Inside Copilot Adoption: What Works, What Doesn’t

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👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/738 

Kevin McDonnell, Director of Modern Workplace at Avanade, shares practical insights from the frontlines of AI adoption in enterprise environments. From building habits around Copilot to leveraging agents and notebooks for real productivity gains, this episode is packed with actionable strategies for tech professionals driving applied AI.
 
🎙️ What you’ll learn 

• Build lasting habits for Copilot adoption across teams 
• Use Copilot Notebooks to centralise and query project knowledge 
• Apply researcher agents for deep context handovers and task tracking 
• Improve document quality with Copilot’s QA and formatting tools 
• Drive change through value measurement and targeted training 

✅ Highlights 

• “Companies were paying to be on the preview for Copilot.” 
• “You have that initial excitement… if you don’t build the habit, that will tail off.” 
• “We’ve seen between 45 minutes and an hour a day of time saving.” 
• “People are reinvesting that time into quality.” 
• “I use Copilot to rewrite it, then spend longer on the real minutiae.” 
• “The researcher agent gave me a list of tasks I need to hand over.” 
• “Whiteboard can group ideas into common themes in minutes.” 
• “Copilot Notebooks let me store chats and documents in one place.” 
• “I can ask questions grounded on that notebook’s content.” 
• “Before meetings, I get an audio summary to refresh key points.” 
• “Measure what matters by John Doerr—absolutely fantastic.” 
• “If you bury your head in the sand, you’re going to be left behind.” 

🧰 Mentioned 

•  Microsoft Copilot – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot 
•  Home Assistant – https://www.home-assistant.io 
•  Measure What Matters by John Doerr – https://www.whatmatters.com 
• Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf0yupPbVkqdRJDPVE4PtTlm6quDhiu7   

✅ Keywords 

copilot, microsoft 365, avanade, ai adoption, researcher agent, copilot notebooks, whiteboard, viva topics, productivity, document qa, home assistant, inkbird 

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Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith