What does the future of work look like in Local Government with the advent of emerging technology like GenAI (Generative Artificial Intelligence)?

Beyond a clear improvement on productivity, how is GenAI helping us foster collaboration, communication and creativity, improve wellbeing and increase accessibility among the workforce?

How can GenAI not only bring benefits to our staff, but also to the communities we serve?

With these guiding questions in mind, in early 2024, Ealing Council kicked off the Future of Work programme, a council-wide initiative exploring how work is evolving in response to changes in the environment, new trends, and technological advancements, such as GenAI. Like other London Local Authorities, Ealing Council explored these questions through a semi-live environment trial across the workforce, using Microsoft Copilot. The aim of the trial was to test whether technology maximises efficiency and productivity, supporting the council and its staff to find new, flexible, and agile ways of working that encourage collaboration, creativity, and work-life balance.

• The council embarked on a 4-month trial with 250 staff from different teams and roles, supported by a multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence. These efforts were supported by a research programme to help understand staff’s experiences and the challenges, the benefits and risks of using GenAI, including the ethical concerns and an evaluation of the readiness of the organisation for new emerging technology:
• Staff surveys helped measure how users used Copilot, in which Microsoft 365 (M365) apps, and their levels of satisfaction. It also included an extended final survey, which requested a longer description of the highest impact use cases.
• Staff engagement sessions were peer-support sessions for staff using Copilot in similar ways to exchange their experiences and ask for support, allowing a better understanding of the support needs and the perceptions and attitudes of staff while using Copilot.
• Qualitative interviews captured more detailed experiences from a sample size of 10% of license users. They explored their work activities and knowledge of Copilot before the trial, their learnings and experiences using Copilot, and the future hopes for emerging technology in the workplace.

The report 

To capture the learnings and recommendations from the trial, a report was commissioned to look at the insights extracted from the research throughout the past 4 months, including how staff define Microsoft Copilot, how they use it, and what are its perceived benefits and limitations. Reflecting from these insights and the experiences captured during the trial, the report then ends with a set of four key recommendations for a successful adoption of GenAI tools like Copilot in an organisation with similar characteristics to Ealing Council, including proposals for enhancing digital literacy and confidence among staff, approaches to support the adoption of Copilot, keys to attracting a talented workforce, and ways to create opportunities to talk about AI and ethics.

Learnings from the trial

Here are some highlights of learnings from the Copilot trial, described in further detail in our report:

After a learning curve, staff have successfully adapted Copilot to their needs

With very high initial expectations, followed by a period of true understanding of how Copilot can really help them with their daily tasks, staff defined Copilot as an assistance tool and found valuable uses in six areas: help with meetings, content creation, communications, research and search, data analysis, and automation. For instance, Copilot has been very useful for note taking in meetings of different kinds, it has helped to create more engaging content for different audiences, and to draft complex communications for residents. It has also helped to find patterns in both qualitative and quantitative data to support the writing of reports such as the one presented in this article, and finally it has enabled some staff to access complex automation capabilities through tools like Power Automate.

Example of staff using Copilot for content creation

Copilot has indirect benefits beyond enhanced productivity

Copilot has a clear direct benefit on efficiency and productivity, with 86% of the staff in the survey reporting saving at least 30 minutes a day, and up to 25% saving more than 90 minutes a day. However, staff have reported other indirect benefits. For instance, they have highlighted their enhanced ability to access content through a stronger searching capability, which allows them to get to existing content faster but also access new learning. Staff also highlighted how Copilot has improved their ability to communicate and collaborate between teams, and finally the potential for improved wellbeing in the longer term due to gaining back their time. 

Copilot needs further integration and more consistency

Although clear benefits were reported by staff, many highlighted the limitations of Copilot, which hindered their ability to integrate this tool completely into their daily work journeys. Staff would like to see greater levels of integration of Copilot with other tools, like Mosaic, and same levels of development of Copilot functionalities across M365 apps. Staff would also like an improvement in the reliability and consistency of the results, and therefore the validity of the information that Copilot provides.

What is next for Ealing Council?

The team is now drafting a proposal to continue trialling Copilot, but with a new approach, by going wider and exploring all that is possible through dozens of use cases. Now, we aim to target high impact use cases and support them to thrive with Copilot. We will also reimagine the Centre of Excellence as a space that will not only review and imagine a future with Copilot, but with other emerging technologies as well. Our aim is to contribute to building the digital literacy of our organisation and preparing it for the future of work.

Like us at Ealing, we know many councils have embarked in similar trials and we want to share what we have learnt. If any of the findings in the report have caught your attention and you want to speak to us, get in touch with Maria Ellis, the Programme Manager, at EllisM@ealing.gov.uk.

This blog has been written by Ada Maymó Costa, Ealing Council, and represents their views and experiences of using the technology/supplier. To represent the best interest of our members, LOTI does not favour or endorse the products and services of any one company. For more information, visit our approach webpage.