USF student ambassadors boost Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption and time to value

To maximize the benefits and ROI of Copilot across the university community, USF launched an innovative program that pairs student ambassadors with staff and faculty.

Supported with hands-on training sessions from Microsoft, students use Microsoft 365 Copilot to help staff solve their most pressing day-to-day challenges.

Students approach problems creatively, delivering solutions and agents that are delivering huge time savings and efficiencies. Staff are inspired and students gain real-world work experience.

“This program changes the culture when it comes to using AI as an accelerator. And it does it in a way that is friendly and joyous.”

Sidney Fernandes, CIO, University of South Florida.

The University of South Florida is a top-ranked research university and a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), with campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and USF Health. With approximately 50,000 students, USF is home to 14 colleges, offering more than 240 undergraduate, graduate, specialist, and doctoral degree programs.

In this busy education environment, advancing staff and students’ understanding and use of new and rapidly changing AI tools and capabilities is a challenge.

“Copilot’s ability to transform people’s workflow in the jobs they are already doing just keeps getting better and better,” says Sidney Fernandes, CIO at University of South Florida. “The only thing that’s holding us back is teaching people how to use Microsoft Copilot as personal accelerators in their day-to-day lives.”

“Folks at the University are busy. Trying to get them into large seminars or traditional training are not scalers for us. We wanted to meet our clients where they are, with the folks who know them best.”

“Every role benefits from learning AI and Copilot.”

Riccardo Titanti, Student Ambassador, Microsoft 365 Copilot, USF

A student-powered model creates a multiplier effect

USF developed a student-powered approach to the technology rollout. Handpicked student ambassadors receive training from the University and direct from Microsoft.

“The training from Microsoft gives the students a bag of golf clubs and they are free to pick the right club for each job,” explains Sidney Fernandes.

Post-training, each pair of ambassadors are matched with a different staff or faculty team. Together, they develop solutions to their most pressing challenges. In this way, the student ambassadors deliver practical demonstrations of the power and versatility of Microsoft 365 Copilot – helping staff understand how they can use it in everyday work.

“Our students are among our smartest assets, they are the most creative and they understand digital,” explains Sidney Fernandes. “This program uses our smartest assets to empower our university community in a rapid rollout that has created a multiplier effect.”

Every role benefits from Copilot

“Every role benefits from learning AI and Copilot,” states Riccardo Titanti, Student Ambassador for Microsoft 365 Copilot at USF.

Riccardo Titanti worked with fellow Student Ambassador Angelin Benny to develop Copilot-powered solutions in real department workflows for senior-level executives in the university Communications department and, later, in the Innovative Education Digital Learning department at USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus.

“It was a little scary at first, but it ended up being a great experience,” reports Angelin Benny. “We worked together to explore how Copilot could be implemented into workflows to lessen the load.”

In the Communications department, the pair created a Copilot agent using Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot, enabling an executive assistant to generate meeting minutes grounded in previous meeting content. Angelin Benny reflects, “The Copilot agent really lessened a big burden on her. And with that extra time, she was able to use it towards other important tasks.”

“It was a little scary at first, but it ended up being a great experience. We worked together to explore how Copilot could be implemented into workflows to lessen the load.”

Angelin Benny, Student Ambassador, Microsoft 365 Copilot, USF

Real business impact for staff and faculty

“We saw lots of ROI very, very quickly from translating real-world business problems into scalable solutions,” reports Sidney Fernandes. Outcome feedback from staff includes 55% to 60% time savings on individual tasks and hours of reporting reduced to just minutes of work.

“A lot of the time, it was people not realizing that the tools they had in front of them could reduce the time they spend on routine tasks,” admits Sidney Fernandes. “In some cases, the solutions were elegantly simple. The speed at which the students create value has been amazing. Time and time again, the students came up with creative solutions for their clients which were just ‘wow’.”

When Riccardo Titanti and Angelin Benny delivered Copilot agents to reduce the burden of repetitive tasks and heavy information work for the digital learning team, it led to a lot of efficiency.

“That’s when I realized that our work mattered. We delivered significant time savings, and they were interested in expanding use cases and into other campuses,” reports Riccardo Titanti. “It definitely made me realize that AI isn’t just for engineers and technical people. Our work with Copilot is helping the whole university.”

“This program is a real win-win for our students and staff. For me, the real highlight is getting to see the students’ different approaches to solving problems with Copilot when working with clients.”

Grace Bayliss, IT Client Enablement Specialist, USF

A win-win for students and staff

Grace Bayliss, IT Client Enablement Specialist at the University of South Florida, coordinates the program. She says, “This program is a real win-win for our students and staff. For me, the real highlight is getting to see the students’ different approaches to solving problems with Copilot when working with clients.”

Some key principles have underwritten the program’s success:

All projects are time-boxed, with clear timelines to deliver results quickly
Solutions are embedded in the Microsoft environment, enhancing the tools people use every day
Solutions must be sustainable in the long-term without the intervention of IT – essentially “no code”
All university data is categorized, and solutions can only access data in the “green zone”
As well as the eight kick-off sessions with Microsoft, students complete weekly status reports and are supported with regular check-ins.

“It’s always really cool to see the lightbulb moment when we introduce student ambassadors to staff and they start talking about the things they can do and just how excited they are,” says Grace Bayliss. “I am excited to see new ideas for automation as the technology advances with Copilot.”

Continuous improvement and adoption

USF is now preparing its third cohort of student ambassadors and is committed to continue and grow the inspiring collaborations across the university community.

“Scaling AI tools is not a technology challenge. It’s really a behavior and a workflow challenge,” concludes Sidney Fernandes. “This program changes the culture when it comes to using AI as an accelerator. And it does it in a way that is friendly and joyous.”