First West Credit Union accelerates service with Microsoft Copilot and AI agents

First West Credit Union was exploring generative and agentic AI solutions to reduce administrative burden, scale expertise, and enable teams to spend more time supporting members.

The credit union adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot, infusing AI across Microsoft 365 for increased productivity, and leveraging Copilot Studio for its out-of-the-box capabilities and custom agent development.

First West is seeing 93% employee adoption and a 90% weekly utilization rate, enabling faster, more precise service delivery.

First West Credit Union, the fifth-largest credit union in Canada, serves more than 253,000 members with a comprehensive suite of banking services, from daily banking to mortgages and complex lending.

Guided by its mission to help everyone flourish, First West is reshaping how its teams work, and how members are supported, by putting Microsoft 365 Copilot and agentic AI tools directly into the hands of employees. With a culture that embraces new technology and a shared commitment to continuous improvement, the credit union is already seeing profound impact: 93% of employees report confidence adapting to new tools, and Copilot is becoming a catalyst for efficiency and growth.

“I’d call it a productivity boom. Almost every team member at First West has had their Copilot ‘aha’ moment.”

David Arrowsmith, VP Business Solutions, First West Credit Union

Raising the bar for productivity

Copilot’s impact is being felt across departments and roles. By embedding AI into everyday workflows, and across Microsoft 365 tools such as Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams, employees at every level are now equipped to work smarter.

“I’d call it a productivity boom. Almost every team member at First West has had their Copilot ‘aha’ moment,” explains
David Arrowsmith, VP Business Solutions at First West Credit Union.

For financial advisors, Copilot lifts the burden of manual, time-consuming work. Tasks that once required switching between systems, drafting member emails, summarizing discovery notes, preparing mortgage comparisons, and organizing follow-ups, are now significantly faster and easier to complete.

“Copilot has transformed the way I support members. By taking care of the manual tasks in the background, it gives me the time and clarity to truly focus on people—their goals, their questions, their next steps. I’m connecting with more members, having richer conversations, and providing more personalized guidance than ever before.” says Pam Bassi, Senior Financial Advisor at Envision Financial, a division of First West Credit Union.

These efficiencies translate directly into stronger member relationships. Advisors describe Copilot as an “assistant” that helps them stay consistent and prepared, particularly when managing large portfolios or navigating complex cases.

In People & Culture, the team has seen a real shift in how they work with Copilot. Survey comment analysis used to take entire afternoons, and now they can get through it so much faster. Beyond that, Copilot has simplified many of the smaller tasks they handle every day: pulling details together, organizing information, and getting quick summaries. It’s allowing the team to spend more of their time on the people focused work that really matters.

“Copilot has elevated the way our team supports the organization,” shares Lisa Schmitke, Director of HR Operations and Solutions at First West Credit Union. “With routine tasks handled more seamlessly, we’re able to spend more of our time on the work that truly makes a difference—partnering with leaders, developing our people, and strengthening our training and development programs.”

For leaders, Copilot has also become a strategic partner, helping structure communications and prepare materials that would otherwise take days. Simon Mills, President of Valley First, a division of First West Credit Union, for example, uses Copilot to create meeting agendas, review long documents, and surface insights he can share with teams, helping him stay clear even when juggling multiple priorities.

“Copilot has transformed the way I support members. By taking care of the manual tasks in the background, it gives me the time and clarity to truly focus on people—their goals, their questions, their next steps. I’m connecting with more members, having richer conversations, and providing more personalized guidance than ever before.”

Pam Bassi, Senior Financial Advisor, First West Credit Union

Taking AI further with agentic tools

Once Copilot took root, First West quickly advanced into agentic AI, using Copilot Studio to build deeper intelligence into daily workflows. These agents now support employees with rapid insights and real-time guidance.

There are several types of agents:

Researcher and Analyst agents for quick, contextual insights
Retrieval agents that interpret policy and procedure documentation in seconds
Custom-built agents tailored to commercial banking and leadership workflows

These agents encode expertise into reusable, repeatable workflows, allowing teams to pull together complex information from multiple sources, generate consistent, accurate outputs every time, reduce manual review cycles, focus on higher-value conversations, decisions, and member needs.

“Agentic AI allows us to operate with the effectiveness of a team nearly 40% larger. Advisors can adjudicate and assess risk far more efficiently, cutting turnaround times and enabling us to support members with greater speed and consistency.” says Simon Mills.

“Agentic AI allows us to operate with the effectiveness of a team nearly 40% larger. Advisors can adjudicate and assess risk far more efficiently, cutting turnaround times and enabling us to support members with greater speed and consistency.”

Simon Mills, President of Valley First, a division of First West Credit Union

Innovating responsibly

As an ambitious, fast-growing organization, First West embraces technology at pace, but with security always front of mind. This commitment was a core deciding factor in its decision to partner with Microsoft and adopt Copilot.

“Our approach is to go quickly, but safely. We need to ensure that our data is in great shape and that we can observe what's going on at all times. Copilot and being in the Microsoft ecosystem has enabled us to do just that.” says David Arrowsmith.

Built on Microsoft’s trusted cloud platform, Copilot is secure by design, protecting privacy and keeping business data safe within the boundaries of Microsoft 365. With advanced security and compliance capabilities, and seamless connectivity to Microsoft Security solutions, Copilot gives financial services firms the confidence to embrace AI responsibly.

For other organizations looking to adopt Copilot, Arrowsmith recommends starting with a strong data foundation to maximize security, observability, and the full potential of AI.

“My advice is to consolidate your data and content all in one place. Integrate it into the Microsoft ecosystem wherever possible,” he says. “Avoid the urge to extract data from core systems to enable generative AI—it's far more effective to harness Microsoft's connectors and integrations to link Copilot directly to your existing data and infrastructure."

“Our approach is to go quickly, but safely. We need to ensure that our data is in great shape and that we can observe what's going on at all times. Copilot and being in the Microsoft ecosystem has enabled us to do just that.”

David Arrowsmith, VP Business Solutions, First West Credit Union

A culture of growth, curiosity, and readiness

Copilot adoption has been so successful in part because First West intentionally fosters a culture that embraces learning and experimentation.

Employees use AI-driven goal setting to refine their objectives, identify new skills, and explore career paths they may not have previously considered. By taking repetitive tasks off their plates, Copilot gives teams the time and cognitive space to deepen expertise and test new ideas.

“93% of our employees feel confident using Copilot. They are now able to automate the basics and focus more on growth, development, and the next-level conversations that take our work further.” says Lisa Schmitke.

“Our weekly utilization of Copilot is north of 90%,” adds David Arrowsmith. “That is because our team members are really seeing how it can make a difference for them every day.”

“93% of our employees feel confident using Copilot. They are now able to automate the basics and focus more on growth, development, and the next-level conversations that take our work further.”

Lisa Schmitke, Director, HR Operations & Solutions, First West Credit Union

A future shaped by tremendous opportunities

With Copilot, First West has enriched employee experience, enabling advisors to better understand members' needs and elevate support, at the click of a button. By putting AI into the hands of its teams, the credit union is undergoing a profound transformation, driving change with purpose and vision for everyone: from leadership to frontline staff to customers.

“Human connection is vital in providing financial advice,” affirms David Arrowsmith. “Copilot can support this and is transforming the way we deliver our services.”

The success of this initiative has inspired First West to expand AI into other areas of the business, such as anti-money laundering (AML), fraud prevention, and commercial lending. By doing so, the organization can increase the accuracy of risk identification, and free time for commercial advisors to focus on customer relationships and strategic growth.

To continue this momentum, First West is committed to further collaboration with Microsoft, ensuring AI delivers impact, while maintaining security and compliance.

“What excites me the most is the opportunity to keep partnering with Microsoft, with other credit unions, and even with regulatory bodies around how best to navigate AI in financial services to serve our members well,” says David Arrowsmith.

Looking ahead, First West sees AI as a catalyst for broader change within the financial services sector, delivering a competitive advantage for smaller organizations.

“AI is really leveling the playing field in financial services, and I think that's super exciting for Canadian credit unions,” notes Arrowsmith. “We have tremendous opportunities ahead.”

But whatever the future holds, the impact of AI at First West is already unmistakable: “The set of capabilities we’ve brought forward with Copilot and Microsoft has led our advisors to say it’s the most impactful technology we’ve implemented in over a decade,” says David Arrowsmith. “It’s changing how we work—and how we connect.”

Discover more about First West Credit Union on LinkedIn.

“The set of capabilities we’ve brought forward with Copilot and Microsoft has led our advisors to say it’s the most impactful technology we’ve implemented in over a decade.”

David Arrowsmith, VP Business Solutions, First West Credit Union