BT Group has initiated pilots of Microsoft 365 Copilot in key business areas to assess how Copilot can support colleagues and boost productivity.
Early feedback about the use of Microsoft 365 Copilot highlights how its use can support colleagues with different accessibility needs.
BT Group has identified a clear well-being benefit. Colleagues with diverse accessibility needs feel happier, more supported and more comfortable in their work.
“It very quickly became clear how much difference Copilot makes to colleagues with different accessibility needs.”
Liam Canavan, Software Engineering Principal, BT Group
BT Group is keen to explore and exploit new AI technologies responsibly for the benefit of its customers and colleagues. Seeing Microsoft Copilot as a new opportunity to get more from the business’ existing investment in its Microsoft environments, BT Group initiated a trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot across different user groups in the organisation.
“Within our trial, we allocated 45 Copilot licences to our Able2 network, which focuses on accessibility at BT Group,” explains Liam Canavan, Software Engineering Principal at BT Group. “It very quickly became clear how much difference Copilot makes to colleagues with different accessibility needs.”
“For most of my adult life, I’ve been the most dyslexic person in the room,” states Ian Chown, Senior Manager for Data Projects and Risks at BT Group. “I joined the trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot because of advantages that it offers for people who are neurodiverse.”
“Given the nature of the role I’m in, I was very hesitant about using other generative AI tools in the open cloud, given the data leakage and data security risks. I was excited to test Copilot to see whether we could gain the advantages of generative AI within all of the safeguards and guardrails we have in place in our Microsoft 365 environment.”
Ian Chown began using Microsoft 365 Copilot in September 2023 and says it has exceeded his expectations. “Using Copilot has changed the way I work. I’ve always felt quite inadequate and anxious when sending emails to senior people and peers. Using Copilot, I can suddenly get messages across in a far more prompt and efficient way.”
Before using Copilot, Ian Chown would review the emails he sent to colleagues as many as three times each, usually with twenty-minute breaks between each review. For important communications, he would often ask a colleague to check the quality of his writing. Inevitably, this meant a delay on getting back to people, even on urgent projects.
“I very quickly saw the advantages of using Copilot,” reports Ian Chown. “Within the first quarter I was saving two hours per day by using Copilot to draft and review all my correspondence. I’ve not had the same two hours offline at the end of every day where I was reviewing documents and going through the embarrassing circle of getting peer reviews. I’ve been a lot more confident when emailing people. I can respond to emails much faster – within two minutes instead of taking two hours.”
Like Ian, users across the business have reported productivity improvements. The productivity boost averages around 72 minutes per week per person in the first quarter, rising to two hours per week per person once the user’s Copilot use is more embedded. Liam Canavan estimates that it takes around six to nine months to become fully comfortable with using Copilot, so that you can creatively adapt it to assist in any task.
He says, “For our Able2 user group, Copilot is so much more. It’s removing stress from the job. It’s helping them to feel they are performing better. There’s a real wellbeing aspect to using Copilot and we’re getting that message loud and clear.”
For Ian Chown, writing formal documents could be even more stressful than drafting emails.
“When writing a report or document, most of my peers would go through one round of review,” he explains. “In contrast, my reporting writing would require more scrutiny. A document could go through as many as four review stages.”
Today, Ian’s use of Copilot has transformed this process.
He explains, “My report-writing process is now two-and-a-half days quicker than if I did it without Copilot. I use a combination of dictation and then Copilot to edit, using the prompting to go back through and refine paragraph by paragraph. When I submitted one recent document for peer review, it passed first time. I’ve never felt more comfortable in my role because, with the support of Copilot, I can literally do things straightaway.”
“Using Copilot has changed the way I work. I’ve always felt quite inadequate and anxious when sending emails to senior people and peers. Using Copilot, I can suddenly get messages across in a far more prompt and efficient way.”
Ian Chown, Senior Manager for Data Projects and Risks, BT Group
“Copilot is now integrated into everything I do,” continues Ian Chown. “I’ve always been ambitious, but I would probably now apply for a broader spectrum of roles, including those outside my comfort zone.”
While Ian’s horizons are expanding, the good news for the business is that he feels happier at BT Group than ever.
“I’ve never felt as comfortable psychologically as I have in the last six months,” Ian Chown enthuses. “For me, Microsoft 365 Copilot is an anchor to BT Group at the moment. I wouldn’t want to go to another company that doesn’t use Copilot. I fear the day that we lose our licences.”
While the Able2 group trial has been most immediately successfully received, BT Group is currently exploring use cases for other user groups. Work is ongoing to understand the potential for different departments and personas, assessing how Copilot could augment each role and aiming to put a number on the productivity savings that could be achieved by rolling out Copilot.
The BT Group team is extremely creative in how it communicates with these users. As well as producing short, engaging videos on different Copilot topics, it sends out a daily email containing a prompt to try out each day. These are usually fun ideas to spark people’s imagination, such as asking Copilot to identify your superpower based on how you interact with colleagues.
In the meantime, the business has a fabulously engaged group of users who are excelling at gaining value from the technology and in helping others to master the potential benefits. BT Group now hopes to share the fantastic learning through the business.
Liam Canavan explains, “Copilot has levelled the playing field for our Able2 colleagues. In some cases, people feel they have exceeded the level of their colleagues. They are leading the conversations. Having become Copilot power users, they have begun to teach others how to use and benefit from Copilot.”
For example, Copilot can be used equally successfully for content creation and editing, says Ian Chown. He explains, “Generating a first draft of a document as a standalone document works really well. I like to link it to another document for tone or content. The document will be about 80 percent right.”
“I use Copilot to continue to work on the document and get it the other 20 percent of the way. It works better to edit the tone one paragraph at a time, rather than trying to edit the entire document at once. Continually prompting it, paragraph by paragraph works best for me. It's a rapid, iterative process.”
“For a few weeks, try to have a ‘Copilot first’ mentality on every task,” Ian Chown recommends. “Think: can it do something for me here? This way, you can build your confidence in its ability.”
This does require a different mindset, he warns. For example, for the first month or so Ian Chown added a short disclaimer to his emails to advise they have been drafted using Copilot. This way, colleagues weren’t left wondering when there was a change to the usual tone or style of his replies.
“It's being comfortable with somebody else taking control of the delivery of an answer,” he explains. “Think of prompting as you would think of delegating: I need this e-mail to have this structure, this tone, this content. If you think like this, you gain a better response.”
“This project has been very special,” says Liam Canavan. “As IT professionals, we spend a lot of time supporting the platforms our colleagues use. Rarely do we have an opportunity to support our colleagues so directly. It’s quite rare to put that at the forefront of what we are doing and that makes this rollout especially rewarding.”
Howard Watson, Chief Security and Networks Officer and executive sponsor for the Able2 Network, agrees, “Over recent years, I've felt a great sense of pride in BT Group's efforts to modify our workspaces to promote equal chances for individuals with disabilities. Thanks to our collaboration with Microsoft, we've been able to implement Copilot as a viable aid for our colleagues who need it, aiding in task management, streamlining communication, and boosting overall productivity. Together with BT Group's array of tools and support options, Copilot stands as a robust supporter, poised to assist in navigating various workplace obstacles.”
One of the most rewarding aspects of the trial has been to inspire a greater, deeper conversation about accessibility needs at BT Group.
Liam Canavan reports that “Even people who didn’t really talk openly about their needs before have been very open about how Copilot has changed their day-to-day work. It’s been really powerful. There’s a real buzz around Copilot and it’s helping us to understand what other accessibility needs we need to look at.”
“For our Able2 user group, Copilot is so much more. It’s removing stress from the job. It’s helping them to feel they are performing better. There’s a real well-being aspect to using Copilot and we’re getting that message loud and clear.”
Liam Canavan, Software Engineering Principal, BT Group
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