From 20% to 95%: A Finance Team Ready for Copilot
A five-week learning journey and in-person Prompt-a-Thon that gave a Finance team the skills and confidence to use Copilot every day.
- Client:
- Canadian agribusiness company
- Industry:
- Agribusiness / food processing
Change Champions ran a five-week Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption program for 29 learners in the Finance team of a Canadian agribusiness company. The program combined a BrainStorm learning path with an in-person Prompt-a-Thon. The share of participants who felt well prepared to use Copilot rose from 20% to 95%, and 80% now expect to save 30 or more minutes a day.
The Challenge
The client's Finance team had Microsoft 365 Copilot licences and plenty of interest. Before the program, 90% of the cohort said they were motivated to use Copilot and two thirds already rated it very or extremely valuable. Only 23% felt well prepared to use it in their work, though.
The team knew what they wanted. They asked for concrete Finance use cases, better prompting skills and deeper know-how in Excel and PowerPoint. Leadership wanted a focused pilot that would build that capability quickly and give them results they could measure before deciding whether to scale.
Our Approach
We designed a two-track program for 29 Finance learners, including Finance and IT leaders, using PROSCI-certified change management.
- A baseline survey to measure confidence, usage and time savings before any training started
- A live launch webinar to kick off the program, attended by 26 of 29 registrants
- A four-course BrainStorm learning path released one week at a time: Meet Microsoft 365 Copilot, Fundamentals of AI Prompt Engineering, Work Smarter with Copilot for Excel Data Analysis, and Create and Polish Your Presentation with Copilot
- Weekly reinforcement emails with tips and prompts to keep Copilot top of mind between courses
- Sponsor communications from Finance leadership and manager-level progress reporting
- An in-person Prompt-a-Thon where teams worked through real Finance processes and left with a custom Book of Prompts
- Progress reviews with leadership during the program, plus a post-program survey that compared each participant with their own baseline
The Results
In five weeks, 27 of 29 learners finished the full learning journey and every course reached at least 93% completion. The bigger change showed up in confidence and daily habits:
Preparedness
Before: 20%After: 95%feel well prepared to use Copilot
Daily use
Before: 30%After: 90%use, or plan to use, Copilot several times a day
Time savings
Before: 15%After: 80%expect to save 30+ minutes a day, and the average estimate roughly doubled from about 20 to about 40 minutes
Champions
Before: 35%After: 95%will encourage their team to use Copilot
Perceived value
Before: 70%After: 90%rate Copilot very or extremely valuable
Active use: Every Finance licence was used in the last 30 days, and 27 of 29 in the last 7
About 4 hours saved
Audit Committee prep: baseline notes for a Risk and Internal Audit presentation
30 min to 10 min
Supplier payment report built with a couple of prompts
Hours to minutes
Month-over-month freight cost analysis by lane
30+ min saved
Month-end executive summary presentation
Both parts of the program were rated highly. 80% of participants rated the Prompt-a-Thon very or extremely valuable, and 75% said the same of the BrainStorm learning platform.
Why It Matters
Most organizations buy Copilot licences before they see value from them. This pilot shows that a structured program can close that gap in five weeks when it combines steady weekly learning, hands-on practice with real work and clear measurement.
The client's Finance team now has the skills, the habits and a group of internal champions. Leadership also has a proven model to take to other teams.
“The pace was perfect (weekly basis tasks), followed by in-person and hands on training.”
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Read the storyFrequently asked questions
How long did this Finance Copilot adoption program take?
Five weeks, including a baseline survey, a launch webinar, four weekly BrainStorm courses, an in-person Prompt-a-Thon and a post-program survey.
How much time does Copilot save the Finance team?
After the program, 80% of participants expected to save 30 or more minutes a day, up from 15% at baseline. The average estimate roughly doubled from about 20 to about 40 minutes a day.
How were the results measured?
Each participant who completed both the baseline and post-program surveys was compared with their own earlier answers. Course completion came from the BrainStorm dashboard, and usage came from the Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report.
What is a Prompt-a-Thon?
A hands-on workshop where teams practise prompting on their own real work processes and leave with a custom Book of Prompts they can reuse.
Real adoption. Real results.
Find out how a structured Copilot program can build confident, daily users in weeks. No pitch, just a conversation about your rollout.