Zoom has published a new study highlights that nearly six in 10 APAC leaders report declining employee engagement with current hybrid work models.

Launched at the company's inaugural EX Summit in Asia Pacific (APAC), the 'Navigating the Future of Work: Global Perspectives on Hybrid Models and Technology' also outlined that 77% of leaders in the region believe their organisation will change its workplace model in the next two years. Meanwhile, 81% of employees in APAC believe the tools and technology their organisation currently uses for remote work need improving.

The study highlights the role of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace, with 70% of employees in the region believe that generative AI has a high learning curve.

"Workplace flexibility is not only becoming increasingly commonplace in the APAC region, but more diverse in itself — ranging from flextime to location, role, and even rotation-based models,” said head of Asia Pacific, Zoom, Ricky Kapur. "Leaders today are faced with a new challenge of finding the best-fit hybrid model while keeping up with the evolving expectations of a multi-generational workforce and the impact of rapidly advancing technologies like AI.”

The survey, conducted in partnership with Reworked INSIGHTS, involved more than 600 IT and C-suite leaders and nearly 1,900 knowledge workers across the globe, including 604 in APAC.

In APAC, 84% of organisations surveyed were adopting either a hybrid (58%) or remote (26%) working model. A significant 87% of leaders in APAC consider increasing productivity to be the biggest consideration when determining the best working style for their company. Furthermore, 83% of employees in the region agree that they get more work done in a hybrid/remote setting than in-office/onsite.

"While our study shows that APAC leaders generally recognise the productivity benefits that adopting AI at work can bring to their teams, many are not utilising AI to their full potential. As organisations seek to reduce friction in the transition to hybrid ways of working, AI is a critical tool at their disposal to help employees collaborate better and feel more connected to each other. Beyond direct productivity benefits, leaders should look toward exploring more AI use cases to engage, inform, and connect employees. This will be key to building and maintaining company culture amidst changing workplace dynamics,” Kapur said.