Content management, use case insights, and training maximize AI Copilot success
Snapshot
Despite their novelty, AI-based programs are quickly being embraced as essential tools for productivity and collaboration. Artificial intelligence can streamline workflows, summarize lengthy documents, help people stay on top of their email, and much more.
Unfortunately, if AI is pulling from outdated or error-ridden resources, results can be messy. To avoid this conundrum when getting ready to adopt Microsoft’s AI Copilot tool, a large nonprofit organization engaged Kalles Group to provide content management guidance and identify high-value use cases for staff.
Challenge
To reap the benefits of AI, first take the garbage (content) out
The main warning around AI-based productivity tools can be summarized by the phrase “garbage in, garbage out.” Thorough content management is key, because programs like Microsoft AI Copilot are trained on a variety of internal documents in order to provide their productivity-enhancing insights. If these documents contain outdated data, guidelines, recommendations, or user guides, Copilot will reference those and give incorrect information.
Although some organizations may be tempted to absorb the benefits of AI as quickly as possible, the smart ones understand that cleaning up their documentation is a critical prerequisite. This cleanup is not a task to be taken lightly. It requires a great deal of coordination between teams to ensure that everything is fully aligned with the organization’s needs, and documentation must be named in a consistent manner so that the tool can easily locate the most relevant content for a given prompt.
The nonprofit had the right idea — they knew they needed expert guidance on their journey towards AI adoption. Kalles Group stepped in to help with the large-scale content management project and address other AI-related needs, including training staff and identifying high-value use cases.
Getting past the hype: How can AI bring concrete value to the workplace, immediately?
There is a lot of mystery around artificial intelligence, even for those directly involved in creating it. However, this does not mean that organizations should lack clarity around how AI-enhanced tools will enable their staff to be more productive and collaborate better. Aspirations like “enhance productivity” and “improve collaboration” are nothing without a solid plan in place.
Concerns around clarity were exacerbated by a need to bring the organization’s workforce fully on board. The nonprofit has a few thousand employees spread across the globe, bringing vastly different attitudes toward adopting AI as a daily work tool. The client also needed to resolve some considerations around connectivity, infrastructure, and governmental regulations.
The nonprofit worked with Kalles Group to determine exactly what Copilot was going to accomplish and to clearly communicate these benefits to staff. This was a concerted effort to move beyond buzzwords and peel away vague, “easier said than done” value propositions to discover specific ways that AI could enhance productivity.
Approach
Content management at the center: Supplying Copilot with the right data
AI readiness is an important goal that determines how well the organization will grapple with the future of work, and preparing for Copilot is part of a much broader knowledge management project that Kalles Group and the client have been working on for several years. Content management and document management, which fall under the umbrella of this larger project, directly impact the work with Copilot.
Kalles Group helped the client implement the following measures:
- Ensuring that all files used to train AI are living on approved storage tools
- Applying the correct naming conventions to documentation
- Getting rid of any outdated content and correcting any mistakes
- Regularly reviewing document access and permissions
Teaching people how to fish (with AI): Identifying use cases and providing training
Success with Copilot is unlikely if an organization’s people are not sure what exactly the tool can do for them. In order to clarify this, Kalles Group conducted a series of interviews to discover specific AI use cases that would give staff the most bang for their buck. Based on these interviews and on user personas that the team developed, the three most promising ideas were the following:
- Getting a quick summary to catch up on a meeting when arriving late
- Finding clear answers to questions that require gleaning information from multiple documents
- Quickly generating some content to get past writer’s block
These were just a few ideas to get the client started. Going forward, Kalles Group will help collect people’s suggestions around working with Copilot and make these available to all employees. Copilot is still in its infancy, so it will continue to evolve, and the nonprofit’s AI use cases will develop accordingly.
To give employees clarity on how AI-enhanced tools gather information and which sources they pull it from (i.e., are they pulling from the organization’s intranet, or from the web at large?), the KG team provided informational sessions. These sessions also included training on how to tweak the basic elements of a prompt to improve Copilot’s results. The use cases defined above informed these trainings.
Building excitement and confidence in using AI with a creative Copilot launch celebration
Copilot (along with ChatGPT) was launched to several thousand employees spread across the globe at the culmination of a months-long process. In order to drive awareness about the new tools and inspire staff to start using them, Kalles Group organized a space-themed AI Launch Celebration Event featuring an astronaut DJ and activity booths where people could learn about different things that AI can do. Participants received “passport” cards for which they could earn a stamp at every station (and which, when completed, turn in for a chance to win a prize). This lighthearted event was designed to generate excitement and increase staff confidence in using AI for daily productivity improvements.
The event was a smashing success. For a budget of just $21 per person, the KG team brought together 650 members of the Seattle campus’s diverse workforce for a fun, inspiring exploration of AI’s possibilities. Kalles Group’s creative communications campaign, which featured printed posters and digital announcements in multiple Teams channels, was instrumental in driving participation much higher than the initial estimate of 200-400 people. Ultimately, the AI launch effort reached 987 people and supported 1380 total staff.
Results
A guiding compass for the client’s AI journey
The nonprofit is a very early adopter of Copilot, but thanks to the KG team’s input, they are quite well prepared for the future. AI adoption is a journey, not a single accomplishment, and Kalles Group is working through the client’s journey with them. The organization now has a solid collection of valuable use cases that empower staff to reap the most benefits for teamwork and productivity.