Weeknote 2024.39

A week of two halves, split between exploring the future with AI and all the things we need to do now to be ready to exploit emerging technologies.

Saturday

The weather forecast for the morning was pretty bleak so I skipped my usual walk with the Ramblers, waited for the rain to clear, and then enjoyed a glorious sunny afternoon on an independent walk around Wanstead.

Sunday

Made holiday arrangements. I booked a hotel and flights previously so spent the day working out what to do in Rome later this month. I soon realised I should have done this much earlier.

Monday

I spent Monday with around 800 other Microsoft Copilot customers exploring the future of AI in our organisations. Here’s what resonated with me.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reminded us that Copilot is about one year old, so its natural enterprise customers have been exploring what it can do, however now is the time to move from experimentation into adoption. I’ve said previously we need to stop playing with Copilot and start using it as a tool to make our organisations and services better. For the public sector this means reducing drudgery, increasing productivity, and delivering for citizens.

I had my first real look at Copilot Studio, using natural language to show and tell Copilot how to complete routine tasks across multiple Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications so they can act as autonomous agents, interacting on behalf of colleagues, and “raising their hand” if they get stuck. My thoughts are you don’t need to be a programmer, but you do need to have a clear idea of what the tasks are, and the steps required.

One Microsoft customer showed how they’d developed an intricate prototype using the PowerPlatform and Copilot within a week to create a “fraud-fighters dream” collating information from multiple sources, correlating facts, and making recommendations for next steps.

We are getting close to AI writing AI prompts, which being a bit of a Douglas Adams fan, always makes me think of the super-computer built to answer the meaning of life, the universe and everything, with the answer being 42, and then goes on to design another computer to work out what the question was.

Which makes the next point even more important, Microsoft see AI accelerating ideation, integration and implementation, with a bedrock of integrity.? In every local government AI discussion, we probably spend 80% of our time talking about compliance and ethics.

A Microsoft enterprise customer said the most important skill they hire for now is the ability to learn, and to learn fast, as work is changing at an unprecedented rate with little or no period of stability in between.

One organisation found around 60% of their staff using Copilot to be more productive and estimated this would get to 80% through viral interactions alone, Copilot users promoting it to non-users.

Another found that after the initial enthusiasm Copilot use tailed off, colleagues had returned to their habitual ways of working, so they realigned their change management to encourage habit forming behaviours, using Copilot to save 11 minutes and a day for 11 weeks, after which they found a new habits had formed and change management could step away.

Clifford Chance shared their AI principles, which are available to all AI Principles | Clifford Chance | Law Firm.? I’ve never worked for Clifford Chance, however I previously worked with some Clifford Chance partners on their altruistic work, so was interested to see their work in this area.

Microsoft showed three ways in which their customers are using Copilot to improve their organisations. The most common is general employee productivity, things like using Copilot to transcribe and summarise Teams calls rather than someone typing up notes; using Copilot with Copilot Studio to transform routine processes, and to deliver new products and experiences that weren’t feasible previously.

The CEO of a large mobile phone company reported they’d identified 10 business cases to deliver improvements at speed, with three of these in customer services. These included upgrading their chat bot from using machine learning to generativeAI. The new chatbot resolved over 85% of customer enquiries, leaving just 15% to wait for human help, against 40% previously.

After a day extolling the value of Microsoft AI, we heard from several early adopters what they wanted Copilot in future releases. The first noted they spend most of their day in Microsoft Teams, and wanted Copilot to be more present in Teams, as an always-there assistant, rather than having to be called into activities.

Another had a similar theme, a sense that Copilot needs to be more embedded across the tools people use to do their work, so you don’t have to leave where you are, go to Copilot, and then come back to where you were working.

And the last request was for Copilot to feel more personalised, so it’s “my” assistant rather than “an” assistant.

Tuesday

Lots of catchups with suppliers and potential suppliers.

Wednesday

Mainly Digital Services meetings today. It’s always great to work across the organisation, engage with the wider local government community, and attend events. And always good to be with the team. A strong sense that we can take things to the next level with our new heads of service.

Thursday

Another excellent all staff meeting, an update on our new ideas process, feedback from colleagues using our service and a reprise of last week’s celebrations including a fantastic video. I wish I could share it here, the practicalities of getting everyone’s consent make this tricky.

Friday

I completed most of my tasks that had accumulated over the week, caught up with some old and new colleagues, and had a discussion with a former colleague that filled me with hope for resolving a long-standing challenge.

Track of the week

This Road I Know by Zach Bryan. https://open.spotify.com/track/5O2WP1NItY8oqe6UsXrJ0X?si=7cca286666cd478f