Chin Hin Group builds an AI-first workforce with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams Rooms

Chin Hin Group needed to support and empower its workforce at scale, streamline repetitive processes bogging down HR and administrative teams, and build a culture of continuous learning that aligned talent development with business priorities.

It adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams Rooms to automate routine tasks, streamline workflows, and upskill its workforce through an internal certification program and four flagship Copilot training programs aligned to Microsoft badges.

Chin Hin achieved a 50% time savings in meeting setup, 91% meeting room utilization, and a 93% employee satisfaction rate. More than 200 employees earned Copilot certification and 1,500 badges, as AI became central to how Chin Hin works and competes.

In the construction and real estate sector, the pressure to modernize and scale talent development has never been more acute. Chin Hin Group, a prominent integrated builder in Malaysia, recognized that its existing processes and fragmented talent strategies could no longer sustain its ambitions. What began five decades ago as a small hardware shop has grown into a conglomerate spanning trading, manufacturing, property development, and construction engineering, plus home and living solutions. For a company of this scale and complexity, leadership understood that transformation couldn’t begin with technology alone; it had to start with people. Supporting and empowering its workforce across a diversified business would require an entirely new approach.

Building an AI-ready culture from the inside out

To meet these challenges, Chin Hin turned to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Teams Rooms, building a structured adoption program designed to move the entire organization forward together. The company created its Centre of Excellence (CoE), a hub designed to modernize HR, align talent development with business priorities, and build a culture of continuous learning. Discovery workshops had already revealed that repetitive tasks consumed up to 70% of HR and administrative teams' time, making clear that talent development and operational efficiency were inseparable, and that Copilot and Teams Rooms were uniquely positioned to address both.

Chin Hin's approach was grounded in a clear principle. “Human intelligence and artificial intelligence must work together,” says Abel Saw, Chief Transformation Officer at Chin Hin Group. “The bridge between the two is the skills, not the tools.” Rather than treating Copilot as a productivity tool alone, the company positioned it as a competitive advantage, embedding adoption at the policy level rather than the training level. Its methodology moved through three layers: adding AI into existing processes, automating end-to-end workflows, and ultimately replacing workflows with agentic AI entirely.

Chin Hin started with 114 Copilot seats, expanding monthly as adoption grew across the organization. It curated four flagship internal Copilot programs, each aligned to a Microsoft badge, so employees who completed them earned recognized AI credentials, and created its own internal Copilot certification to drive structured adoption at scale. The company ran more than 15 Copilot training sessions with over 1,000 employees participating, and hosted an AI hackathon. Chin Hin also made prompt fluency a core focus, treating it as the foundational language of AI literacy.

“Today, we hear colleagues across the business asking, ‘Can we do this in Copilot?’ That's when you know the culture is changing.”

Abel Saw, Chief Transformation Officer, Chin Hin Group

Employees use Copilot for proposal drafting, site and safety report summarization, procurement comparison, and finance and board reporting. Teams Rooms meeting summaries keep distributed teams aligned and reduce the burden of post-meeting documentation. ”Those insights then guide where we deploy autonomous AI agents so staff spend less time on routine work and more on higher-value contributions.” It’s a shift that reaches every level of the organization. “Today, we hear colleagues across the business asking, ‘Can we do this in Copilot?’ That's when you know the culture is changing," he adds.

Turning adoption into measurable business outcomes

The results reflect how deeply Copilot and Teams Rooms have taken hold. Chin Hin has experienced a 50% time savings when setting up meetings, a 91% meeting room utilization, and a 93% employee satisfaction rate post-implementation. “Copilot is now central to how we train our people,” says Saw. “More than 1,500 badges have already been earned by our staff,” serving as an indicator of the skills its workforce has built within the Microsoft 365 productivity ecosystem.

The company is already looking ahead. Active expansion discussions for Microsoft Copilot Studio and Microsoft Security Copilot are expected to close in FY26, extending Chin Hin's AI operating model further across the business. For Saw, the urgency is clear. “In the generative AI era, it's not the stronger overpowering the weaker,” he says. “It's the faster defeating the slower.” That conviction shapes everything Chin Hin does. “Vision still matters,” Saw adds, “but velocity decides.”

“Copilot is now central to how we train our people. More than 1,500 badges have already been earned by our staff.”

Abel Saw, Chief Transformation Officer, Chin Hin Group

The market has already taken notice. Chin Hin Group earned the Pikom Digital Excellence Award 2025 for Outstanding Digital Transformation, recognition that its people-first approach is working. “Our people and our digital backbone are no longer standing in the past,” Saw concludes. “We are building the future with confidence.”

Discover more about Chin Hin Group on LinkedIn.