UK Power Networks: Copilot from pilot to company-wide use

UK Power Networks distributes electricity to 8.5 million homes and businesses and has 6,500 employees. Its leaders saw generative AI as a way to improve customer service and performance in the back office, on the front line and in network maintenance, and to cut time spent on administration.¹

The company moved aggregated smart meter data to Microsoft Azure in 2023 to spot network issues earlier, and nearly all its workloads now run on Azure. A Copilot Task Force held nearly 40 in-depth interviews and found close to 50 use cases. The Microsoft 365 Copilot pilot began with 300 licenses in January 2024 and reached 1,000 by December 2024. Workshops for more than 950 colleagues ran in groups of 20 to 30, and 12 Copilot Champions support ongoing learning.

Procurement uses Copilot for contract reviews and spending reports, and customer service uses it to prioritize complaints and write more empathetic messages. Teams built an email monitoring system and agents that make SharePoint documents easier to search. Azure OpenAI Service (now Azure OpenAI in Microsoft Foundry Models) handles the flow of incoming email, helping staff act faster on urgent safety notices, and Azure Logic Apps and Power Automate support the wider work.¹²³

In our view, the method is the transferable part: interview teams to find concrete use cases before scaling, train in small groups, and keep a network of champions. It is cheap and suits utilities with a mix of office, field and customer service staff. The 480% ROI should not be quoted without its method, which neither source publishes, and the 96% adoption appears to refer to the 1,000 licensed users rather than all 6,500 employees. Staff who mainly need drafting help and search may be served by Copilot Chat, so a utility can keep paid licenses for roles where the use cases are proven.