Burke gains a superpower with Microsoft 365 Copilot as part of its research and consulting

Burke is a global data-driven consultancy that helps companies connect insights to business outcomes. For nearly 100 years, Burke has been a trusted advisor to its clients, but its time-intensive research process required hours of work to prepare, conduct, analyze, and synthesize. To better serve its clients, Burke aimed to accelerate time to insights to solve their business problems more quickly. 

Employees’ inherent curiosity with Copilot at every desk

Burke saw the value of Microsoft 365 Copilot, quickly transitioning from test runs to widespread employee adoption. “Our philosophy and culture is to rally quickly around new technology, like Copilot, to make the most of it. Rolling out Copilot to our employees brought their curiosity to the surface,” says Mike Webster, CTO of Burke. “We empowered our teams to test the limits of Copilot in all parts of the business.” 

Each week Burke holds AI Office Hours, where people share examples of how they’re using Copilot in their work. Employees explore ways to apply what they learn to their jobs. Thania Farrar, SVP of Corporate Innovation at Burke, says, “Copilot is improving things as we constantly exchange ideas, thinking, ‘That’s interesting—we should try that.’” 

Burke emphasizes the constant exchange of ideas, including establishing a prompt library that all employees can access. Its goal is to build upon everyone’s knowledge of how to use Copilot to complete tasks more efficiently. Employees learn from each other, using both the prompt library and office hours.

Copilot accelerating research, development, and innovation practices

Webster says, “Microsoft 365 Copilot has transformed our ability to deliver insights with speed, efficiency, and precision. With Copilot, we‘ve significantly reduced the time required for basic tasks. Now our teams focus on higher-value strategic work for our clients.”

Using Copilot, Burke is unlocking new levels of efficiency and enhancing value to clients. Because the tool is seamlessly incorporated into the organization’s workflows, it provides the advanced security and quality that clients expect. Jason Robey, VP of Technology and Process Innovation at Burke, explains, “With Copilot, we can take thousands of open-ended responses and have summaries with categories and themes in 10 or 20 seconds.” Copilot quickly processes and organizes information, which frees employees to spend more of their time delivering innovative solutions for their clients. 

Clients provide significant volumes of data, including proprietary research and confidential business strategies. “With Copilot, our analysts are able to review and analyze client information in four to six hours. Before, it might take them 30 to 40 hours,” says Robey. 

Farrar shares the impact for her team, explaining, “We know our timelines are better, and Copilot leads us to more tangible conclusions on how to get our clients on a path to innovation faster.” Copilot is helping to halve the time it takes to synthesize information, getting employees more quickly to the strategic and creative thinking that is their expertise. As a result, their clients get a more comprehensive perspective faster. 

The impact of Copilot permeates Burke. “Copilot helps our talented people have a superpower to get through tasks faster and enhance our deliverables,” says Kyle Swan, Director of Data Science and Engineering at Burke. It had taken the team hours or days to search the web for answers to coding challenges. Copilot now provides solutions with better outcomes in seconds. 

No more blank screen anxiety in the future

“Agents will transform our processes, and they will make organizational knowledge available to everyone instead of being stuck in a silo,” says Robey. One example he provides is Copilot and AI agents helping in the future to write questionnaires and surveys that give employees a starting template. Employees can draw from the collective past successes and expertise of the entire company to start new projects, even if they don't have specific expertise in that area.

Employees drawing from each other’s expertise to help their clients

Burke is continually evolving how it helps clients grow, from bringing new innovations to market to solving key challenges. Employees draw on each other’s knowledge and Copilot experiences to improve their research and analysis. “Burke is embracing Microsoft 365 Copilot as a core component of our research and consulting workflows, transforming our ability to deliver insights with speed, efficiency, and precision to benefit our clients,” concludes Webster.