Despite Marc Benioff this week claiming Microsoft “has disappointed so many customers with AI”, UK channel partners have been shouting their Microsoft Copilot 365 successes from the sun-soaked rooftops this summer.
Since it went on general availability in January, Microsoft’s channel allies have been busy trialling the AI assistant with employees, deploying it across their workforce and performing roll-outs and workshops for customers.
Copilot for 365 is expected to be big business, with Macquarie reportedly forecasting it will generate $7.3bn of incremental annual recurring revenue for Microsoft by the end of its fiscal 2025.
But Microsoft’s AI assistant is not without its detractors, with Salesforce CEO Benioff this week claiming “customers are so disappointed in what they bought from Microsoft Copilots because they’re not getting the accuracy and the response that they want”.
An Economist article last month asserted that AI has so far had “almost no economic impact”, meanwhile.
Here we round up major summer Microsoft Copilot moves from six partners.
SoftwareOne – 600,000 users and counting
This global licensing powerhouse last August set out plans to become the “number one Copilot partner for Microsoft”, with ambitions to hit $100m mid-term revenues.
In its H1 results last week, the Switzerland-based outfit said it has amassed 600,000 Microsoft Copilot users in its H1 2024.
It pulled in slightly fewer new Copilot 365 users in Q2 than in Q1 (275,000 vs 325,000). New Copilot 365 service engagements for the quarter hit 240, down from around 325 in Q1.
Although activity was down slightly quarter on quarter, SoftwareOne said the figures show it “maintained its momentum in capturing the Copilot 365 market opportunity”.
Bytes Technology Group – staff rollout and 45,000 seats
This LSE-listed Microsoft partner in June revealed it is “drinking its own champagne” on Copilot for Microsoft 365, rolling out the AI assistant to more than half of its employees.
At the same time, Bytes Technology Group revealed it had supported over 6,200 individuals across the public and private sectors in becoming technically ready, deploying, securing, and adopting Copilot for Microsoft 365.
This has resulted in more than 45,000 Copilot seats being deployed, including 20,000 from the NHS, and over 250 CSP Copilot customers, it said.
The internal roll out will see 100% coverage for all of BTG’s sales and marketing personnel, with more access rolled out across other teams in the business. The move is designed to “streamline workflows, improve collaboration and drive innovation”.
“We have been running internal pilots across the Group, and the impact of using Copilot for Microsoft 365 has been nothing short of remarkable,” BTG CEO Sam Mudd stated.
Advania UK – deployed to all 1,000 staff
Advania UK in June claimed it had gone further than most of its peers by deploying Copilot for 365 across its entire workforce.
Every 1,000-plus Advania UK employee can now use the full Microsoft AI platform, including Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot Studio, and private ChatGPT deployments, the firm said. The roll out followed a pilot programme involving 50 users across all parts of its business.
“Limiting the roll-out to sales and marketing didn’t feel like the right option for us,” Chief Revenue Officer David Kress, told IT Channel Oxygen.
“Each role within the business had slightly different requirements, and all were able to deliver impressive outcomes using Copilot.”
In a blog written for IT Channel Oxygen, Advania UK CRO David Kress admitted that rolling Copilot to all employees represents a “substantial investment”, will benefit some staff more than others, and could even potentially “create new problems”.
“As one of the most certified Microsoft partners in the UK, what is the point of taking solutions to clients that we have not fully embraced ourselves?,” he added, however.
Node4 – deployed to 1,100 staff
This Derby MSP upped the AI ante in July by purchasing over 1,100 Copilot for Microsoft 365 seats.
The deployment will “enhance productivity, streamline workflows, and empower its workforce to focus on higher-value tasks”, Node4 claimed.
It expects Copilot to boost departmental efficiency in its development team by up to 80%.
Longer term, the Providence Equity-backed outfit said it is also exploring how Copilot could “help create improved and automated end-to-end ERP workflow management solutions for clients”.
“Our investment in Copilot for Microsoft 365 demonstrates our commitment to staying at the cutting edge of technology,” said Node4 Managing Director Hannah Birch.
“By integrating Copilot into our operations, we are improving our internal processes and setting a standard for the solutions we deliver to our clients.”
Ingentive – 25 Copilot workshops a month
This boutique Microsoft partner is currently carrying out 25 Copilot workshops this month, CEO Stuart Fenton told us earlier this month as he took a swipe at the competition.
“If you look at the big LSPs [Microsoft licensing solution providers], they’re giving clients a two- or three-hour workshop on how to set up AI and how it can document your team’s meetings,” Fenton said.
“But I just don’t think that’s the exciting part of the AI story.”
Ingentive is instead giving clients a full-day workshop and ideation sessions where “we’re identifying areas of their business where they can make a transformative difference”, Fenton said.
“There’s no question in my mind that these small productivity enhancements on a per-person basis pale into insignificance compared with the extensible potential of AI when you look at organisations that might have thousands of people in customer service,” he said.
“You can reduce headcount materially – by 50% or even 80% – using agentification.
“Most of our projects are extensible projects where we are doing organisational-wide AI solutions, working with, say, large insurance or large transportation companies.”
Avanade – largest Copilot pilot group
This global, Accenture-backed Microsoft partner in June revealed the findings of a study which it claims involved “the biggest pilot group for Copilot for M365 to have been undertaken during the Early Access Programme”.
Avanade was surprisingly even-handed in its assessment, admitting it “may curb spontaneous, original thinking” (despite painting a glowing picture of how the tool has gone down with employees more generally).
The mission was to investigate the impact of the generative AI tool on six human metrics in the workplace: communication, creativity, trust, work satisfaction, belongingness, and organisational citizenship behaviour. The study drew on the experiences of 700 employees.
It showed that “the vast majority of employees see the value of Copilot for M365 for communication purposes, despite initial caution”, Veit Siegenheim, Global Future of Work Lead, at Avanade, said.
It can also “support the articulation and execution of new ideas and free up time for more strategic thinking through the automation of administrative tasks”.
“However, this may also curb spontaneous, original thinking and whilst employees acknowledged the respectfulness and fairness of the system’s suggestions, they have concerns around its oversight and accountability long-term,” Siegenheim added.
