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Arthur T Knackerbracket [soylentnews.org] writes:

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story [theregister.com]:

The United Kingdom's Government Digital Service (GDS) has found that giving civil service employees access to Microsoft 365 Copilot saved them an average 26 minutes per day on office tasks.

Microsoft 365 Copilot provides generative AI assistance with various Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. It allows workers to accomplish some tasks through a natural language chat interface instead of mouse movements and menu clicks.

UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle discussed the results of the study in a presentation at SWSX London [sxswlondon.com].

"Whether it’s helping draft documents, preparing lesson plans, or cutting down on routine admin, AI tools are saving civil servants time every day. That means we can focus more on delivering faster, more personalised support where it really counts," said Kyle in a statement [www.gov.uk]

The GDS ran a trial of Microsoft M365 Copilot with 20,000 government employees from September 30, 2024, through December 31, 2024.

Based on self-reported data, the resulting study [service.gov.uk] [PDF] showed fairly consistent time savings across professions and organizational ranks, though precise tool use and benefits varied.

"Over 70 percent of users agreed that M365 Copilot reduced time spent searching for information, performing mundane tasks, and increased time spent on more strategic activities," the report says.

"Perceived concerns with security and the handling of sensitive data led to reduced benefits in a minority of cases. Limitations were observed when dealing with complex, nuanced, or data-heavy aspects of work."

The report claims if the reported time savings were replicated across a full working year, "users could save 13 days."

That figure was apparently calculated by using the median values of six reported ranges: No time savings (17 percent); less than 5 minutes saved (5 percent); 5-10 minutes saved (13 percent); 11-30 minutes saved (28 percent); 31-60 minutes saved (23 percent); and more than an hour saved (14 percent).

Our calculations differ slightly. If you assume 26 minutes saved per employee per day, on average, and count every one of the 365 days in a non-leap year as a working day, you've saved 9,490 minutes or about 6.59 days. More plausibly, with 253 working days in 2025, the potential time savings would be something like 6,578 minutes or 4.59 days.

The study didn't investigate whether the workers used this extra time to do more work, take extra time for lunch, or head off to the pub early. "Due to experimental constraints it was not possible to identify how time saved was spent," the report says.

Nonetheless, M365 does appear to have the potential to save some time for office workers. And even using the more modest projected time savings of 4.59 days per employee per year, the £19 per employee per month cost of a Microsoft Copilot Pro subscription in the UK appears to be worthwhile.

Other organizations, like the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ Bank), have previously reported productivity gains [theregister.com] from AI tool usage.

A separate report issued by the UK's Alan Turing Institute found [turing.ac.uk] that about 40 percent of public sector employee time could be supported by generative AI, thereby freeing public sector staff from laborious tasks through automation.

"Our research shows that generative AI has the potential to greatly support the delivery of public sector work, assisting time-pressed staff with the completion of administrative tasks and freeing them up to focus on other elements of their jobs," said Youmna Hashem, research associate in AI for public services at the Alan Turing Institute, in a statement.

"However, it is vital for these technologies to be embedded in ways that are safe, responsible, and which take into account the many complexities of public sector work. If the government introduces generative AI effectively and staff receive the training and assurance they need to confidently use the technology, this could meaningfully transform the way that public sector time is spent."

Original Submission