Digital transformation is at the heart of Vodafone’s strategy to unlock efficiencies and use generative AI to enhance customer experience.
300 Vodafone users experimented with Microsoft 365 Copilot to assess the business benefits. The trial is now being expanded to 68,000 users.
Users reported a four-hour time saving per user, per week. Work can be delivered faster. And time saved can be redirected to tasks which add more value.
Generative AI really does make us more productive and will enable us to have a much greater experience at work.
Scott Petty, CTO, Vodafone
Vodafone is a leading global connectivity and technology company which seeks to empower people, protect the planet and build trust with customers. Focusing primarily across Europe and Africa, Vodafone serves more than 330 million customers, with close to another 80 million customers in financial services, and operates one of the world’s largest Internet of Things platforms.
A global digitalisation strategy
“Digital transformation is at the heart of the company strategy to unlock efficiencies and use generative AI to enhance our customer experience,” states Scott Petty, Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone.
The focus of the company’s digitalisation efforts is to empower Vodafone to improve the customer experience, optimise the lifecycle management and modernise all of its technology infrastructure, move to more modern, agile ways of working and to improve the speed and velocity of its software development.
For Vodafone, explains Scott Petty, this means “partnering with leading players in the industry, like Microsoft, to help us align the vision for the whole company.”
Opting to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot
“One of the foundational technologies for the broader workforce is Microsoft 365 Copilot,” says Robert Leeson, Lead Digital Workplace at Vodafone. That’s because Copilot enables Vodafone colleagues to get maximum value from the Microsoft 365 tools they use every day.
For Vodafone, its foundational Microsoft 365 Copilot approach is based on the findings and feedback from an early access programme trial participated in by 300 people across the business.
Across the business, different users and functions have reported good productivity improvements. For example, says Scott Petty, “We’ve seen some really good examples of Microsoft 365 Copilot use within our legal teams, using it to summarise documents and quickly get to decision making.”
Saving four hours, per person, per week
Hazel Butler, Legal and Business Integrity Team at Vodafone, explains, “We review a lot of contracts. Microsoft 365 Copilot has helped us to review those documents more quickly. This has helped us to provide more accurate and speedy contract reviews and turnaround times.”
Subsequent analysis in the legal department revealed that Microsoft 365 Copilot users are saving, on average, four hours per week, per person.
Vodafone expects this number to rise further as colleagues become more comfortable using the tool. Federico Frumento, Senior Data Governance Manager at Vodafone, explains how his use of Microsoft 365 Copilot evolved: “When it began, it was mostly trying to use it to write a document; like ‘write an email for us.’ Over time, that evolved into actually using it as a Copilot; using it as an expert sitting by your side.”
“I think it emphasises the absolute necessity for all of us – for all our employees within the company – to get started, to start experimenting,” agrees Paul Holland, Global Head of Technology Audits at Vodafone.
4 hours saved per user, per week
Generative AI is the future of work
Vodafone is acting quickly to give everyone access to the benefits achieved by using Microsoft 365 Copilot and test out the possibilities for themselves.
Robert Leeson explains, “We’re intending to expand Copilot to 68,000 people around the globe within the next couple of months across all the geographies that comprise Vodafone today.”
“We’ve been really impressed by the ingenuity of our teams using generative AI,” says Scott Petty. “I highly recommend Microsoft 365 Copilot for everyone. I think the future of work is based around using generative AI as a way to enhance your environment. Generative AI really does make us more productive and will enable us to have a much greater experience at work. We can take those hours and put them into things that are truly adding value.”
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