report, based on interviews with 20,000 workers across ten countries and Microsoft 365 productivity data, reveals that Brazil has a higher proportion of AI frontier professionals than the United States, Japan, and India. Among Brazilian AI users, 27% are already at an advanced level, compared to a global average of 16% of users who are frontier professionals. Additionally, 72% of Brazilians report performing tasks they didn’t do a year ago, thanks to AI, versus 58% globally and 80% among frontier professionals themselves.

Gap between employees and organizations

Despite individual advancements, companies aren’t keeping up. Corporate culture and leadership support account for 67% of AI adoption impact, while individual behaviors and mindset account for 32%. The main challenge has shifted from technical skills to the ability to redesign work processes. In Brazil, only 16% of professionals say they’re rewarded for using AI to transform their work, compared to a global average of 13%.

Most valued skills

An analysis of over 100,000 interactions with Microsoft 365 Copilot found that 49% of conversations involve cognitive tasks like information analysis and problem-solving. Respondents most valued quality control of answers (50%) and critical thinking (46%).

Looking ahead

According to Microsoft, the number of AI agents in Microsoft 365 increased 15-fold in one year. The study concludes that the most competitive organizations will be those that make continuous learning a core part of their operations.