Microsoft Copilot Aims to Help U.K. Firms Navigate Cloud

Microsoft’s Copilot, the company’s GenAI-powered smart assistant, will equip U.K. enterprises with revolutionary new solutions, services and ways of working with Microsoft clouds, according to a new research report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2024 ISG Provider Lens Microsoft Cloud Ecosystem report for the U.K. finds Microsoft has embraced the disruptive potential of GenAI through its investments in Copilot for Microsoft clouds. Several providers have already announced partnerships with Microsoft to develop new industry or functional solutions that tap into the power of Copilots, the ISG report says.

“The introduction of Copilot is going to change worker roles,” said Anthony Drake, partner and head of ISG in the U.K. and Ireland. “Ecosystem providers and advisors can offer training services and change management expertise to help enterprises and their employees adapt to this new era of human and machine collaboration.”

Microsoft’s integration of GenAI capabilities is not limited to Copilot. It is present in different forms, from ITSM to cloud migration, application development, application modernization, observability and ITOps, the ISG report says. In fact, according to the report, GenAI is set to transform nearly every aspect of Microsoft clouds in the coming years, not only through its various GenAI-powered Copilots but also with its Azure OpenAI Service. In response, providers are ramping up their GenAI talent by recruiting or training existing staff to support the new focus on GenAI for the Microsoft clouds, ISG says.

Although U.K. enterprises are intrigued by GenAI, many remain reluctant to invest significantly until clear use cases are defined and possible risks are adequately addressed, the ISG report says. According to the report, issues regarding data security, privacy and intellectual property protection top the list of enterprise concerns. As a result, providers strongly emphasize their advisory and consulting services as the first step on the path to enterprise adoption of GenAI tools for Microsoft clouds, ISG says.

“The potential of GenAI is prompting U.K. enterprises to focus a lot more attention on their data,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “They are turning to Microsoft ecosystem providers to help them shift to more modern data architectures.”

The report also examines how providers are interweaving Microsoft’s Power Platform capabilities into other key business technologies, such as SAP, Oracle and Workday.

For more insights into the Microsoft ecosystem challenges facing enterprises in the U.K., including optimizing data and adapting the workforce to GenAI, and ISG’s advice for addressing them, see the ISG Provider Lens Focal Points briefing here.