In the last 18 months, the rise of artificial intelligence has captured the attention of industries worldwide. With innovation and technology at the core of what we do, Umicore was not going to let AI pass us by. Our Digital Workplace and Information Services teams launched a pilot project to test the possibility and impact of an integrated AI assistant and the results have been strong.
“Productivity is up, quality of work improved, and over 90% of testers want to keep using AI at work.” says Quentin, head of the Digital Workplace program. But Quentin believes the big lesson at Umicore has not been the power of AI, but the power of community: “My team can run trainings, but we at Umicore are most successful at picking up new technologies when we can learn from each other as colleagues.”
The Benefit of Community Engagement
The Digital Workplace Team developed a strategy for the pilot which brought testers from around the globe into a tight-knit community. They offered monthly webinars supplemented with informal coffee chats, which allowed testers to ask questions to the team and each other. An online forum allowed testers even more opportunity for interaction, to share experiments, compare results, and handle problems that cropped up. The Digital Workplace team spurred dialogue with weekly challenges which encouraged testers to try new functionalities of the software.
Daniel, a member of the Digital Workplace team, shared that this model is not new to Umicore. “We based our community of AI testers on another community: The Digital Heroes. These colleagues help their teams adapt new digital collaboration techniques and also has global reach. So, adapting the structure we built for the Heroes, we created for our testers a safe space to connect with each other.”
But more importantly, we set clear expectations. Every tester received from us an in-person onboarding. We explained the support that we would give them, and we were clear about the time and engagement they would need to give the program.
Daniel, member of the Digital Workplace team
Daniel credits the pilot’s success to these community engagement strategies. Testers received the necessary support and resources, but also a sense of belonging and being part of something bigger than themselves. “Testing Copilot in the Community gave us opportunities to exchange ideas and brought a lot of inspiration!” says Copilot tester Marija from Brussels, Belgium. “It is always much more exciting to discover and learn new things in a group than in a vacuum. It's a team play! Exchanging on the challenges and new findings of Umicore colleagues kept motivation high to test and explore further.”
Christine in Shanghai, China adds, “Being in a community helped me be more efficient with my testing because other testers would share what was and what wasn’t working, which gave me space to ask the software the ‘right’ questions.” Stephan in Kobe, Japan had a similar observation: “The fact that we tested in a cross-functional team allowed me to see issues and use cases that I would not have encountered in my regular line of work.”
Digital Workplace team member Jessica led the development of the informal sessions. She called them Copilot Cafés. “They are one of our best offers – and we’re still hosting them even though the pilot is over! For 30 minutes, we open a virtual meeting space and colleagues come in with their questions, comments and concerns. We almost always go over our time because there is so much to talk about.”
Going Forward, Umicore to Increase Productivity with AI
The pilot test issued 300 licenses of Microsoft 365 Copilot to colleagues from every business unit and department in the company for a period of eight months. They were nominated by the leaders of their business unit or department. Almost 90% of testers reported an increase in productivity and over 90% of testers said that they don’t want to give up their licenses.
Umicore is now planning a broader rollout of AI assistants in the workplace. And will continue using community management techniques to do so.
“We are transitioning our tester community into a kind of ambassador community.” says Jessica. “Our testers are advising their unit and department leadership about the pros and cons of AI and will help new users learn the technology.”
Daniel adds, “It is good to know that our testers, our early adopters, from across the globe are ready to help the next round of users pick up AI skills faster and more easily. We all learn best when we are learning from each other.”
Umicore is proud to continue its support of colleagues who work together, learn from each other, and can flexibly adapt the newest technologies.
