{"id":24374,"date":"2026-06-18T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=24374"},"modified":"2026-07-09T09:08:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T16:08:36","slug":"guiding-our-ai-deployment-with-a-set-of-employee-councils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/guiding-our-ai-deployment-with-a-set-of-employee-councils\/","title":{"rendered":"Guiding our AI deployment with a set of employee councils"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The AI adoption curve gets steeper every day, as the technology continues to advance at lightning speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Microsoft Digital, the company\u2019s IT organization, we\u2019re using a set of employee councils and connected capability groups to guide and accelerate how we deploy and adopt AI across our enterprise. Our goal is to focus our energy on the AI-enabled scenarios that matter most, reducing duplication, strengthening accountability, and making sure our investments create measurable value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

\u201cOur AI decisions and direction must be grounded in business strategy. AI councils provide guidance and enablement for our organization, ensuring that our investments in AI generate tangible benefits to our business. It\u2019s not just developing technology and then looking for a problem to solve with it\u2014we start with the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\nDon Campbell, principal group technical program manager, Microsoft Digital<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That focus matters, because AI success doesn\u2019t come from usage alone. It comes from connecting strategy, enablement, data readiness, responsible AI, continuous improvement, change management, and measurement into one driving force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s how we\u2019re moving from experimentation to repeatable outcomes and from AI enthusiasm to AI accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur AI decisions and direction must be grounded in business strategy,\u201d says Don Campbell, principal group technical program manager in Microsoft Digital. \u201cAI councils provide guidance and enablement for our organization, ensuring our investments in AI generate tangible benefits to our business. It\u2019s not just developing technology and then looking for a problem to solve with it\u2014we start with the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our council-based approach is helping us accelerate our Frontier Firm transformation. The councils work together to set direction for AI adoption at Microsoft Digital, ensuring that our business needs drive solution development that can keep up with the pace of AI change. This work includes building visibility into all our AI solutions, including agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, while establishing governance and proven practices; developing training and learning pathways; and connecting teams together that are working on similar solutions across the enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re excited for a future where our employees use intelligent agents and human judgment together to work smarter, move faster, and unlock new value for Microsoft and our customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

AI councils at Microsoft<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out our series on how employee councils are guiding how we use AI here at Microsoft.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Guiding our AI deployment with a set of employee councils (this story)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Harnessing AI: How a data council is powering our unified data strategy at Microsoft<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Powering the technical veracity of AI at Microsoft with a Center of Excellence<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Accelerating transformation: How we\u2019re reshaping Microsoft with continuous improvement and AI<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Responsible AI: Why it matters and how we\u2019re infusing it into our internal AI projects at Microsoft<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Visualizing success: Steering your AI deployment with a strategy council<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Measuring the impact of our AI investments in IT at Microsoft<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Why we use councils to guide internal AI efforts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Effective AI needs both enterprise guidance and business-owned direction. That\u2019s why we\u2019re using councils and connected capability groups as the operating model for our AI deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Each group has a distinct role, and none of them work alone. Together, they help us connect the strategy for AI to the work currently happening across Microsoft Digital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n