I’ve had some version of this conversation a lot lately: “We bought Copilot licences. We know AI matters. But hardly anyone is using it.”
A year or two ago the debate was whether AI was worth paying attention to at all. That’s pretty much settled. Most businesses accept that tools like Microsoft Copilot are going to be part of everyday work. The question now is different.
How do you get people to put in the time to learn it?
Funnily enough, this isn’t really a technology problem. Most businesses have already done the hard bit. They’ve chosen a platform, bought licences, sorted the security and given people access. A handful jump straight in. A few become real power users. Everyone else has a look, tries a couple of prompts and goes back to doing things the old way.
That’s actually normal. We’ve watched the same thing happen with collaboration tools, CRMs, document management and pretty much every big technology change for decades. People don’t adopt technology because it’s new. They adopt it because it helps them do something better, faster or easier.
Nobody wakes up wanting more AI
This is where a lot of businesses get stuck. They tell everyone they’ve got Copilot and expect usage to follow. But most people aren’t sitting at their desk wondering how to use more AI today. They’re thinking about customers, projects, deadlines, meetings and a hundred other things. If AI doesn’t clearly help with one of those, it drops down the list fast.
That’s why the best Copilot users usually start with a problem, not the tool. They ask things like:
- Can this save me time getting ready for meetings?
- Can it help me write a better proposal?
- Can it sum up this email chain I haven’t got time to read?
- Can it get me started on a document so I’m not staring at a blank page?
Nobody wants to look silly
There’s another reason people don’t talk about much. Plenty of staff are still working AI out. They don’t want to ask a question that sounds dumb, spend half an hour on it and get a poor result, or admit they’re not sure how to use it.
The businesses getting the best results make it OK to experiment. People share prompts that work, teams talk about what’s helping, and managers show how they use it themselves. Confidence builds over time.
Who’s getting real value?
It’s not necessarily the businesses with the most licences. It’s the ones having practical conversations about how work actually gets done, looking at repetitive tasks and asking “could AI help here?” Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes it’s no, and that’s useful too. Not every task needs AI. The aim isn’t to use Copilot for everything, it’s to use it where it really makes a difference.
It’s still early days
It’s easy to forget how new this is. Email has been around for decades, and Word, Excel and PowerPoint have been on our desks for years. People have had plenty of time to build habits around them. AI is different. Most people are still figuring out where it fits, so low usage today doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Usually it just means people are still learning.
The businesses that get the most out of AI over the next few years won’t be the ones that bought the most licences. They’ll be the ones that helped their people see where it genuinely makes work easier. In my experience, people rarely change because they’re told to. They change when they can see a better way to get the job done.
If you’re wondering where to begin, have a look at where to start with AI.
Got Copilot licences gathering dust? Book a free health check, or call us on 0800 688 768.