Accelerating AI adoption for global consulting firm with Microsoft Copilot

Our customer, a global consultancy focused on operational excellence, safety, and sustainability, is constantly seeking ways to improve internal efficiency and client delivery. With Microsoft Copilot emerging as a transformative tool for productivity, our customer wanted to explore how generative AI could support its consulting and sales teams in working smarter and faster.

The organisation had several goals:

• Identify high-value use cases for Copilot that aligned with strategic priorities.
• Reduce time spent on repetitive tasks such as proposal generation and data gathering.
• Improve access to internal knowledge and documents across fragmented systems.
• Build internal capability and confidence in using AI tools effectively.

To achieve this, Betterworking was engaged to run a two-phase engagement: a Value Discovery phase to uncover opportunities, followed by a Copilot Early Adoption programme to activate those opportunities with real users.

Phase 1: Value Discovery

Betterworking began by conducting stakeholder interviews and process mapping across sales, consulting, and enterprise applications teams. This surfaced several pain points:

• Time-consuming manual processes for sourcing client data and preparing proposals.
• Difficulty locating relevant documents due to siloed knowledge repositories.
• Limited awareness of how Copilot could be applied to real-world workflows.

Three priority scenarios were selected for activation:

• Targeting & Prospecting – using Copilot to streamline lead qualification and market research.
• Proposal Generation – accelerating the creation of client-ready documents with consistent messaging.
• Knowledge Management – improving access to internal content via SharePoint.

Additional scenarios were identified for future exploration, including sustainability due diligence and lessons learned documentation.

Phase 2: Early Adoption

A structured 6-week programme was launched to onboard champions and early adopters across the business. Key components included:

• Readiness & Setup: Licensing, data access, and a dedicated Copilot Adoption Hub was established in Teams to support community learning.

• Onboarding & Training: Scenario-specific kick-off sessions and core skills training helped users understand how to use Copilot effectively in their day-to-day work.

• Support & Iteration: Weekly check-ins enabled feedback collection, prompt refinement, and sharing of best practices. Champions played a key role in driving engagement and surfacing insights.

• Measurement & Review: Adoption metrics were tracked via the Copilot Dashboard, and sentiment was captured through surveys and feedback sessions. This informed recommendations for scaling adoption.

The programme emphasised practical usage, prompt engineering, and scenario contextualisation to ensure relevance and impact.

The engagement delivered strong results across multiple dimensions, with exceptional feedback from both the project team and early adopter users:

High Engagement
Users reported daily and weekly usage of Copilot across Outlook, Word, Teams, and SharePoint. Champions actively contributed prompts and shared learnings in the Adoption Hub.

Time Savings
Many users reported saving 15–30 minutes per day, with some exceeding an hour. Copilot helped reduce time spent on repetitive tasks and improved document quality.

Improved Workflows
Copilot enabled faster access to information, better proposal structuring, and more efficient collaboration. The researcher agent and summarisation features were particularly valued.

Positive Sentiment
Survey results showed high satisfaction and confidence in using Copilot. Champions praised the scenario-based approach and the flexibility of the Betterworking team.

Scalable Foundation
The project established a strong base for future adoption, with reusable resources, trained champions, and a clear roadmap for expanding Copilot usage across the business.