Copilot has been implemented. The maturity question starts now
Microsoft Copilot is now widely available in many organizations. The technology has been rolled out, visible in the daily tools and integrated into the digital workplace. This is an important first step.
However, in practice it appears that availability does not automatically lead to adult use. While clear productivity gains and innovation are expected on paper, the impact in many organizations lags behind the ambition. The difference between potential and practice is becoming increasingly visible.
That discrepancy is rarely the result of the technology itself. The challenge is almost always in the mechanism around it: how employees actually use Copilot, how use is stimulated and measured and how organizations steer towards growth in maturity. Microsoft itself describes this as "the hard part" of AI: not implementing the tool, but structurally integrating it into daily work.
This shifts the issue from implementation to organizational development: not whether Copilot is available, but how it is sustainably embedded in working methods, teams and decision-making.
AI is growing faster than organizations can adjust
The struggle around Copilot is not an isolated one. Research by BCG shows that the majority of organizations are not yet able to realize structural value at scale with AI. Initiatives start energetically, but scaling up to sustainable impact turns out to be complex.
At the same time, McKinsey notes that generative AI is rapidly gaining ground within organizations, but that the step from experiment to integrated application in processes is often underestimated. The same picture is reflected in Gartner studies : organizations with higher AI maturity do not distinguish themselves by more pilots, but by longer operationalization, clear governance and active measurement of impact.
The common thread is clear: technology develops quickly, but organizational structures, behavior and management change more slowly. In that field of tension, the difference between experiment and mature application arises.
Copilot is no exception. On the contrary: for many organizations, it is the first large-scale AI application that directly affects daily work. It is precisely because of this that it becomes clear how complex adoption is in practice.
What Mature AI Adoption Really Requires
The patterns we see in practice are not incidents. They point to a more fundamental issue: how do you organize maturity in AI use?
When organizations want to go beyond activation and initial experiments, the focus shifts from "rolling out Copilot" to developing organizational capacity. It is no longer about offering knowledge, but about systematically strengthening skills, cooperation and management.
This means that AI use will become part of regular management issues: how do we measure progress? How do we guide different teams in their development? How do we ensure that new working methods stick?
Mature AI adoption therefore requires not only tools or training, but a structured way of working in which development, application and adjustment are continuously connected. Not as a temporary initiative, but as an ongoing process.
From that perspective, we have developed the Copilot Accelerate Program : not as a separate process, but as a structured way to help organizations grow in mature Copilot use.
Agents as a practical accelerator of personal productivity
In discussions about AI, the focus often shifts to complex automation or process optimization. In practice, however, we see that it is precisely accessible applications that make a direct contribution to productivity.
Within the Copilot Accelerate Program, we therefore pay attention to the deployment of simple Copilot agents who support employees in their daily work. Not as a technical experiment, but as practical tools that simplify repetitive tasks, structure workflows and contribute to working more consistently.
By introducing such applications at the right maturity level, the step from experiment to routine becomes smaller and more concrete.
Copilot Chat
A frequently asked question is how organizations can take employees without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license with them. Think of colleagues in healthcare, production, services or other roles in which Microsoft 365 is used less.
Copilot Chat offers an accessible starting point here. Within the Microsoft environment, employees can safely get acquainted with AI and develop basic skills. An appropriate growth path has also been set up for this within the Copilot Accelerate Program, so that development in AI maturity does not depend on licenses, but on a willingness to learn and improve.
The strategic question
The key question thus shifts from availability to capacity: does the organization have the organizational and behavioral foundation to allow Copilot to add structural value?
Organizations that succeed in this do not distinguish themselves by more enthusiasm or more tools, but by a mature, measurable and cyclical approach. They do not see AI as a temporary innovation, but as a structural development of people, teams and processes.
There, in that development, the real potential of Copilot comes into its own.