Unlocking the Power of Digital Assistants

Lessons from Six Months of AI Integration

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence continues to reshape the way businesses operate, and at C5, we’ve been actively exploring how digital assistants can enhance efficiency and decision-making. Over the past six months, we’ve integrated AI-driven tools into our workflows, uncovering valuable insights and practical lessons along the way.

At our recent AI event, we shared our experiences—what worked, what didn’t, and how digital assistants are transforming the way we collaborate and deliver value to our clients. From automating routine tasks to enabling smarter data-driven decisions, these tools are proving to be more than just a convenience; they are becoming an essential part of our technology ecosystem.

In this article, we reflect on our journey, the key takeaways from our AI adoption, and what’s next for C5 as we continue to push the boundaries of innovation.

Our Digital Assistants: A Quick Overview

We have integrated several digital assistants into our daily operations, each tailored to specific functions:

• VEGA – HR Assistant: Dedicated assistant on HR-related queries, offering access to internal employee policies, procedures, and more.
• ORION – Secure ChatGPT: Focused on secure communication, this assistant has been instrumental in managing a high volume of conversations and questions.
• M365 Co-Pilot: Released on a limited basis. Integrated within M365, this assistant aids in tasks related to Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, and other parts of the M365 suite.
• Co-Pilot for Sales: Integrated within Microsoft 365 and Dynamics CRM, this assistant is capable of assisting with sales processes.

Our current digital assistants

Key Learnings and Usage Insights

Over the past six months, we’ve gathered valuable insights into the usage and impact of our digital assistants:

• Vega has managed 532 conversations and 1,218 questions, with a notable peak in usage during the annual review month of November.
• Orion has handled 6,480 conversations and 22,361 questions, huge amount of potential applicability across various use cases.

The charts below show usage growing since formal launch in May 2024. Time prior to that was testing / development.

Usage and running costs for Vega and Orion

• Running costs of Orion and Vega remain quite reasonable at about £500 / month, this is across the whole company.
• Usage is fairly consistent throughout the day indicating that use of the tools has really embedded itself in day-to-day activities.

Usage shown as a percentage of each demographic group

• The adoption of digital assistants spans all company levels and age groups, though there is an expected, skew towards younger employees.

Total number of questions by hour of the day

Where Co-Pilot has been available, there is complementary functionality between Co-Pilot and the Digital Assistants. A notable use case is that of getting Teams meeting transcripts, then using Orion to do the summarisations, notes and minutes in a consistent manner which are then shared back into Dynamics CRM.

Challenges and Opportunities

While the adoption of digital assistants has been promising, there are areas for improvement:

• 47% of the company has adopted digital assistants so far—a strong starting point that highlights both early successes and opportunities for further engagement. This presents an exciting challenge as we continue to encourage adoption and showcase the benefits of AI-driven tools across the organisation.
• The Shared Services function has room for greater adoption compared to other Practices, presenting a valuable opportunity to drive further engagement and showcase the benefits of digital assistants.

Usage as a percentage of each function / practice

There is potentially a need to address the longer conversation lengths observed among employees aged 40 and above, potentially through targeted training and support.

Average number of questions per conversation

The Synergy of Co-Pilot and Digital Assistants

Co-Pilot and Digital Assistants do not compete but rather complement each other and go hand in hand. Our approach combines the strengths of Co-Pilot and digital assistants to cover a wide range of requirements:

• Co-Pilot: Optimised for user productivity within Office, M365, Dynamics, etc. providing contextual help, automating tasks, and ensuring data privacy.
• Digital Assistants: Customisable and tailored to specific needs, offering limitless use cases and enterprise-wide integration.

Co-pilot and digital assistants work side by side

Measuring productivity

This is a tricky one to measure, and potentially quite subjective. Regarding VEGA our HR model, we’ve seen a good uptake of conversations which could be broken down as follows

Tangible

• Saving: 9 hours / Month – 15 days / annum
• Based on 55 average questions / month, assume 10 mins to answer question
• But only 24% company have used Vega, so great potential to improve
• 100% uptake, could equate to 36 hours / month, 61 days / annum

Intangible

This is more straightforward to look at. We’ve seen people get:

• Access to HR outside of “core” work hours
• Quicker response – HR busy team
• Ability to ask questions may not be comfortable asking in person

All of these improvements would positively impact employee well-being while enhancing the support available for company activities.

Orion

Regarding Orion, this is harder to measure than Vega and work is needed here to try and quantify further, but there are double the number of users to Vega, and 14x the number of questions indicating real usage in the tooling.
Intangible. From an intangible perspective, from the questions being asked there is solid evidence of knowledge being shared quicker and easier within the organisation.

• Access to technical expert / super user – examples in coding, Office (Excel notably), technical professional standards
• Thereby we can assume there has been an increased ability to complete tasks quicker
• Democratisation of knowledge

Conclusion: Digital Assistants Are Becoming Essential to Our Daily Operations

The integration of digital assistants is already enhancing our day-to-day activities, improving efficiency, and supporting our teams in meaningful ways. While adoption is progressing, we recognise there’s more to do. We’re actively engaging with our teams to understand what’s working, where challenges lie, and how we can further optimise their experience.

Looking ahead, we have exciting developments in the pipeline, including AI-driven technical support for video data sources and enhanced risk and compliance solutions. As we refine and expand these capabilities, we’re confident that digital assistants will continue to unlock even greater value across our organisation.

If you’re interested in exploring how AI-driven digital assistants could benefit your business, get in touch—we’d love to share our insights and discuss how these tools can drive efficiency in your organisation.