Ellie Wild, WM reply change and adoption lead, explains why, to see real ROI from Microsoft Copilot, organisations must focus on leadership, learning and a culture that empowers individuals to make AI part of how they work.

 How important is adoption in achieving return on investment from Copilot, Microsoft’s AI tool for the workplace? To realize ROI, you need people to use the tool. This is where adoption comes into play. The adoption journey for Copilot may look different to other adoption journeys and there are key differentiators.

Copilot is not just a new tool, it's a brand-new way of working. We're asking people who, in some cases, may have been completing a task on a daily basis for years to suddenly think differently about how they complete that task. It's also different from simply introducing a new tool like Microsoft Teams for meetings, for example, and saying this is the tool we're now using for meetings.

Adoption for Copilot is a personal and individual experience, and there's a higher element of choice in whether you use Copilot or not. Setting expectations from the outset with Copilot is key, and there are a few layers to this.

Firstly, you want to get across to people why the investment in Copilot was made. What was that potential for return on investment that you saw in the business case? This is really about setting the scene. Show people how Copilot leans into your wider organizational strategy.

Secondly, people may have preset expectations on what Copilot is, and you need to carefully manage that message. Copilot can enable more efficient meetings; help us find information quicker and kickstart the creative process. However, human skills will always be needed for the end result. Remember, it's Copilot, not autopilot.

Finally, you want established expectations around the learning journey as people may need to invest slightly more time than they did when they were learning how to use other tools.

Learning how to prompt AI is a new skill and showing what that learning journey looks like and what individuals will get out of each learning moment upfront is key and will go a long way towards ensuring adoption.

There are five key principles that we should think about when getting started. Firstly, get your leadership team onboard and committed to helping drive adoption. The use of Copilot is an individual and personal experience, and if the use of Copilot isn't being reinforced from leadership at a team level than adoption drops significantly.

You'll want to talk to them about the business value realization from a previously executed business case and work with them to apply the potential for return on investment to their specific KPIs. This will get them interested and involved.

Secondly, the importance of peer-to-peer communication cannot be understated when it comes to Copilot.

Think of how impactful champions can be and think about how I've already emphasized that the adoption of Copilot is very individual and personal to each individual user. That means that the great prompts people are using and the successes people have should be celebrated. People don't know about them unless you actively share them with your networks and talk about the success that you've been having with Copilot.

Make sure to get champions and natural influencers that you see around the office and on your communications channels onboard and advocating for sharing success. You want to get the message across that the investment in Copilot is really an investment in people and that this is helping them with those future-ready skills.

I also recommend exploring gamification in your adoption journey for Copilot. Think about what the behaviours are that you want to encourage, and how you reward those.

These five principles are a great way to get you starting to think about what successful adoption can look like for Copilot and other AI tools within your business.