Microsoft Partners With Barclays To Extend Its Copilot Rollouts To 100,000 Staff

Microsoft Corp. and Barclays Plc. have announced a strategic partnership that will enable Barclays to launch Microsoft’s 365 Copilot to 100,000 staff members globally. The collaboration aims to improve the employee experience via AI agents, providing them with access to the information they need most.

Barclays Says The Copilot Will Improve Workers’ Experience Through Information

The bank will integrate Microsoft 365 Copilot into its colleague productivity tool, which will produce a single agent that gives workers access to the bank’s collaboration portals and tools. The collaboration and integration will be offered in one place, making it easier to enhance employee experience, improve productivity, and find information. Barclays believes that its colleagues will benefit severally from the AI-powered tools. These include;

Colleague Front Door: Here, there will be a broader agentic dashboard available for easy access by Microsoft Viva. It will be useful for colleagues in important moments, like annual leave and bookmark desks. It can also be useful to colleagues for announcements and personalized news.

Colleague AI Agent: the AI agent will be available via Microsoft 365 Copilot, as it integrates major partner connectors to deliver employee self-service solutions. Barclays says the new agent will allow the platform to carry out a number of tasks easily, such as finding answers to HR-related questions, checking policy compliance, and booking business travel.

Content Search: Colleagues can discover important information quickly and easily through personalized semantic search, such as location-based contexts, via their user profile.

Microsoft Wants To Use GenAI To Improve Efficiency

Deputy Group Co-Chief Operating Officer and Group Chief Information Officer at Barclays, Craig Bright, commented on the development. He stated that the company will take advantage of the power of GenAi to create a more intuitive experience, improve efficiency, and drive deeper insights.

He added that the integration of the Copilot into the colleague productivity tool is an important process in simplifying the way the team works, making it more efficient to get things done. Additionally, it shows the collective partnership with Microsoft, using practical applications at scale to enable innovation to take shape.

Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft UK, Darren Hardman, also commented on the partnership. He stated that Barclays has shown its innovative side, welcoming the new technology waves and serving its colleagues and customers better.

With the adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Barclays can actualize its vision of putting AI in the hands of all its staff. Hardman added that the team at Microsoft is looking forward to an excellent working relationship with Barclays to actualize this dream for every employee. It will enable its colleagues to maximize the use of information technology, he reiterated.