From busy to strategic: using Copilot to mature your IC function

TL;DR:

AI - especially Microsoft 365 Copilot - can take hours of low-value work off internal comms each week (drafting, summarising, formatting, tagging, finding things), surface better insights faster, and raise the strategic bar. Start by targeting five high-volume use cases (meeting capture, content drafting, inbox triage, content repurposing, measurement). Wrap those with clear governance, prompts, and "human in the loop" quality checks. Measure outcomes, not outputs, and be transparent about how you're using AI-employees are more comfortable with AI when employers explain it. Also, only 41% of UK employees say their organisation has clearly explained how it uses gen-AI - clarity matters.

Why AI (and why now) for internal comms

Most leaders want productivity gains, and most employees say they lack time and energy to deliver them. Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index describes a widening "capacity gap" - 53% of leaders say productivity must increase while 80% of workers feel time-poor. "Intelligence on tap" is one lever to close it.

When organisations pilot Microsoft 365 Copilot, early data shows material time savings on admin and drafting. A recent UK government trial with civil servants found average daily savings of ~26 minutes (about two weeks per year), with strong intent to keep using the tools. Microsoft's own Work Trend research with early users reported reduced time on mundane tasks and faster creative starts. Forrester's (commissioned) TEI analysis projects positive ROI for Copilot at enterprise and SMB levels, though your mileage will vary.

So what? IC teams are chronically stretched. If AI can reliably handle set-up, summarising, reformatting and retrieval, communicators can spend more time doing the human things the IC Index says drive a 10/10 comms experience - helping leaders listen, care, and "show the work" on feedback.

What Microsoft 365 Copilot actually does (the bits IC will use most)

Copilot is built into Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and Loop. It grounds responses in your tenant's Microsoft Graph data (permissions respected), runs via Azure OpenAI within the Microsoft 365 service boundary, and honours your existing access controls.

Useful features for IC, at a glance

• Teams meeting Copilot: Live or post-meeting summaries, "who said what," alignment/disagreement, suggested actions, and Q&A. (Transcription optional depending on setup.)

• Outlook Copilot: Drafts, rewrites by tone, TL;DR of long threads, suggested replies.

• Word/PowerPoint Copilot: Turn a brief into first drafts, create decks from documents, insert source-linked citations to tenant files.

• SharePoint Copilot: Summarise pages, generate page outlines, propose navigation, tag content.

• Admin & extensibility: Controls for agents/connectors and enterprise data protection. (Prompts & responses are protected under Microsoft 365 contractual terms; admins decide which third-party agents are allowed.)

Five everyday IC use cases that unlock capacity fast

Start with high-volume, low-risk work. Measure the time you get back. Iterate.

1) Meetings without the minutes

• Use it for: Leadership town halls, change programme stand-ups, editorial boards, channel councils.

• How: Enable Copilot in Teams meetings to capture decisions, actions by owner, risks, and "what we heard." Ask: "List themes of concern raised by frontline colleagues and suggested mitigations."

• Guardrails: Remind participants the summary is a draft. Always human-review sensitive topics.

• Impact: Cuts note-taking/admin time and improves "closing the loop" on feedback-an area large orgs struggle with.

2) First drafts that don't start from zero

• Use it for: Policies, FAQs, CEO notes, change explainers, leader talk-tracks, manager packs.

• How: In Word/Outlook, feed Copilot a short creative brief, audience, tone, key messages, and source docs. Then ask for a "90/90 draft" (90% complete in 90 minutes), and do a human edit.

• Guardrails: Cite sources, check accuracy, test for accessibility and inclusive language.

3) Inbox triage and response pathways

• Use it for: Shared mailboxes (IC@...), campaign replies, internal crises.

• How: Use Outlook Copilot to summarise threads, propose replies by segment (employee/manager/exec), and flag sensitive items for human follow-up.

• Guardrails: Sensitive topics (people change, ER issues) never auto-send. Use "copilot as co-pilot," not auto-pilot.

4) Repurposing content across channels

• Use it for: Turn one CEO video into a short intranet post, Yammer/Viva Engage thread, manager notes, and a captioned clip.

• How: Ask Copilot to produce variants by channel and reading level; enforce a house style (tone, banned words, reading grade).

• Guardrails: Validate against your channel strategy and hard-to-reach audiences-don't assume everyone lives in email.

5) Faster measurement and insight

• Use it for: Weekly dashboards, post-campaign reviews, listening summaries.

• How: Pair Copilot with your existing analytics (intranet, email, Viva, survey tools) to summarise outcomes and pull plain-English insights. Focus on what people did (adoption, participation, behaviour change), not just what you sent.

• Guardrails: Align metrics to IC objectives and create a shared data dictionary so "headcount," "reach," etc., mean the same thing across HR/Finance/IT.

Raising the bar: how AI helps the team mature

1) From order-taker to strategic partner

Automate the "plumbing" (drafting, formatting, tagging) so practitioners can coach leaders-the proven driver of great IC (empathy, clarity, listening).

2) More - and faster - listening

Use Copilot to synthesise questions from listening sessions and open-text survey comments into thematic summaries leaders can act on. Close the loop publicly. (Employees rate comms far higher when feedback is welcomed and visibly used.)

3) Better change communication

Copilot speeds up artefacts (FAQs, roadmaps, cascade packs). You focus on sequencing, empathy, and local adaptation across the change journey-what actually moves people.

4) Accessibility and inclusion by design

Bake accessibility checks into prompts (e.g., alt text, heading structure, plain language) and test content with hard-to-reach groups. AI can help re-write for clarity; humans ensure it lands with everyone.

Guardrails: governance, privacy, and trust

• Data boundaries: Copilot respects Microsoft 365 permissions and uses Azure OpenAI within Microsoft's service boundary (no training of foundation models on your tenant content). Your existing access model is the first line of defence.

• Enterprise data protection: Prompts and responses are protected with Microsoft's enterprise terms; encryption at rest/in transit; tenant isolation.

• Extensibility controls: If you add agents/connectors, admins can approve per-agent permissions and data handling. Keep a register of approved agents.

• Clarity with employees: Only 41% of employees say their org has clearly explained responsible AI use; when orgs do, comfort with AI in comms jumps. Publish your IC AI policy and label AI-assisted content.

Your 90-day rollout plan

Weeks 1-2: Frame & govern

• Draft a simple, human AI policy for IC: purpose, do's/don'ts, privacy, accessibility, and "human in the loop."

• Update your content standards (reading level, inclusive language, accessibility checks).

• Confirm tenant permissions, DLP/classification, and which Copilot agents (if any) are allowed.

Weeks 3-6: Pilot five use cases

• Pick two squads (e.g., Change & Channels). Run real work through the five use cases above.

• Time-box experiments and collect baseline vs. post time saved, quality rating, rework. (Use outcome metrics - adoption, understanding-over vanity metrics.)

Weeks 7-8: Train & prompt-engineer

• Create IC-specific prompt libraries (see below).

• Train leaders and managers on how to review AI drafts (facts, tone, empathy) to keep comms human.

Weeks 9-12: Scale carefully

• Move to a light "AI ops" model: monthly model/drift check, prompt library updates, and a change log.

• Publish "How we use AI in internal comms" on your intranet and tag AI-assisted content.

Prompt library for IC (copy/paste)

Use these as starting points-always add your audience, outcome, and sources.

1. Town Hall Minutes to Actions

   "From this Teams transcript and chat [link], summarise decisions, owners, due dates, and open risks. Create a manager-briefing version at 250 words with 3 talking points."

   
   

2. Policy to Plain English

   "Rewrite this policy for frontline colleagues at reading age 9-11. Use headings, bullets, and an FYI → Do → Where to get help structure. Add alt text suggestions for the images."

   
   

3. CEO Script + Cascade Pack

   "Draft a 3-minute CEO script announcing [change], plus a manager cascade (FAQ + 5 questions to ask teams). Keep tone empathetic, acknowledge uncertainty, and explain why now."

   
   

4. Newsletter Remix

   "Turn this 700-word intranet article into: (a) 90-second video script, (b) 120-word email teaser, (c) 4 post ideas for Viva Engage aimed at shift workers."

   
   

5. Outcome-led Measurement

   "From this campaign data (opens, dwell, clicks) and survey comments, summarise outcomes versus the objective of 30% increase in understanding. Suggest 3 experiments to improve."

How we'll know it's working (measures that matter)

• Team capacity: Minutes saved per person per week; % time on strategic work (leader coaching, insight).

• Quality: Stakeholder satisfaction with first drafts; edit cycles to approval; accessibility checks passed.

• Employee outcomes: Understanding of priorities; perceived empathy from leaders; evidence that feedback is used (close-the-loop comms).

• Change outcomes: Adoption behaviours vs. plan; speed to clarity; fewer rework cycles.

Risks & how to mitigate

• Hallucinations / errors: Human review before publish. Keep sources in-tenant and cited. Train for fact-checking.

• Bias & tone misses: Test with diverse user panels; apply style and inclusive language guides.

• Over-automation: Label AI-assisted content; don't outsource empathy-leaders must own the message.

One-page starter policy (paste into your intranet)

How Internal Comms uses AI at <Your Org>

• Purpose: Use AI to reduce admin, improve clarity, and get insights faster.

• Where we use it: Drafts, summaries, repurposing, and measurement-not for final approvals, people decisions, or sensitive ER matters.

• Privacy & security: We use Copilot within Microsoft 365. It respects existing permissions; content stays within our tenant.

• Quality: A human approves every IC output. We label AI-assisted content.

• Accessibility & inclusion: We check reading level, alt text, and inclusive language on every AI-assisted draft.

• Feedback: Tell us what's working; we'll share changes we make based on your input.

Final word

The goal isn't to "AI-wash" comms-it's to buy back time for the human work that data shows really matters: leaders who listen, clarity over spin, and visible action on feedback. Roll out AI tooling deliberately, measure outcomes, and reinvest the hours you save into connection and care.