EY helps enhance the inclusivity of AI development with Azure AI

With an estimated 20% of the global workforce identifying as neurodivergent, inclusive AI solutions are crucial. Employees from EY Neuro-Diverse Centers of Excellence worked with Microsoft to ensure AI tools foster productivity for all.

Neurodivergent EY technologists collaborated with Microsoft developers to make Azure AI Foundry more inclusive and help all users work productively to create innovative AI solutions.

Suggested improvements in user notifications and learning support are ongoing and likely to extend to other Microsoft products, enhancing user accessibility, productivity, and inclusion across the platform to facilitate future AI innovation.

Teams from professional services company EY assist clients with business transformations by empowering the workforce to innovate with AI. EY emphasizes combining AI with human creativity. One key to maximizing this creativity is to ensure AI tools and applications unlock the potential of all individuals, including those who are neurodivergent.

“As we consider how AI will impact the world, we want to keep humans at the center and unlock the potential of every employee—because we know inclusion drives innovation,” says Hiren Shukla, Global Neurodiversity and Inclusive Value Leader at Ernst & Young LLP. He leads 25 Neuro-Diverse Centers of Excellence (NCoE) operated by EY in 15 countries. These centers study and promote the business value of inclusivity. The World Economic Forum and others estimate that some 20% of the global workforce is neurodivergent, and Shukla says that up to half of young adults and teens identify as neurodivergent. That means organizations with inclusive AI processes and products are likely to achieve the greatest success.

This belief motivated Ernst & Young LLP to collaborate with Microsoft to increase the inclusivity of Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. As a co-founding member of the Neurodiversity @ Work Employer Roundtable, Microsoft shares EY’s commitment to accessible tools. Guided by Microsoft Inclusive Design principles and resources, the joint project kicked off in early 2024.

Neurodivergent employees eager to improve all users’ experiences

Neurodivergent NCoE employees with technical backgrounds offered to work on the project. John Franzen, Supervising Associate, Account Support at Ernst & Young LLP, was among them. He says, “I want to help advance neuro-inclusion, so I thought this was a good opportunity to contribute.”

The project was carefully structured to meet diverse employee needs and provide psychological safety, with clear communication of desired steps and outcomes. “To really get honest and open feedback, you have to build up trust,” explains Debbie Shroyer, NCoE Program Manager at Ernst & Young LLP. “The Microsoft team did a great job of providing a very specific structure to each step of the project and explaining what was requested.”

Identifying user challenges

First, EY participants with roles in software development and account support, but little previous AI experience, began working with the product in a diary study. They completed six copilot creation activities using Azure AI Foundry, recording their work sessions and commenting on any difficulties they encountered.

Typical challenges included sensory overload, anxiety about solution or task requirements, and becoming distracted or sidetracked from the workflow. This feedback was delivered to the Microsoft Azure AI Foundry team. When it was aligned with other product research and planned development workflows, three areas surfaced as opportunities for immediate improvement. These were reducing the disruption potential of notifications, improving task-related guidance and learning, and making it easier for users to switch between working through the user interface or in code.

“The notifications could be distracting, and we wanted to be able to filter and organize them and make them all actionable,” explains Franzen.

Tackling improvements in co-design sprints

To identify exactly what needed to change and how, additional EY participants and Microsoft developers came together in a co-design sprint to brainstorm, critique, and refine specific improvements as a group. EY participants made suggestions through a neurodivergent lens. The Microsoft developers approached those ideas with a “design for one, extend to many” philosophy, recognizing that enhancements would boost productivity for most any user.

For instance, notifications about one task could be distracting when the user was actively involved in another. Too many notifications created annoying clutter or sensory overload. Participants wanted to be able to manage notifications based on criteria such as type, urgency, or required action—or pause notifications to focus. Such control would help users preserve concentration while identifying the most pressing or relevant notifications.

Streamlining notifications for more focused work

The development team created mockups and prototypes taken through an iterative process of feedback and further refinement. Potential solutions that the joint team explored included toast notifications, a notification counter, and the ability to hide details, personalize notifications, or dismiss them all.The team addressed concerns such as the best ways to present actionable details and to help users easily return to prior notifications.

With extensive feedback on the prototypes, the Azure AI Foundry development team got to work. Many of the suggested notification improvements were implemented and then tested in the product by selected EY participants.

“The Microsoft team actually wanted our input, and it was exciting to see how our feedback made the product better for everyone,” says Franzen.

The Microsoft team actually wanted our input, and it was exciting to see how our feedback made the product better for everyone.

John Franzen, Supervising Associate, Account Support, EY LLP

Additional proposed improvements are still underway. Heather Tartaglia, Global and Americas Neurodiversity Implementation Leader at Ernst & Young LLP, says, “Project learnings are being shared with other development teams, too, so more Microsoft products can benefit. It was just a phenomenal experience because we were in such lock-step with Microsoft every step of the way.” The shared lessons will expand the impact of inclusive design and help all users work with more focus and productivity.

It was just a phenomenal experience because we were in such lock-step with Microsoft every step of the way.

Heather Tartaglia, Global and Americas Neurodiversity Implementation Leader, EY LLP

Expanding inclusivity for more creative AI

The project increased the accessibility of Azure AI Foundry, which will support broader, more diverse talent recruitment and more inclusive AI development teams. “The proportion of neurodivergent individuals has been shown to be much greater in the data and technology realms across all industries and sectors,” says Shukla.

By making AI tools more accessible to all, the joint project helps to ensure a rich variety of creative people build tomorrow’s AI solutions. Shukla says, “Our participants’ feedback will make a difference to an entire segment of the world’s technologists. Microsoft products will maximize the power of thinking differently and being different.” The resulting AI solutions can transform businesses.

“Human intelligence and AI together will solve some of the world’s biggest problems,” says Shukla. He adds, “The opportunity to drive neuro-inclusion with Microsoft was a natural fit. Our team is asking out loud, ‘Why don’t other companies do this?’ Because inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do. It actually makes products better and brings more technologists into the room for business benefits.”

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