AI’s Evolution: How the Pandemic Paved the Way for the Future

Over the last five years, the landscape of work has undergone a profound transformation from deserted offices in 2020 to collaborating with AI colleagues in 2025. Exploring these shifts meticulously is Colette Stallbaumer, a key figure at Microsoft WorkLab.

Stallbaumer, the co-founder of Microsoft WorkLab and general manager of Microsoft 365 Copilot, delves into these changes in her new book, WorkLab: Five years that shook the business world and sparked an AI-first future, published by Microsoft’s 8080 Books.

In her book, Stallbaumer elucidates that the period from the pandemic era to the current AI-driven epoch signifies an ongoing metamorphosis in our work methodologies, with no definite conclusion in sight.

She writes, “Change is the only constant—shifting norms that once took decades to unfold now materialize in months or weeks. As we look to the next five years, it’s nearly impossible to imagine how much more work will change.”

Our discussion with Stallbaumer, recorded at Microsoft’s Redmond campus, provides valuable insights into this topic. Listen to the conversation on Apple or Spotify and continue reading for essential takeaways.

Team Dynamics – The ‘Hollywood model’: “What we’re seeing is this movement in teams, where we’ll stand up a small squad of people who bring their own domain expertise, but also have AI added into the mix. They come together just like you would to produce a film. A group of people comes together to produce a blockbuster, and then you disperse and go back to your day job.”

The ‘Frontier Firm’ Concept: “They’re not adding AI as an ingredient. AI is the business model. It’s the core. And these frontier firms can have a small number of people using AI in this way, generating a pretty high run rate. So it’s a whole new way to think about shipping, creating, and innovating.”

Challenging the ‘AI Strategy’ Myth: “The idea that you just need to have an ‘AI strategy’ is a bit of a fallacy. Really, you kind of want to start with the business problem and then apply AI. … Where are you spending the most and where do you have the biggest challenges? Those are great areas to actually think about putting AI to work for you.”

Embracing AI: “You have to build the habit and build the muscle to work in this new way and have that moment of, ‘Oh, wait, I don’t actually need to do this.’ “

Risk Management in AI: “The biggest risk is not AI in and of itself. It’s that people won’t evolve fast enough with AI. It’s the human risk and ability to actually start to really use these new tools and build the habit.”

Human Creativity and AI: “It still takes that spark and that seed of creativity. And then when you combine it with these new tools, that’s where I have a lot of hope and optimism for what people are going to be able to do and invent in the future.”

Audio editing by Curt Milton.

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