Exploring smarter, AI-powered working at Cifas with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Looking to understand how AI could help reduce manual workload and empower staff, Cifas partnered with CGI to explore the potential of Microsoft 365 Copilot. We led a structured discovery, readiness review and pilot, enabling Cifas to test real use cases, measure impact, and assess how AI could support smarter working at scale. With a 56% average productivity increase, the pilot laid the foundation for a secure, organisation-wide rollout – giving Cifas a clear, data-driven view to support both operational and cultural goals.

The aim: enhancing employee experience through AI efficiencies

As part of its human-focused innovation agenda, Cifas set out to explore how generative AI could reduce manual workload, improve day-to-day working, and enable employees to focus on higher-value tasks.

Having already trialled a nine-day working fortnight, it wanted to understand whether further productivity gains – supported by AI – could help progress its ambition of moving towards a four-day working week. A key goal was to identify where Microsoft 365 Copilot could save time and improve job satisfaction, to assess its strategic and operational value.

To support this, Cifas engaged CGI as a Microsoft Solutions Partner. Our digital workplace advisory team helped explore the opportunity, assess Cifas’ technical and governance readiness, and pilot Copilot with employees in a secure, structured and measurable way.

The benefits

We helped Cifas:

	Demonstrate measurable time and productivity gains, with a 56% average increase on relevant tasks.
	Improve employee experience by reducing manual workloads.
	Build a data-driven business case for new ways of working, including a potential four-day week.
	Drive high user engagement through tailored training and champion support.
	Ensure governance and readiness for secure, organisation-wide AI adoption.
	Identify three scalable use cases to support a phased Copilot rollout.

The approach: assessing Copilot readiness and impact

To ensure secure, scalable and insights-driven adoption, we worked with Cifas to deliver a structured engagement – designed to assess AI potential, support users, and capture measurable value.

1. Running an AI discovery workshop

We facilitated a workshop with key stakeholders to align on Cifas’ business goals, explore relevant use cases, and define success criteria. This ensured the pilot was shaped around real strategic priorities and tailored to the organisation’s working context.

2. Reviewing organisational readiness

Our technical and governance readiness review confirmed Cifas’ environment could securely support Microsoft 365 Copilot – providing the foundation for safe and compliant AI adoption.

3. Piloting Microsoft 365 Copilot

We delivered a two-phase pilot with selected users across the organisation. This enabled us to test Copilot functionality in real-world scenarios, understand adoption patterns, and highlight where it could deliver the most value.

4. Supporting users

To drive engagement, we worked closely with Cifas’ internal AI champions and provided role-based training for pilot users. This helped build confidence, foster adoption, and ensure the pilot reflected meaningful, day-to-day use.

5. Evaluating impact and opportunities

We collaborated with Cifas to design and deliver a structured evaluation process – measuring usage, productivity gains, employee feedback, and overall business impact in a final report. From this, we identified high potential use cases to support wider rollout planning.

The outcome: increasing efficiency and wider rollout

The pilot delivered quantifiable results, giving Cifas the evidence and confidence to proceed with Microsoft 365 Copilot. Key findings included:

• A 56% average productivity increase on tasks relevant to Copilot
• Time savings ranging from 3 minutes to 3 hours per task
• A 78% adoption rate, based on daily or frequent weekly use
• 55% of participants identified as “Power Users”, using Copilot across multiple Microsoft apps
• Three high value use cases identified to support future scaling.

These results demonstrated not only the potential for increased efficiency, but also how Copilot could support smarter, more fulfilling ways of working – contributing to Cifas’ longer-term ambition of a shorter working week.

Following the success of the pilot, Cifas’ AI Governance Steering Committee approved a wider rollout across the organisation. This phased approach allows adoption to be monitored, impact measured, and governance upheld at every stage.

The engagement provided Cifas with a clear, data-driven view of Copilot’s value – enabling confident next steps in its AI adoption journey, and laying the groundwork for continued innovation aligned to both operational and cultural goals.