Scottish Water

Scottish Water was preparing to reduce working hours to a 35-hour week (down from 37.5), without compromising output or service. With budget pressures also in play, the organisation recognised that productivity gains would be essential.

They looked to AI as one way of addressing the challenge. With no formal business case at the outset, Microsoft introduced them to Microsoft 365 Copilot as part of its Early Access Programme, where initial curiosity quickly turned into measurable impact.

The focus then shifted to understanding whether AI, and specifically Microsoft 365 Copilot, could deliver measurable efficiency gains and enable teams to do more with less.

CPS supported the rollout with discovery workshops, prompt-a-thons, app-specific webinars, and training sessions tailored to diverse roles and departments. Champions and peer-to-peer learning networks were established, and a “Prompt Buddy” tool was recently introduced to help users share and explore prompts.

We flipped the script. This wasn’t top-down. People were responsible for how they used Copilot. We simply gave them the space and support to thrive.

– Nisarg Hirani

Scottish Water users reported an average time saving of around 5% per week — and notably , this efficiency gain  held steady as adoption scaled.

While many valued the obvious benefits, such as summarising meetings, writing documents, answering emails — the real value emerged in unexpected ways:

• Enhanced accessibility, supporting staff with dyslexia, ADHD, and physical limitations. Making daily tasks more manageable.
• Finance & Analysts: Using Copilot to explain formulas and clean datasets.

• Content creation: improving document generation, policy writing, and summarisation across departments like Corporate Affairs, Transformation, and Internal Comms
  • Quickly repurposing internal comms, creating first drafts, and making sense of lengthy documents.

We’re talking about getting rid of that blank-page fear. CoPilot kickstarts that creative process… whether it’s writing a privacy impact assessment or creating governance documentation.

– Andrea McCheyne

Anecdotal feedback highlighted that, in some cases, project timelines are being shortened, for example, searches needed to respond to external inquiries that once took up to a week can now be completed in a single day.

This is the first decentralised business case we’ve run. Every team must identify their own gains to meet the target —our role is to provide the tools and frameworks.

– Nisarg Hirani

While formal ROI figures are still under review, internal reviews suggested potential first-year savings of around £2.5 million and projections rising to £5 million in productivity gains as adoption expands.

CPS supported strategic and technical enablement through multiple Microsoft Catalyst-funded MCI engagements, including:

• Copilot onboarding and readiness assessments
• Training and prompt workshops
• Champion enablement and Centre of Excellence setup
• Deployment of Copilot Studio POCs, including a live public-facing AI agent for FAQs and overflow education

CPS remains a trusted long-term partner, delivering ongoing adoption assurance to ensure Scottish Water continues extracting value from their investment.