Microsoft: Indonesian AI Users Display Critical Thinking, Classified as Frontier Professionals
Microsoft’s Work Trend Index (WTI) 2026 report reveals that 33% of artificial intelligence (AI) users in Indonesia fall into the category of ‘frontier professionals’—users who utilise AI with a high level of maturity.
Fiki Setiyono, Senior Cloud and AI Platform GTM for Microsoft ASEAN, explained during a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday that AI users in Indonesia do not merely use technology to assist with complex tasks, but also create new ways of working supported by AI without fully delegating the decision-making process to the technology.
“Instead, they use their critical thinking skills to achieve the best results from the capabilities of these AI agents, expanding their ways of thinking and increasing their cognitive capacity,” said Fiki.
The number of AI users in Indonesia classified as frontier professionals is twice as large as the global average of 16%. According to him, Indonesia is one of the standout countries in the utilisation of AI agents within the Asia Pacific region.
Based on the research findings, 82% of respondents in Indonesia claimed they were able to complete tasks previously considered difficult or even impossible. This figure is significantly higher than the global average of 58%.
Furthermore, 74% of respondents stated they are accustomed to determining which tasks will be assigned to AI before they begin working. Meanwhile, 38% of respondents admitted they continue to perform part of their work independently without AI assistance to ensure their skills remain sharp. This percentage is higher than that of non-frontier users in Indonesia, which stands at 28%.
Microsoft also found that AI usage among frontier professionals is no longer limited to providing prompts to chatbots. Fiki explained that there are four main patterns in AI utilisation: delegation, collaboration, querying, and exploration.
In the delegation stage, users hand over parts of task execution to AI agents. In collaboration, AI is used as a partner to assist in the analysis and decision-making process. Meanwhile, AI is also utilised as a research tool to seek information through a Q&A process, and as an exploration partner when facing increasingly complex problems.
Nevertheless, Fiki emphasised that the primary characteristic of frontier professionals is not just the ability to utilise various AI functions, but also the willingness to remain responsible for the final output produced.
“Therefore, in addition to utilising AI with the available tools, frontier professionals continue to position themselves as being responsible for the results and their impacts,” said Fلقة.
According to Microsoft, the maturity of AI usage in Indonesia is also evident in the strengthening role of human judgement in the technology utilisation process. Approximately 62% of respondents believe that the ability to think critically and analyse information objectively is becoming increasingly important in the AI era.
Additionally, 60% of respondents stated that the quality control process for AI-generated outputs is now becoming crucial as the complexity of tasks delegated to AI agents increases.
Other findings show that 93% of AI users in Indonesia consider AI-generated results to be merely a starting point, rather than a final decision. “AI users in Indonesia continue to place human judgement at the centre of their decisions regarding how they will use AI agents,” said Fiki.
He assessed that this approach is one of the key differentiators between merely adopting AI and achieving a level of maturity in its utilisation. “One of the differentiators between AI adoption and maturity in using AI is a mindset that maintains that AI judgement remains important, even critical,” he said.