As it strives to become a digitally-led local government organisation, Oxfordshire County Council sees generative AI as a key enabler.
The council has now taken the bold decision to give every member of its workforce access to Microsoft Copilot.
Managers and practitioners have collectively saved 25,200 hours as a result. The hiring processes are now 8,000 hours faster each year. During the pilot phase, a net present value of £3.3 million was identified.
“This project has been a fantastic example of how we can work holistically across the organisation, rather than the traditional siloed way of working by service area or department.”
Caroline French, Head of Transformation and Digital, Oxfordshire County Council
To help it deliver a greener, fairer, and healthier county for the people of Oxfordshire, the County Council is transforming the way it works. It is transitioning to become a digitally-led local government and position itself as an employer of choice in a diverse constituency which includes pockets of high-tech innovation. The goal? To become lean and efficient with an effective modern workforce.
Because the county council leadership sees generative AI as an important toolset in this transition, it took the bold decision to roll out Microsoft Copilot to every member of its 5,000-plus workforce, with everyone having access to Copilot Chat and 4,500 users of Microsoft 365 Copilot for office and knowledge workers.
“This is organisational change through a piece of technology—cultural, transformative, with new ways of working,” says Caroline French, Head of Transformation and Digital at Oxfordshire County Council. “And we want everyone to have a role to play in how this transforms us and how we’ll continue to transform.”
The council was confident in its decision to power forward with a global rollout of Copilot thanks to the wide-ranging pilot it ran during 2024. Involving 500 users from across all council services, the pilot was designed to explore what a full rollout of Copilot would mean for every employee.
Different personas were represented in the pilot. Innovatively, and to keep the number manageable, these personas were based on common skillsets, rather than the service or department in which someone works. They included knowledge worker, management, and business support.
“We wanted to make sure we captured the breadth of different roles across local government. That helped us shape the programme and enabled us to run cross-service training opportunities,” reports Caroline French. “This project has been a fantastic example of how we can work holistically across the organisation, rather than the traditional siloed way of working by service area or department.”
Jo Myers, Senior Organisational Effectiveness and Culture Change Consultant in HR at Oxfordshire County Council explains that working with the directors was critical to the success of the pilot: “They helped us identify the potential champions, who we knew we needed to engage, but also the less-enthusiastic users. If we don’t engage with them, we’re losing valuable insight. So we brought in different voices and viewpoints in a safe and supportive environment. We challenged our own assumptions and learnt from their feedback and concerns so that we could shape the best change programmes going forward.”
By asking the different persona groups to share the high-volume, high-intensity, and low-efficiency tasks in their area, the council identified ten use cases to explore during the proof of concept. Benefits identified as a result included:
25,200 hours saved for managers and practitioners by reducing the time taken to write supervision notes.
30,000 hours saved annually for managers through Copilot’s assistance with meeting notes and follow-ups.
Public communications to residents can be more accessible and inclusive with the support of Copilot.
8,000 hours saved annually in hiring processes, with support creating job descriptions, generating interview structures and approaches, as well as composing offer letters.
Together, the pilot results identified £3.3 million net present value—giving the council the confidence to push forward with the global rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat.
Louise Tustian, Director of Transformation, Digital Data and Customer Experience at Oxfordshire County Council, emphasises, “Microsoft Copilot is an important technology and it is critical to us that everyone has an equal chance to benefit from it.”
“Microsoft Copilot is an important technology and it is critical to us that everyone has an equal chance to benefit from it.”
Louise Tustian, Director of Transformation, Digital Data and Customer Experience, Oxfordshire County Council
Another important learning from the proof of concept was the degree of essential training required to onboard people to the change—from terminology to prompting skills.
“We recognise that to make this a success, it’s going to take people,” explains Jo Myers. “It isn’t just a technology sitting there. We need to build engagement.”
The team fostered that sense of excitement around Copilot by creating The Hangar—a Teams channel for resources and advice—and The Flight School, which communicates training opportunities. Copilot Ambassadors from across the business also helped to generate a buzz and make the learning relevant to their area.
“Not a single day goes by without me using Copilot. I love it,” says Maggie Wang, a Copilot Ambassador and Information Systems Specialist in HR at Oxfordshire County Council. “I use Copilot to help me brainstorm, to research and question different options, and to debug code. The fact Copilot is in the place where I’m working—Microsoft productivity tools and Power BI—makes it so convenient. I don’t have to leave what I am doing to find help or answers. I just love it.”
“Change is hard in local government,” acknowledges Louise Tustian. “Having Maggie demonstrate the art of the possible excites people. That helps us duplicate her success across the organisation. The feedback from our launch event was ‘I want what Maggie has!’”
The team was conscious it needed to keep the sense of excitement around Copilot high; they did not want use to plateau. Oxfordshire County Council brought escape rooms to multiple council buildings across the council estate.
These “AIscape” rooms created a gamified, team-based experience designed to introduce colleagues to AI concepts and Microsoft Copilot capabilities in an engaging and immersive format. Teams competed to solve AI-themed challenges, making the experience both educational and entertaining. This initiative aimed to demystify AI, build digital confidence, and reinforce the council’s commitment to inclusive digital transformation. As part of a broader engagement strategy, the AIscape Room supported key objectives: raising awareness of Copilot, fostering experimentation and prompt literacy, and embedding Copilot into everyday workflows.
“We had a great response because it was fun, energising, and so unlike local government,” says Caroline French. “We don’t want people to think, ‘Oh no, this is a new technology I need to learn,’ or feel pressure. Doing something different, creating excitement, boosts the success of our embedding programme.”
To maintain the sense of excitement, the council leant into the support of Microsoft to host a Copilot Hackathon. This was a full-day event designed to foster innovation and collaboration. Its primary objective was to empower teams to design and prototype AI agents using Microsoft Copilot technologies, with a focus on solving real operational challenges. At the end of the day, teams made a “Dragons’ Den” style pitch presentation. Over 80 participants formed 11 cross-functional teams, each tasked with developing agents that could automate tasks, analyse data, and improve service delivery.
“It was another of those ‘see it to believe it’ moments,” says Caroline French. “It gave us a baseline which will help to propel us through the next six months of embedding.”
30,000 hours saved annually for managers
During the hackathon, the teams created Copilot agents to solve the problem they brought to the day. For example, an operations team from adult social care created a Copilot agent to handle large volumes of invoices and customer enquiries. The commercial team built an agent to guide people through the commercial procurement process. The HR team built an agent which provides links to essential forms and gives real-time updates on candidate progress.
“At the end of the day, I could see so many Copilot agents that we could borrow or adapt for our service,” says Maggie Wang. “I think it’s most powerful when you can see your peers use Copilot to tackle a real problem which you can relate to and apply in your own daily work.”
“The hackathon was a key moment where we came together as an organisation, breaking down those silos,” agrees Jo Myers. “I don’t think we anticipated that when we first went on this journey. Especially after COVID, finding those moments to come together, have moments of learning and connection together, and to feel proud of our organisation is fantastic.”
After six months, the project remains on course to meet its efficiency and savings goals. Copilot has so far enabled the release of approximately 174,000 hours, which if fully realised equates to £2.2 million in officer capacity, allowing individuals to perform tasks aligned with their skills and abilities that add real value.
“We’ve learnt as well that Copilot doesn’t stand still,” says Caroline French. “So we need to keep learning and adapting too.”
As the council progresses into developing agents, it is exploring how to ensure good governance and compliance around agentic AI. As part of the global rollout, it has already upgraded its cybersecurity and compliance approaches with Microsoft security solutions, including Microsoft Purview and Data Loss Protection via E5 licencing.
“To support the Copilot rollout, a strategic decision was made to upgrade from E3 to E5 licences,” Alastair Read, Head of IT at Oxfordshire County Council, explains. “’Check your wheels are down before you land’ was one of the main messages. E5 was the technical side of it. The people side of it was the training.”
This upgrade was essential to unlock advanced Microsoft security features such as data loss prevention and sensitivity labelling; critical tools for safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring compliance. These capabilities were not available under E3 and were deemed necessary to mitigate the risks associated with AI-assisted workflows and data handling. The move to E5 also aligned with the Council’s broader digital posture, which prioritises secure, ethical, and responsible AI adoption. By keeping data within the Microsoft ecosystem and restricting unauthorised external AI tools like ChatGPT, the Council reinforced its commitment to protecting organisational data from being used to train external models.
Alastair Read continues, “This licensing upgrade was not just a technical requirement—it was a foundational step in enabling Copilot to operate effectively within a secure environment. It also supported the Council’s ambition to embed AI into real service delivery processes, rather than treating it as a standalone tool. As part of this transformation, the Council has invested in comprehensive training, ongoing updates to policy and governance frameworks, and a migration from shared drives to SharePoint to enhance data labelling and retention.”
“There’s a lot to think about through the lens of Copilot—the skills we need to bring into the organisation, how we position ourselves as an employer of choice—it is a massive journey,” acknowledges Louise Tustian. “We have a long way to go but we are doing well. We want to keep this sense of excitement alive!”
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“The fact Copilot is in the place where I’m working—Microsoft productivity tools and Power BI—makes it so convenient. I don’t have to leave what I am doing to find help or answers. I just love it.”
Maggie Wang, Copilot Ambassador, Information Systems Specialist in HR, Oxfordshire County Council
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