Business-Centric Approach to Microsoft Copilot Adoption Drives Energy Company’s Operational Evolution

This large energy company had invested in several thousand Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses but found that adoption rates were not as robust as anticipated, with only about 30 percent of those licenses in use. The company was a long-standing Protiviti client and maximizing both the company’s and our partnership with Microsoft, brought our team onboard to support a push to engage new users. Microsoft provided $86,000 in End Customer Investment Funds (ECIF) to help with this effort.

Assessment leads to implementation

Protiviti’s approach to any project focused on Microsoft Copilot adoption is to take a business-centric perspective. We work with the client to determine how we can best drive personal productivity across the business and ultimately begin to transform business/operational procedures and processes.

For this project, we partnered with the company’s Director of Digital Workplace Services to effectively coordinate our efforts across the organization. We conducted assessments to gauge the client’s current state, including reviewing what was working, what wasn’t and what the client would like to do differently going forward. While the in-house Copilot team had done initial, base-level training and promotion to reach 1,500 users, adoption had slowed. Our primary challenge would be to effectively integrate this technology into the existing infrastructure and ensure its optimal utilization across multiple departments. The company also preferred to focus on organic growth driven by motivated new users, versus assigning licenses by department.

Following the assessment, we developed a customized adoption strategy tailored to the client's specific requirements. This strategy included detailed plans for deployment, training programs for staff, and measures to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the technology post-implementation. Features of the strategy included:

• Development of an initial outreach plan
• Creation of a user lifecycle, from on-boarding to endorsement using identified personas specific to this client’s workforce
• Development of specific, advanced application training leveraging Microsoft Chat and Microsoft Loop
• Introduction of multi-channel training, content and office hours, to build confidence and increase adoption across the organization
• Introduction of ongoing knowledge sharing as teams began to understand the power of the technology

A significant part of the work involved facilitating seamless integration of Microsoft Copilot into existing systems. We worked closely with the company’s IT team to ensure the technology was implemented without disrupting ongoing operations. This was complemented by a robust support structure to address any technical issues promptly.

Change management drives success

Change management techniques played a crucial role in promoting Microsoft Copilot's usage across the organization. We wanted to build excitement for Copilot, emphasizing the timesaving efficiencies the tool could deliver. We designed and delivered comprehensive virtual training programs, ensuring all employees, regardless of their technical proficiency, could utilize Copilot effectively. Ranging from basic Copilot skills to more advanced techniques for using the tool, these training sessions focused on demonstrating the practical applications of Microsoft Copilot in daily tasks, encouraging employees to incorporate it into their workflows.

We also developed specialized training offerings including a Copilot Chat and Microsoft Copilot in Loop session, the latter being a more advanced user feature. A “prompt of the week” message to all users continued the informal education loop. Materials were designed to match the client’s brand, reinforcing the corporate commitment to Copilot adoption.

Protiviti also helped the client implement processes for maximizing the Copilot dashboard to track usage and impact of Microsoft Copilot within the organization. This allowed the organization to measure the success of the implementation and identify areas for further improvement.

Delivering impressive results

Almost immediately, the client began seeing impressive results in Copilot adoption, an operational evolution of sorts as the use of available licenses increased by 32 percent. The organization reported enhanced productivity, improved decision-making, and an overall increase in operational efficiency since the implementation. Employees embraced Copilot, integrating it into their daily activities, which fostered a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. Specifically,

• Copilot is saving users time: Each month, Copilot users are spending less time in meetings and sending fewer emails and chats compared to non-Copilot users
• Copilot actions tripled since the beginning of the program, which is a result of new licenses being rolled out, training, office hours, outreach and Viva Engage community development to drive ongoing adoption.
• Copilot actions increased 161%

The client is now working on a Copilot roadmap with wider deployment, establishing a blend of persona and industry-based solutions. Anticipated solutions address business process transformation across multiple areas, including operational efficiency and cost optimization, improving safety and compliance resiliency, and project management optimization.

Introducing AI to daily operations

AI is coming to the workplace. A 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report from Microsoft and LinkedIn found that “employees want AI and leaders are looking for a path forward . . . While leaders agree AI is a business imperative, many believe their organization lacks a plan and vision to go from individual impact to applying AI to drive the bottom line. The pressure to show immediate ROI is making leaders inert, even in the face of AI inevitability.”

Many companies do not have processes in place to evaluate, select and drive adoption of AI tools. Yet AI is where the successful management of work is headed. It is the new skill businesses need to continue to grow and thrive. Introducing Copilot generates immediate impact on a company’s AI journey. For most employees, using Copilot will be their first AI experience in the workplace. Knowing that, it is important for organizations to have a strategic plan when implementing Microsoft Copilot.