9%<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n the equivalent in global GDP that could be added to the global economy <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Gallup, 2025)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n 23%<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n of businesses have greater profitability when employees are highly engaged<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Gallup, 2020)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n In Microsoft Digital, the company\u2019s IT organization, and across all of Microsoft, our goal is to ensure our employees feel engaged at work by providing the digital tools, access to information, and personal connections that enable them to live our culture no matter where they are in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n {Read Gallup\u2019s State of the Global Workplace Report.}<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n While flexible work created new challenges for employee engagement, generative AI tools have created unprecedented opportunities to increase employee productivity and positively impact engagement in the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each year, the team at Microsoft WorkLab generates a report called the \u201cWork Trends Index<\/a>.\u201d This annual survey of over 20,000 knowledge workers globally illuminates challenges and opportunities as companies pursue strategies to harness the power of AI in the enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few data points from past surveys that are particularly resonant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 86%<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n of knowledge workers indicate that \u201cfinding information and answers\u201d is their top use case for AI in the enterprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Microsoft, 2023)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n 75%<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n of global knowledge workers are using AI at work; 46% of those workers started using it in the last six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Microsoft, LinkedIn, 2024)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n 68%<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n of employees report that they\u2019re struggling with the pace and volume of work, and 46% of them report feeling burned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Microsoft, 2023)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Aligned to these insights, digital leaders need to consider three things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enterprise AI solutions like Microsoft 365 Copilot are optimized to help employees discover enterprise knowledge that was previously hidden in various SharePoint libraries, Teams Channels, and OneDrive for business repositories. Copilot can reason across your entire Microsoft 365 estate instantly to help employees find the information, answers, and connections needed to quickly address business opportunities and challenges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n While employees are starting to actively use generative AI at work, if they don\u2019t have access to a solution that\u2019s grounded and secured in your enterprise data, your confidential or proprietary data could be at risk. This is especially true when you consider that most employees are new to this and may not have the training or knowledge necessary to navigate the risks of AI in the enterprise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Burned out employees are not engaged employees. AI-powered solutions like Microsoft 365 Copilot make it easy for employees to reason across their Outlook inbox, Teams Channels and Groups, Viva Engage posts and more, to quickly identify the information that\u2019s important to them. While the volume of activity in the enterprise will likely only increase, the ability to manage information more effectively is now in the hands of employees \u2013 especially those who are trained to effectively harness AI.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Times of change demand strong vision and action, and Microsoft emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger than ever. Reflecting on that success, Microsoft Chief Human Resources Officer Amy Coleman enumerated several reasons<\/a>. Among them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to the pandemic, the digital employee experience wouldn\u2019t have been high on the list of key enablers for many executives. After witnessing the power and flexibility of our digital tools during the pandemic to keep our employees connected, productive, and thriving, it became clear to us that a modernized digital employee experience had to become a key tenet of our workplace strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right as we found our footing post-pandemic, the next big disruptor landed: generative AI and our industry-leading productivity tool, Microsoft 365 Copilot. The digital employee experience, enhanced by the power of AI, is now more important than ever. As we in the company\u2019s IT organization look to the next decade of employee productivity and enterprise growth, our formula for success is simple:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your company can use the same formula to achieve the same competitive advantage. At Microsoft, we make that vision real by focusing on the three critical dimensions of the employee experience: digital capabilities, physical spaces and facilities, and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Digital capabilities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We keep employees productive and out environment safe and secure, no matter where employees are or how they connect. AI is defragmenting the employee experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Physical spaces<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We partner with Global Workplace Services to imagine & deploy capabilities that support an inclusive approach to productivity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Culture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A strong partnership with HR ensures our digital employee experience enables our aspirational culture, regardless of an employee’s physical location.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n In Microsoft Digital, our mission is to power, protect and transform the digital employee experience across devices, applications, and infrastructure. Simplifying the employee experience has long been a goal of our team. We want Microsoft employees to be the most engaged, efficient, and productive in the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our vision is to revolutionize the employee experience at Microsoft, using Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents to \u201cdefragment\u201d the many tools, websites, and applications Microsoft employees need to interact with to complete their jobs. By using Copilot as our \u201cUI for AI\u201d, Microsoft Digital is using Copilot to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to AI, our team here in Microsoft Digital continues to accelerate collaboration through enhancements to Microsoft Teams and Teams Rooms, enables employee innovation with the Power Platform, and delivers a world-class employee experience powered by Microsoft Viva. Read on to learn how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your organization\u2019s data to turn your employees\u2019 words into some of the most powerful productivity tools on the planet\u2014all within the flow of work. It works alongside the Microsoft 365 apps people use every day, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more, to provide real-time intelligent assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Microsoft, we began deploying Copilot to our own employees back in November of 2023, and by March of 2024 all our employees and vendors globally had access, making Microsoft the first enterprise to deploy Copilot at global enterprise scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A key lesson we\u2019ve learned is that enterprise AI is a significant cultural and technological change that shouldn\u2019t be underestimated. Consider that knowledge workers have been trained to interact with systems and data using the graphical user interface for over 40 years. The magic of Copilot is that it upends that human-computer interaction paradigm, bringing the power of natural language interaction to employees to find information or answers, to augment their creativity, or to accelerate workflows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But those skills are new for nearly every employee on the planet, which is why you need to focus on skilling and reinforcement to help employees to maximize the potential value of generative AI in the enterprise. Help your employees to jumpstart their skilling journey by carefully selecting training paths\u2014both virtual and instructor-led\u2014to accelerate their productivity journey with Copilot. Microsoft offers some great free training programs<\/a> to help your employees build the skills necessary to maximize the value of Copilot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to deploying Copilot in your environment, consider these lessons from our experience:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Start with your biggest pain points<\/strong>. Talk to your employees in different roles to identify their day-to-day pain points, then consider how AI could help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Measure the before and after for processes that you\u2019ve reimagined with Copilot.<\/strong> By doing this<\/a>, you\u2019ll be able to articulate the value of Copilot in enhancing employee productivity. If the value isn\u2019t what you were hoping for, up your investment in skilling and partner with your role leaders to reimagine their daily workflows using AI to eliminate toil and improve arduous processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Governance matters.<\/strong> Copilot is grounded in your enterprise data. If you don\u2019t properly secure it through Data Sensitivity labeling, rights management services, and file permissions<\/a>, you might overexpose sensitive data in your environment. Help your employees understand why it\u2019s important to protect your sensitive information and train them to utilize these tools effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Find your champions.<\/strong> At Microsoft, a grass-roots community of nearly 10,000 Copilot champions, has been an incredible force multiplier for our global change management and adoption efforts. Find your champions<\/a> and empower them\u2014they\u2019ll provide the energy and enthusiasm that the rest of the company will need to embrace a new way of working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Give your employees permission to \u201cbuild the AI habit.\u201d<\/strong> Our research shows that using Copilot-powered actions just three times per week over a period of 7-8 weeks is enough for employees to build the habit and start to see significant productivity gains<\/a>. Encourage them to use AI and to share their favorite prompts with their teammates. Having leaders model these behaviors at the will also help to inspire front line employees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n In Microsoft Digital, we\u2019ve developed a six-step process for unlocking the value of Microsoft 365 Copilot<\/a> based on these lessons that you can apply in your own enterprise. Being deliberate as you deploy, understanding employee pain points, measuring the before and after, and focusing on the developing of AI skills, you can accelerate and prove the value of Copilot in your environment, as well as recapture value so you can pursue new business opportunities or challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n {Read our guide for deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot.}<\/a><\/u><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n In Microsoft Digital, we are embracing our agentic future<\/a>, where agents will make our employees, as well as the millions of employees who rely on Microsoft 365 globally, more productive every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, our Employee Self-Service (ESS) agents<\/a> have already demonstrated the power of agents to simplify and improve the employee experience at Microsoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we continue our journey with AI-powered agents, we\u2019ve adopted a maturity model for AI deployment in the enterprise. Early phases focus on using Microsoft 365 Copilot, grounded in enterprise data, to enhance knowledge discovery and retrieval. Later phases enable employees to act on that knowledge and even fully automate business workflows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each step on our agentic journey marks a significant leap forward in capability, with both opportunities and risks for our leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Employee learning and skilling are key to unlocking the value in each phase of agentic maturity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Emerging industry standards and open protocols including Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol<\/a>, and NLWeb<\/a> are enabling an agentic powered future where human-led, agent operated teams will take employee productivity to new heights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re making progress on each type of agent here at Microsoft:<\/p>\n\n\n\n {Learn how we\u2019re governing our use of agents at Microsoft.}<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Microsoft Teams benefits from Copilot integration as well, enabling users to quickly recap, identify follow-up tasks, create agendas, or ask questions for more effective and focused meetings. Intelligent Recap in Teams Premium<\/a> can summarize key takeaways, help employees see what they\u2019ve missed, and even pinpoint key people of interest in chats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re continuing to retrofit conference rooms to utilize the latest Microsoft Teams Rooms<\/a> features and capabilities, and we\u2019ll keep partnering with the Microsoft Teams product group<\/a> to push the envelope with innovative new capabilities that take advantage of investments in hardware, software, and physical space to create immersive and inclusive environments. Our goal is to improve our current meeting rooms at a global scale while selectively deploying high-end rooms in targeted locations based on need. In that way, we\u2019ll modernize the experience for all our employees while also delivering maximum value to Microsoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n {Check out our Microsoft Teams Rooms meeting guide.}<\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n While we have thousands of highly skilled developers and engineers at Microsoft, we also have many more employees who are not engineers by trade, but who contribute to business success as citizen developers using the Microsoft Power Platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Citizen developers use no-code\/low-code solutions to accelerate digital transformation of their workstreams. At Microsoft, the technologies that comprise the Microsoft Power Platform empower anyone in the company to transform our employee experience. After all, who\u2019s the person most likely to identify a process that could benefit from automation, or most likely to need to collect, visualize, and analyze data? It\u2019s not normally someone in a central IT team\u2014it\u2019s the employee who is closest to the problem or opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Microsoft Power Platform<\/strong>\u2014as shown in this companion infographic\u2014is comprised of four distinct capabilities that have made Microsoft more agile and productive than ever before. Each tool is easy to learn and allows your team to accelerate digital transformation from the front lines of your workforce, empowering your employees and fueling innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Microsoft Power BI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A collection of software services, apps and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Power BI lets you easily connect to your data sources, visualize, and discover what’s important, and share that with anyone or everyone you want.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Microsoft Power Apps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A suite of apps, services, and connectors that provides a rapid development environment to build custom apps for your business needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Power Apps, you can quickly build custom business apps that connect to your data stored either in the underlying data platform (Microsoft Dataverse) or in various online and on-premises data sources (such as SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365. or SQL Server)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Microsoft Power Automate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Enables you to automate business processes quickly and easily, with support for over 500 data sources or using any publicly available API.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Microsoft Virtual Agents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lets you create powerful chatbots that can answer questions posed by your customers, other employees, or visitors to your website or service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n {Learn how we\u2019re empowering our<\/em> employees with the Microsoft Power Platform at Microsoft.}<\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Having the best digital experiences means very little if you don\u2019t have the right physical space or hardware to maximize potential for your employees to collaborate when they\u2019re in the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For us, Microsoft Global Workplace Services (GWS) and our Microsoft Digital team represent the company\u2019s \u201cfront door.\u201d The first impression employees and visitors have when they walk into Microsoft is the physical environment and the technology they interact with, and we want their experience to be amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Commercial Real Estate (CRE) leaders and digital transformation leaders see things through different lenses, when both functions are aligned on vision with shared priorities and implementation, accelerated transformation of the employee experience is possible. A few examples of the work we\u2019ve done with our counterparts in GWS to enable new experiences include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of these capabilities would have been possible without a strong partnership with our real estate colleagues in GWS, supported by a shared vision of our employee experience. By reimagining the physical and virtual spaces at Microsoft, we\u2019re laying a foundation for innovation that will help our employees thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n {Learn how we\u2019re accelerating our<\/em> global real estate transformation.}<\/em><\/a><\/u><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he made lasting and powerful changes to our company culture. Our early culture was extremely competitive, and people often succeeded by showcasing their own individual work and achievements. Under Nadella\u2019s leadership, Microsoft has undergone significant change, starting at the top. He instilled in us that, to stay relevant, we needed to find the courage to change our culture and embrace a growth mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAchieving our mission requires us to evolve our culture and it all starts with a growth mindset\u2014a passion to learn and bring our best every day to make a bigger difference in the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Attributes of our aspirational culture include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Satya made it clear that our aspire-to culture was key to our future business success, and the ensuing decade was one of the most successful in the history of Microsoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But how do you bring culture to life digitally, especially in a global company that has embraced flexible work? The answer was to build an employee experience platform that allowed our employees to live our culture, no matter where they were in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Microsoft Viva Suite delivers an integrated employee experience platform that empowers people and teams to thrive by bringing together communications, knowledge, learning, goals, and insights directly into the flow of work. Built on Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, Viva helps organizations foster a culture of engagement and performance by providing personalized, data-driven experiences that support employee well-being, growth, and productivity. Viva enables leaders to align business outcomes with employee success, making it a strategic investment in both people and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The various modules and capabilities in the Viva Suite enable Microsoft employees to experience and participate in our culture digitally. Each module supports different dimensions of Microsoft\u2019s \u201caspire-to\u201d culture, with the Viva Suite collectively serving as the underpinning of our shift to growth mindset<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Viva Suite is comprised of numerous modules, including:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Viva Connections<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Delivers a secure, customizable gateway to internal communications and resources, seamlessly integrated into Microsoft Teams to enhance employee engagement without adding new infrastructure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Viva Insights<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Provides privacy-protected, data-driven insights that help improve productivity and well-being while ensuring compliance with organizational and regulatory standards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/strong><\/a>Viva Learning<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Centralizes learning content from Microsoft, LinkedIn, and third-party providers into Teams, simplifying deployment and governance of upskilling initiatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Learn-how-p-g.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAI is fundamentally changing the world of work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/1-p-g.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/2-p-g.png\")
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nHow has Microsoft adapted?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Formula for success<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Equation](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Formula-for-success.jpg\")
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Focusing on our employee experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Digital-capabilities.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Physical-spaces.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Culture.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDigital capabilities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Accelerating productivity with Microsoft 365 Copilot<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Guide-p-g.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEmpowering our employees with agents and Copilot Studio<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Phases of maturity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Phases-of-maturity.jpg\")
\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAI-powered meetings with Microsoft Teams<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEmpowering our citizen developers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Power_BI-696x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Power_Apps-1024x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Power_Automate-1024x798.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Power_Virtual_Agents.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPhysical spaces and facilities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCulture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Satya-Nadella.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
Supercharging our culture with Microsoft Viva<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Viva-Connections.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Viva-Insights.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Viva-Learning.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Viva-Amplify.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Viva-Engage.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2025\/07\/Viva-Pulse.png\")
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