You’ve deployed Microsoft Copilot.
You’ve explained the benefits: faster work, fewer repetitive tasks, better productivity, less time spent staring at a blank page.
But here’s the real question: how do you know it’s being used?
Copilot licenses can look great on a procurement spreadsheet… while the tool itself quietly sits untouched. And unless you’re standing behind everyone’s shoulder (please don’t), it’s hard to tell what’s really happening.
That’s the gap Microsoft is aiming to close with a new Copilot Dashboard feature called Benchmarks.
It sits inside Viva Insights (part of Microsoft 365) and is designed to give leaders a clear, practical view of Copilot adoption—without relying on guesswork or anecdotal feedback.
With Benchmarks, you can see things like:
- how many people are actively using Copilot
- which Microsoft 365 apps they’re using it in
- how frequently they return to it over time
And then it goes a step further.
Microsoft says it can compare your organization’s usage to similar businesses—based on things like company size, industry, or even region—so you can tell whether you’re ahead of the curve… or quietly slipping behind.
At this point, a lot of leaders will have the same immediate thought: Is this a privacy issue?
That concern is fair—especially in industries like healthcare, education, insurance, government, and non-profit, where sensitivity and compliance are everyday realities. Microsoft’s position is that external comparisons are handled safely using anonymized, aggregated data and statistical methods designed to protect privacy.
From a business perspective, it’s a smart play.
Plenty of organizations launch AI pilots with real enthusiasm—only to stall out after the initial “wow” factor. One study suggests only a small percentage of AI pilot programs ever move beyond the testing phase, often because companies struggle to adjust workflows and culture to match the new tools.
Benchmarks could help by pinpointing exactly where adoption is slowing down—so you’re not guessing whether the issue is awareness, training, process fit, or simple hesitation.
Of course, more visibility can make people uneasy. Nobody wants to feel like their work habits are being monitored. The key is how you frame it: this should be about enablement, not enforcement. If the data shows certain teams aren’t engaging with Copilot, that’s your signal to offer clearer guidance, better training, or stronger use-case examples—not a reason to start handing out demerits.
So the real question isn’t just “Is your team using Copilot?”
It’s: Are they confident enough to use it well—and are you giving them the support to get there?
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