Westpac is rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot to its global workforce, completing one of the most significant Copilot deployments undertaken by an Australian company and the largest in financial services within Asia Pacific.<\/p>\n
The move gives the bank\u2019s 35,000 employees plus contractors and service providers access to an AI assistant to accelerate their work and support customers. It comes after a successful Australian pilot involving 15,000 employees last year, where Copilot helped improve business outcomes and free up time.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the update, Westpac\u2019s Chief Data, Digital and AI Officer, Andrew McMullan said AI is a strategic enabler for the organisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt AI is helping us work smarter and faster so our people can spend more time focussed on delivering for our customers. Embedding AI at scale across the bank is an investment in our people, equipping them for success,\u201d McMullan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy helping our teams work more efficiently and access information faster, AI is removing friction so our people can focus on higher-value work. But technology alone isn\u2019t the answer. We know AI needs to be used responsibly and has the strongest impact when it\u2019s paired with skilled people, strong values and good judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n
To support the rollout, the bank is providing its people with AI education, including masterclasses, support resources and prompt-a-thons. It has also introduced Copilot Studio, which the Technology, Data and AI teams will use to build custom AI agents. Already the teams have built several agents, including for HR and IT to instantly answer common employee questions and handle simple tasks. A dedicated innovation sandbox has also been introduced on Microsoft Azure to encourage experimentation and development of new AI-driven solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiving our teams access to these environments will accelerate innovation and encourage new ideas \u2013 whether that\u2019s custom agents, workflow automation or analytical models. AI will completely reshape how we work and eventually how customers engage with our products and services. The potential is enormous,\u201d McMullan said.<\/p>\n
Duncan Taylor, General Manager of Financial Services at Microsoft ANZ, said Westpac\u2019s introduction of AI for all employees demonstrates a commitment to its people and leadership in delivering AI innovation at scale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will enable all Westpac employees to be more efficient in their daily work and remove the burden of digital overload many of us experience. It also lays the foundation to scale innovation across the bank to create value for employees, customers and shareholders,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThis is a prime example of innovation with trust, and we are proud to partner so deeply with Westpac on this journey. The lessons we\u2019re learning together are shaping the future of our products and the industry and demonstrate the tangible business value AI can deliver at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Westpac is rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot to its global workforce, completing one of the most significant Copilot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-462636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}