Every leader wants to know: how do you turn AI into real results at scale? This question is top of mind as AI assistants like Copilot become commonplace in software development and everyday office work. GitHub Copilot helps developers code faster, and Microsoft 365 Copilot drafts emails, summarizes meetings, and more.
Companies are investing in these tools – but how do you know if they’re truly being used and delivering value?
Tracking Copilot utilization in your organization is key to answering that question.
It can reveal whether teams are embracing these AI aids, how effectively they’re using them, and where there’s untapped potential or need for support. We’ll explore why tracking Copilot usage matters, what metrics to look at, how to collect the data, and how to translate those insights into action.
The temptation with new tools is to assume “if we deploy it, value will follow.” Copilot doesn’t work that way. Simply enabling access doesn’t guarantee widespread adoption or meaningful impact.
Tracking utilization helps ensure you’re getting value from the licenses you’ve purchased. Tracking who is using Copilot, how often, and for what provides visibility into adoption patterns that leadership, HR, and team managers care about:
Tracking usage matters for several reasons:
If certain departments or roles show low Copilot usage, that flags an opportunity to investigate why. Maybe they lack training, or maybe the tool doesn’t yet meet their needs. Without data, these issues stay invisible.Risk and Compliance
AI systems introduce new governance considerations. Tracking usage ensures employees are applying Copilot responsibly and helps maintain compliance with company policies.
When evaluating Microsoft Copilot usage, organizations should look beyond simple login counts. The goal is to measure not just access, but engagement and outcomes. Here are the most relevant metrics:
The number of employees who used Copilot within a specific time frame (daily, weekly, monthly). A healthy adoption would show a high percentage of active users relative to licenses assigned.
Tracking usage over weeks and months shows the trajectory of adoption. Are more people using Copilot this month than last? Steady upward trends mean adoption is growing, whereas flat or declining usage may signal that the initial excitement has faded or obstacles have emerged.Feature Adoption
What kinds of tasks are employees using Copilot for? Drafting emails, generating reports, data analysis, meeting summaries, or brainstorming?
One of the hardest but most valuable metrics. By comparing average completion times before and after Copilot, organizations can estimate productivity impact and value to the organization.
Usage volume doesn’t equal value. Pairing tracking with employee feedback helps capture whether Copilot is genuinely improving work.
Averages across the whole company can mask variations. It’s often enlightening to segment usage by department, role, or team. You might find that, say, the Engineering department has 90% of developers using GitHub Copilot, while the Finance team’s adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot is only 20%. Granular breakdowns help identify where to focus efforts.
While the value of tracking is clear, organizations often face challenges when trying to measure Microsoft Copilot adoption:
To get the most out of Microsoft Copilot usage data, organizations should adopt these best practices:
Tracking Copilot utilization is a journey – one that blends technical data collection with human-centered change management. Done right, it allows your organization to realize the full promise of AI assistants. You’ll be able to see which teams have embraced Copilot (and celebrate them), which teams need a nudge or training, and how these tools are tangibly impacting work outcomes. It transforms Copilot adoption from a shot in the dark into a measurable, optimizable part of your business strategy. As the old saying goes, “what gets measured gets managed.” By measuring Copilot usage, you can manage and maximize its value.
That said, assembling all these insights can be challenging. This is where Worklytics comes in as a powerful solution. Worklytics is a people analytics platform designed to give organizations comprehensive, privacy-safe visibility into how work gets done – including the utilization of AI tools like Copilot.
Integrated to other Collaboration Tools
Instead of manually stitching together admin reports and audit logs, Worklytics can automatically integrate data from Microsoft 365, GitHub, and other collaboration systems to build a holistic dashboard of Copilot usage across your company.
It goes beyond basic metrics, providing context by linking usage data to organizational attributes (like department, role, or location) and even correlating it with other productivity indicators. For example, Worklytics can show you not just that 60% of your product engineers are using GitHub Copilot, but also how that correlates with changes in pull request throughput or code review times. It can highlight if teams with higher Copilot adoption are experiencing fewer meeting hours (perhaps because Copilot is helping with prep and summaries) or more focus time for deep work.
Crucially, Worklytics does this with privacy in mind, aggregating data so that trends are apparent without invading individual privacy – ensuring that trust is maintained.
By leveraging Worklytics, HR managers, executives, and business analysts can get real-time insights into AI adoption that are difficult to obtain otherwise. The platform can send automated alerts if certain departments fall below target usage (so you can intervene with support), or if usage spikes (perhaps indicating a successful training or a need to adjust license counts). It essentially serves as an early warning system and success tracker for your Copilot rollout. Instead of guessing, you’ll know exactly where to focus to drive adoption and where you’re reaping the benefits.
Worklytics’ advanced analytics can even help measure Copilot’s impact on outcomes – for instance, quantifying time saved by department, or improvements in key performance metrics post-Copilot adoption – so you can report a concrete ROI to your stakeholders.
In summary, tracking Copilot utilization isn’t just about watching numbers go up; it’s about understanding how a transformative tool is (or isn’t) changing the way your organization works. With the right metrics in hand and a platform like Worklytics to unify them, you equip yourself to foster a culture that fully embraces helpful AI, continuously improves how teams work, and stays ahead in the new era of intelligent productivity. Your organization has given its people a Copilot – now make sure you’re charting the course to get the best out of it. By measuring, learning, and iterating, you can turn Copilot usage data into smarter decisions and real business value.
