What is Work AI?

Every organisation is sitting on a mountain of knowledge it can barely use. It lives in emails, chat messages, project management tools, shared drives, wikis, CRM records, HR systems, and dozens of other platforms that were never designed to talk to each other. Employees spend hours every week searching for information, waiting for answers, and repeating work that has already been done elsewhere in the business. The result is wasted time, slower decisions, and frustration at every level of the organisation.

Work AI has emerged as the category of technology designed to solve this problem at scale. By combining artificial intelligence with deep integration across enterprise applications, Work AI platforms help employees find information, automate repetitive tasks, and get meaningful work done faster.

This blog provides a comprehensive examination of the Work AI category. It explores what Work AI is, how it operates, the capabilities it encompasses, and the industries and roles that benefit most from its adoption. It also considers key market trends, outlines the leading vendors shaping the category, and offers concluding insights for organisations evaluating Work AI as part of their broader technology strategy.

Understanding Work AI

Work AI refers to a category of artificial intelligence software specifically designed to enhance productivity and decision-making for employees within the context of their daily jobs. Unlike general-purpose AI tools, Work AI platforms are built around the data, applications, and workflows that already exist inside an organisation. They connect to the systems employees use every day - from communication tools and project management platforms to CRM, HR, and finance systems - and use AI to make knowledge more accessible, tasks more automated, and decisions better informed.

The term is sometimes used interchangeably with related labels such as Enterprise AI, AI Assistants, or AI Copilots, but Work AI has emerged as a more precise description of platforms that treat the entire working environment as their domain. The goal is not to replace workers but to give every employee access to the kind of instant, contextual intelligence that was previously only available to those with the right connections, experience, or time to search for it.

Work AI rests on three interconnected capabilities: the ability to find and surface relevant knowledge from across the organisation, the ability to generate useful outputs such as summaries, drafts, and analyses grounded in that knowledge, and increasingly, the ability to take action on behalf of users through AI agents that automate multi-step processes.

How Work AI Works

Work AI platforms begin with integration. To be useful, a Work AI system must connect to the applications and data sources where organisational knowledge actually lives. This typically means building connectors to tools such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Confluence, Jira, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and many others. The platform then indexes the content from these systems - documents, messages, tickets, emails, records - creating a unified, searchable knowledge layer that spans the entire organisation.

Critically, this indexing must be permissions-aware. Work AI platforms do not simply pool all organisational data into one place and make it universally available. They respect and enforce the access controls already configured in each connected system. If a salary band document is restricted to HR leadership, it will not appear in search results for a junior employee. This governance layer is what makes Work AI deployable in real enterprise environments, where data sensitivity and compliance requirements are non-negotiable.

With the knowledge layer established, the AI capabilities come into play. When an employee asks a question - whether through a search bar, a chat interface, or within the tools they already use - the Work AI system uses large language models to interpret the intent behind the query, retrieve the most relevant information from connected systems, and generate a coherent, cited response. Because the response is grounded in actual company data rather than general internet knowledge, it is specific, relevant, and far less prone to the hallucination problems that make generic AI tools unreliable in professional settings.

The most advanced Work AI platforms go beyond question-and-answer interactions to support agentic workflows. AI agents can be configured to carry out multi-step tasks autonomously - for example, pulling together data from three different systems to prepare a weekly report, triaging incoming support requests based on historical resolution patterns, or drafting a project brief based on notes from a recent meeting. These agents operate within the same permissions and governance frameworks as the underlying search layer, ensuring that automation does not create new security or compliance risks.

Core Capabilities of Work AI Software

While Work AI solutions vary in focus and maturity, most enterprise-grade offerings share several fundamental capabilities:

Enterprise Search and Knowledge Discovery enables employees to find information across all connected applications from a single interface, using natural language rather than exact keyword matching. Results are personalised based on who is asking and what they are working on.

AI Assistant and Chat Interface provides a conversational interface through which employees can ask questions, request summaries, generate first drafts, and get contextually relevant answers grounded in company knowledge rather than generic public data.

Permissions-Aware Indexing ensures that AI-powered search and assistance respects existing access controls across every connected system, maintaining data security and compliance throughout all interactions.

Personalisation and Context Understanding uses models of organisational relationships, team structures, and individual work patterns to tailor results and responses to each user's specific role and context.

AI Agents and Workflow Automation allows the creation and deployment of AI agents that can execute multi-step tasks across connected systems, reducing manual effort on repetitive or time-consuming processes.

Document and Content Generation supports the creation of drafts, summaries, reports, and communications grounded in internal knowledge, accelerating the production of high-quality outputs.

Analytics and Usage Insights provides visibility into how knowledge is being accessed, where information gaps exist, and how AI is contributing to productivity across the organisation.

Integration Ecosystem connects to the full range of enterprise applications through pre-built connectors, APIs, and SDKs, ensuring Work AI works with existing technology investments rather than requiring replacement.

Governance and Security Controls provides administrative capabilities to manage data sources, monitor AI activity, configure agent permissions, and ensure compliance with organisational and regulatory requirements.

LLM Flexibility allows organisations to choose or switch between large language model providers - such as those from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others - without rebuilding their underlying knowledge infrastructure.

Collectively, these capabilities reduce the time employees spend searching for information, accelerate the completion of routine tasks, and give knowledge workers access to a level of contextual intelligence that was previously impractical to deliver at scale.

Applications and Use Cases for Work AI

Work AI serves a broad range of use cases across virtually every function in the enterprise:

Employee Onboarding and Knowledge Transfer allows new joiners to get up to speed faster by asking questions and receiving accurate, company-specific answers rather than spending days tracking down colleagues or trawling through outdated documentation.

IT and HR Service Desk Automation enables employees to self-serve answers to common IT, HR, and operational questions, reducing the volume of tickets and freeing specialist teams to focus on more complex issues.

Sales Enablement and Preparation helps sales professionals quickly find relevant case studies, competitive intelligence, pricing information, and customer history before calls and meetings, improving the quality and speed of client interactions.

Knowledge Management and Institutional Memory surfaces relevant precedents, past decisions, and existing work across the organisation, reducing duplication of effort and preventing the loss of knowledge when employees move on.

Content and Communications Drafting supports the generation of first drafts for internal communications, proposals, reports, and presentations, grounded in the specific context and language of the organisation.

Research and Decision Support enables executives, analysts, and managers to quickly synthesise information from multiple internal sources, supporting faster and better-informed decisions.

Engineering and Technical Support allows development teams to search across code repositories, technical documentation, and historical incident records, accelerating troubleshooting and knowledge sharing within technical functions.

In all these scenarios, Work AI acts as an intelligent layer between the employee and the organisation's distributed knowledge, making the right information accessible at the right moment.

Market Trends and Growth Drivers

The Work AI market has grown rapidly and shows no sign of slowing. Several key trends are shaping its evolution:

1. From Search to Action - The early generation of Work AI platforms focused primarily on knowledge retrieval - helping employees find information more quickly. The market is now moving decisively toward agentic capabilities, where AI can not only surface information but take action across connected systems on behalf of users. This shift from passive retrieval to active automation represents the next major expansion of the category.

2. The Governance Imperative - As AI becomes more embedded in daily work, organisations are increasingly focused on governance, security, and compliance. Permissions-aware architectures, audit trails, and administrative controls have moved from differentiating features to baseline expectations. Vendors that cannot demonstrate robust enterprise-grade governance are finding it increasingly difficult to win larger deployments.

3. LLM Model Diversity - The large language model landscape is evolving rapidly, with new models from multiple providers regularly improving on previous benchmarks. Work AI platforms that lock customers into a single LLM provider are increasingly at a disadvantage compared to those offering model flexibility. The ability to switch between or combine models without disruption is becoming a key selection criterion.

4. Microsoft Copilot as a Market Shaper - Microsoft's integration of AI capabilities across its 365 product suite has significantly accelerated awareness and adoption of Work AI concepts across enterprise buyers. It has also raised questions about build versus buy for organisations deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, creating a complex competitive dynamic that is reshaping how the broader category is evaluated.

5. Integration Breadth as Competitive Moat - The value of a Work AI platform is directly proportional to the breadth and depth of its integrations. Vendors that have invested heavily in building and maintaining connectors to the full range of enterprise applications hold a structural advantage that is difficult and time-consuming for newer entrants to replicate.

6. Rapid Revenue Growth - The Work AI category is experiencing exceptional commercial momentum. Leading pure-play Work AI vendors have reported some of the fastest revenue growth rates in enterprise software history, reflecting the pace at which organisations are moving from evaluation to deployment.

The Work AI market is projected to grow significantly through the remainder of the decade, driven by continued enterprise adoption, expansion of agentic capabilities, and the increasing embedding of AI into everyday business processes. Analyst projections vary, but most agree the addressable market runs into the tens of billions of dollars as the category matures.

Popular Work AI Software Vendors

A growing ecosystem of vendors has emerged to serve organisations of varying sizes and requirements. The following represent some of the leading names shaping the Work AI landscape:

Glean - One of the defining platforms in the Work AI category, Glean offers enterprise search, an AI assistant, and AI agents built around a proprietary Enterprise Graph. With over 100 connectors, permissions-aware indexing, and strong governance capabilities, Glean is positioned for large, complex enterprise environments. The company reached $200 million in ARR in late 2025 and is valued at $7.2 billion.

Microsoft Copilot - Microsoft's AI assistant is deeply integrated across the Microsoft 365 suite, including Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint. For organisations heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, Copilot offers a natural entry point into Work AI with native integration and no additional connectors required.

Moveworks - A specialist in AI-powered employee support, Moveworks focuses on automating IT and HR service desk interactions through conversational AI. Particularly strong in large enterprises with high volumes of internal support requests.

Guru - A knowledge management platform that brings verified, curated knowledge into employees' daily workflows through integrations with tools like Slack and Teams. Guru's strength is structured knowledge creation and maintenance rather than broad enterprise search.

Coveo - An AI relevance platform with capabilities spanning both internal knowledge management and customer-facing search. Coveo is particularly strong in regulated industries and organisations with complex content governance requirements.

ServiceNow AI - ServiceNow has embedded significant AI capabilities across its Now Platform, supporting IT, HR, and customer service workflows with AI-powered automation and knowledge management.

Salesforce Agentforce - Salesforce's AI agent platform brings Work AI capabilities to customer-facing and sales workflows, leveraging the data within Salesforce's CRM ecosystem to support more intelligent employee and customer interactions.

Notion AI - A lighter-weight option focused on knowledge management and content creation within Notion's collaborative workspace, suitable for smaller organisations or teams looking for an accessible starting point.

Other Notable Work AI Vendors

The broader market includes additional providers such as GoSearch, Unleash, Elastic Workplace Search, eesel AI, Capacity, Bloomfire, and a growing number of specialist vendors targeting specific industries or use cases. Many established software companies - including SAP, Workday, Google, and others - are also embedding Work AI capabilities directly into their existing platforms, blurring the boundaries between standalone Work AI tools and AI-enhanced enterprise applications.

A great approach is to run a Technology Matchmaker - a super-quick way of testing the market and understanding your options before committing to a vendor. It's something Viewpoint Analysis does regularly for organisations navigating exactly this kind of decision.

Conclusion

Work AI represents one of the most significant shifts in enterprise technology of the past decade. For the first time, it is practical to give every employee in an organisation access to intelligent, contextually aware assistance that understands not just general knowledge but the specific knowledge, people, and processes of their own organisation. The result is a step change in how quickly individuals can find information, how efficiently teams can share knowledge, and how effectively organisations can act on what they collectively know.

The benefits are real and measurable. Organisations that have deployed Work AI report meaningful reductions in time spent searching for information, faster onboarding for new employees, reduced service desk volumes, and improved quality of work outputs across functions. As agentic capabilities mature, the scope of these benefits will expand further - from helping employees find answers to actively executing work on their behalf.

The market is maturing rapidly. What was an emerging category two years ago is now a mainstream enterprise priority, with major technology vendors competing alongside specialist pure-play platforms to capture a significant share of what will be a substantial market. For organisations that have not yet engaged seriously with Work AI, the window for considered, unhurried evaluation is closing.

That said, successful Work AI deployment is not simply a matter of purchasing a platform and switching it on. Organisations that achieve the best outcomes invest time in understanding their specific knowledge landscape, defining clear use cases, and ensuring that integration breadth matches the reality of their application environment. Change management matters too - Work AI is only valuable if employees actually use it, and adoption requires clear communication, accessible training, and visible executive endorsement.

For organisations ready to move from awareness to action, Work AI is no longer a question of whether but of which platform, in which areas of the business, and with what level of ambition. The organisations that answer those questions clearly and move decisively will be the ones that translate the promise of Work AI into sustainable competitive advantage.

If you are evaluating Work AI platforms and want to move quickly and confidently, take a look at a couple of services we offer at Viewpoint Analysis:

30-Day Technology Selection - if you need to move at pace, our 30-day technology selection service will take you from a standing start to vendor selection in less than a month. The quickest way to evaluate the Work AI market and reach a decision you can be confident in.

Rapid RFI and Rapid RFP - want to move quickly but still run a structured procurement process? Our Rapid RFI and Rapid RFP take you from longlist to shortlist, and from shortlist to selection, at a pace that keeps up with the speed of the AI market.

And if you are still at the ideas stage and want to understand what Work AI could realistically do for your organisation, why not try our Matchmaker Service. We talk to your team, understand your requirements, and introduce a range of vendors with relevant solutions - giving you a clear picture of the market before you commit to a formal process.