Accenture Scales Copilot to 743,000 Employees in Record Move

What began as a pilot for a few hundred senior leaders scaled to 20,000 users before reaching 743,000 employees, as Accenture proves its commitment to Microsoft 365 Copilot. 

The global professional services firm is undertaking its largest enterprise deployment of the AI ​​tool following significant productivity gains.

Data from 2025 involving 200,000 users shows that 97% of employees completed routine tasks 15 times faster with Copilot, while 53% reported significant improvements in productivity. 

Tony Leraris, Accenture’s Chief Information Officer, says: “Copilot is a personal digital colleague. It changes the way our people work, the way they research, ideate, analyse and execute many daily activities.” 

A phased deployment 

The phased deployment approach of Copilot allowed Accenture to study usage patterns and set internal guidelines before reaching a wider audience.

During this time, the firm focused on its data strategy, governance and access controls. It took time to understand how people were actually using Copilot in tools like Outlook, Teams and Word. 

The adoption programme included one-on-one training, regular communications on new features and group sessions. It also featured active participation on Viva Engage, where employees shared daily usage tips and supported new users, helping broader use.

Haley Rosowsky, Global Microsoft Ecosystem Partner Marketing Lead, says: “It fostered understanding and inspired people to go off and do their own experimentation and try new things.”

Demonstrations were also held to help certain people, especially leaders, on how to use the tool to suit their needs and what value they could derive from it.

According to Tony, high adoption rate is what resulted in a continued deployment of Copilot to more people through all of its phases. 

Managing workflows

Copilot’s integration into existing apps has helped increase adoption rates. From using it as a tool within Outlook, Teams and Word to managing workflows and analysing data, it is being used in almost every facet of the company’s workflow.

For Accenture’s marketing organisation, Copilot has become a daily part of its creative and communications routines. 

Jason Warnke, Senior Managing Director and Global Lead of Accenture Experiences, leads a global team of over 320 creative professionals, including writers, designers and video producers. 

Maintaining a consistent approach at that scale has long been a challenge. He says: “One of the things that’s massively important in a global organisation like ours is consistency of message. Before Copilot, teams would create something, it would go through a lot of review cycles, and then somebody in another part of the world would say, ‘​​​​​​​That’s not how we talk about it’.”

Writers now use Copilot to draft and check content against existing materials to ensure consistency, making the process faster and more efficient. Teams also use the tool to identify parallel efforts across the organisation, which reduces the duplication of work.

Designers and marketers, on the other hand, use the AI ​​to generate concepts and create assets that align with brand guidelines. Jason says having the brand kit embedded in Copilot allows non-creative teams to produce branded materials on their own.

On the sales front, Avanade – the 25-year-old consulting and technology services joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft – uses Copilot to deliver more customer-focused insights, helping sellers engage with greater relevance and precision. 

Using the AI, Avanade has built internal sales intelligence tools like D3 to improve customer engagement, aggregating data and industry context to assist sales teams.

According to early data, employees using these tools generate 43% more sales opportunities compared to those who do not. The system delivers research in seconds that previously took days to compile.

The tool also assists junior sellers in operating at a higher level, helping staff focus on the narrative of client conversations and bringing valuable insights at the start itself.

The wider spread comes on the back of even non-technical roles using the tool in technical ways, experimenting beyond their usual expertise to transform their daily work routines. 

While the technology in itself is quite powerful, the firm emphasises that investing in training and people is also essential as the company continues to expand its AI rollout.