Accenture deploys Copilot to 743,000

Microsoft is rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot to roughly 743,000 Accenture employees in its biggest enterprise deployment of the product yet. (reuters.com) (news.microsoft.com) The rollout expands Accenture’s 2024 plan to offer Copilot to as many as 300,000 employees. Reuters reported the companies did not disclose financial terms on April 27. (reuters.com) Accenture began with a pilot in August 2023 involving a few hundred senior leaders and selected staff, then scaled to 20,000 users before widening the deployment. (news.microsoft.com) Microsoft 365 Copilot is the assistant built into apps like Outlook, Teams and Word, where it drafts text, summarizes meetings and answers questions using company data. Accenture said it spent the early phases tuning data strategy, governance and access controls around those tools. (news.microsoft.com) Accenture said the software was already showing heavy use inside the company before this wider push. In a 200,000-user cohort, monthly active use reached 89%, and 84% said they would miss Copilot if it were removed. (thenextweb.com) (infotechlead.com) The company also said 97% of surveyed users completed routine tasks up to 15 times faster, while 53% reported significant productivity and efficiency gains. Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said teams were already doing “higher-value work” because of the tool. (reuters.com) (news.microsoft.com) For Microsoft, the Accenture deal arrives as investors press for evidence that Copilot can turn a huge Microsoft 365 base into paying artificial-intelligence customers. Reuters reported that a little more than 3% of Microsoft’s more than 450 million enterprise users pay for the $30-a-month add-on. (reuters.com) Reuters also reported that Microsoft shares were down 12% in 2026 at the time of publication, after their biggest quarterly drop since the 2008 financial crisis in January through March. The same report said Microsoft has been adding more models and tools, including Anthropic technology and a checker called Critique, to support demand. (reuters.com) Accenture’s internal playbook was less about a one-day software switch than staged deployment, training and guardrails across more than 120 countries. The company said employees shared use cases and support through Viva Engage inside Teams and Microsoft 365. (news.microsoft.com) The result is a city-sized test of whether workplace artificial intelligence can hold up after pilots end and licenses spread company-wide. Microsoft and Accenture are now using 743,000 seats to make that case. (news.microsoft.com) (reuters.com)