*UKHotViewsExtra* Government trial shows AI could save civil servants 2 weeks a year

More than 20,000 civil servants across numerous departments took part in a government-led trial using Microsoft’s GenAI Office 365 Copilot to support their daily work – with early results showing time savings equivalent to nearly 2 working weeks per person, per year.

Civil servants across departments including the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), HMRC, Home Office (HO) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) were given M365 Copilot for three months (from Sep to Dec 2024), using it to draft documents, summarise meetings, cut through jargon and streamline consultations, and in specific roles such as Work Coaches speeding up support for job seekers.

Trial participants saved an average of 26 minutes a day when using M365 Copilot, which some rough maths equates to around about 5% in time saved based on a regular working week. Results were consistent across grades and professions, with differences observed in how the tool was used and where benefits were realised. Over 70% of users agreed that M365 Copilot reduced time spent searching for information, performing mundane tasks, and increased time spent on more strategic activities.

These are not really results that will blow anybody away, but do highlight that wide scale benefits can be achieved using even generalist GenAI tools like Microsoft Copilot. Even bigger gains are likely to be had when more tailored and sophisticated tools are adopted, of course that is contingent on the government investing quickly and at scale in proven AI tools, something so far that it has been slow to do.

TechMarketView subscribers can read our further analysis, and how this aligns with the UK governments broader plans for adoption of AI tools in *UKHotViewsExtra* Government trial shows AI could save civil servants 2 weeks a year.

Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:43