By Adam Levine

Nearly three years into the generative artificial intelligence revolution, the data on AI usage in business remains sparse. Companies, investors, and customers are still waiting for the payoff.

But a new survey from the United Kingdom offers some important clues about AI -- and it's likely good news for the software firms that are pouring billions of dollars into AI expenses every quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the U.K. Government Digital Service ran a trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot, the generative AI tools sold as part of Microsoft's 365 productivity suite. The trial covered 14,500 civil servants spread across 12 government agencies. About half of the participants answered a survey at the end of the trial.

The results are encouraging for Microsoft and other software makers who are trying to add productivity-enhancing AI assistants to existing products. Participants reported saving 26 minutes a day on average, with one out of seven gaining over an hour a day. Some 22% reporting saving less than five minutes.

Microsoft says Copilot users can draft and polish documents, summarize emails, and videoconferences, and search for information.

"Overall, it has made my work more enjoyable, productive, efficient, and visually powerful," one survey participant reported, according to the U.K. government report on the study.

More than 70% of users said that Copilot reduced time spent on finding information and on mundane tasks. Over 80% said they didn't want to give up Copilot at the end of the trail.

Through the fourth quarter, adoption grew quickly and remained at around 80% for most of the trial. Adoption was highest for the videoconferencing app, Teams, though survey participants mostly avoided using it in Excel and PowerPoint.

Engagement with the new tool was also high. Close to 40% of survey respondents used it multiple times a day, and another 43% used it multiple times a week. The most consistent daily uses were for communications.

The productivity gains were reported up and down the civil service hierarchy. Entry-level workers reported saving an average of 37 minutes a day, while the highest civil service grade said they saw an extra 25 minutes a day. The lower and middle grades got more efficiency gains from document creation, and the upper grades from collaboration in Teams.

There were also intangible benefits noted by participants: Some workers reported having a better work-life balance, while feeling more creative, fulfilled, and motivated. Some employees with accessibility challenges also found it helpful.

To be sure, Microsoft 365 Copilot remains at an early stage of development, and there were limitations reported. "Microsoft 365 Copilot's ability to extract key themes and insights from documents is strong," said a survey respondent in a policy role. "But it struggles with nuanced or context-heavy data requiring human judgment."

Users were also reluctant to give Copilot too much responsibility in sensitive areas. "For risk mitigation, Microsoft 365 Copilot can identify trends," said a project management employee. "But decisions about which risks to escalate or how to approach them still require deep understanding and human judgment."

Microsoft 365 Copilot costs $30 a month. That's on top of a required 365 productivity subscription that costs businesses anywhere from $2.25 to $60 a month.

While Microsoft's cloud unit, Azure, is piling up AI revenue, the picture is less clear with business software. In its last quarterly earnings call, the company said Microsoft 365 Copilot had hundreds of thousands of users, tripling from last year's level.

Copilot "gives us an opportunity to reinvigorate every one of our franchises, because, a little bit like the internet, AI and Copilot type use cases aren't unique to one category," Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Takeshi Numoto said at the Jefferies Software & internet Conference last week. "We basically get to reinvent productivity with Microsoft 365 and Copilot."

Write to Adam Levine at adam.levine@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 03, 2025 14:20 ET (18:20 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.