That is why the IT engineer has chosen to disable notifications on his work device.

‘Constantly bombarded’

The recent report is based on data from 31,000 workers across 31 countries, including 1,000 from Australia.

“Constant disruptions or distractions [will] reduce our cognitive attention … The more these kinds of situations happen, the less likely we are to concentrate deeply on our work.”

“Essentially, we’re not running out of work to do, but potentially we’re running out of human capacity to do it,” she told SBS News.

How to retain your focus

Enter artificial intelligence (AI).

The AI ‘thought partner’

“Asking an AI [agent] to help organise your day, to summarise your emails, to prioritise your tasks, really helps you to stay much more focused on what you need to deliver and not to get distracted.”

Rise of the ‘agent boss’

The Work Trend Index report predicts that in future, we will “see the rise of the agent boss — someone who builds, delegates to, and manages [AI] agents to amplify their impact”.

“What we see from this research is where human and agent teams come together, that’s where we’re going to have the most impact, the highest efficiency and human skills.”

‘Replaced by AI sooner rather than later’

A 2023 study by the University of Queensland found that only 34 per cent of Australians are willing to trust AI.