Insight announcements Insight Named by Microsoft as a Top AI and Copilot Innovator
By Paul Erhart / 1 Aug 2024 / Topics: Generative AI Data and AI Microsoft Azure
Insight Canada congratulations video featuring Joyce and Reem; two client stories
At Insight, we have been at the forefront of embracing AI for business operations and turning the lessons we learn in-house into successful implementation for our clients. Our early adoption of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and our collaboration with Microsoft to create our internal AI service, Insight GPT, have set us apart as one of the first enterprises to successfully put AI tools into the hands of everyday workers.
We are now playing a key role as an early adopter of next-generation Surface devices, testing business applications and productivity enhancements made possible by dedicated neural processing units that enable AI to operate directly on-device.
All this makes it gratifying that Microsoft has recently recognized our efforts as an early champion of generative AI, honoring Insight as the 2024 Americas AI and Copilot Innovation Partner of the Year in Canada and the 2024 Americas Surface Partner of the Year in the U.S. These prestigious awards punctuate our belief in the transformative power of AI and the importance of our partnership with Microsoft.
Moving Quickly on Generative AI
Our teammates love having access to what amounts to an AI assistant working for them. When ChatGPT was released in November 2022, we jumped into action, starting with exploring its capabilities for internal use. Insight was one of the first partners to access Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI.
One of the first orders of business was proactively establishing an AI Acceptable Use policy to ensure responsible use of this once-in-a-generation technology. We then built our internally protected GPT model and a Power App front end, named it “Insight GPT” and rolled it out to our teammates in under five weeks.
Next, we developed Insight Lens for Gen AI, powered by Azure OpenAI. It puts the power of language models like Llama and GPT into clients’ hands, providing a secure alternative to public models. The latest addition to our Lens Fast Start portfolio uses Microsoft Fabric to accelerate the implementation of modern data analytics within weeks. Businesses aiming to deploy generative AI and analytics often encounter difficulties accessing essential data scattered in different formats and locations within the organization. Our data fabric accelerator facilitates universal data access without the need for data relocation to a separate environment.
Microsoft also selected us to participate in its early access program for Copilot for Microsoft 365. This opportunity allowed us to be among the first to experience Copilot’s power and understand how it can intelligently accelerate our workflows.
Our teams quickly embraced Copilot. Our Canadian team, for example, saw a 93% adoption rate within three months, leading to significant efficiency gains in various business operations. Out of 4,600 Insight teammates worldwide with access, over 85% actively use it every day.
Our commitment to maximizing the value of our generative AI tools through collaboration — we have crowdsourced successful use cases by teammates, from marketing and sales to HR and legal — and education has been a key driver of successfully empowering our workforce to leverage AI effectively in their daily routines. This cooperative approach has not only improved internal workflows but has enabled us to better serve our clients by responding to their needs more efficiently and effectively.
Our AI Success Translates to Clients
Successfully incorporating generative AI across our enterprise is great. But the real value comes in how we translate this success for our clients.
Our practical experience has given us a deep understanding of generative AI, recognizing best approaches and cultivating the necessary skills our clients require for success — often anticipating their needs before they do.
Here are a couple examples of how we have helped:
A leading Canadian government enterprise and institutional investor experienced a significant boost in user focus and productivity through the implementation of Copilot. Collaborating with Insight and Microsoft, the organization saw a remarkable 67% increase in productivity, along with improvements in work quality for 76% of users, and enhanced creativity for 77% of users.
The success of the initial pilot has led to a year-long adoption project for a full deployment, with Insight supporting the organization's commitment to providing the best working experience for its staff. Through tailored workshops and training sessions, employees learned how to maximize the benefits of Copilot while also beginning to implement responsible AI best practices like what we established for our own organization. The positive impact of the program even led to executive team members requesting separate training sessions to further enhance their skills and understanding of the technology.
“I don’t think everyone really understood how much help we would need to properly roll out Copilot,” our client’s program manager tells us. “The Insight team was a big help and easy to work with, super flexible and responsive to our needs.”
Insight also partnered with a leading construction company to implement an AI/machine learning safety solution, leveraging extensive data collection to enhance model accuracy and provide real-time risk indicators.
By integrating critical data sets and utilizing Azure Machine Learning, we developed a comprehensive solution that improved safety protocols and empowered project managers with deeper insights. Using generative AI and OpenAI technology, we demonstrated how to interpret feature importance and enhance decision-making for safer project execution.
The implemented solution led to a significant increase in model accuracy from 65% to 78%, enabling the identification of pre-incident indicators for proactive risk mitigation. By incorporating additional critical data sets and leveraging advanced technologies, the solution empowered onsite managers with deeper insights into safety risks, contributing to enhanced decision-making and improved safety protocols across projects.
Our Innovation Commitment
Looking ahead, Insight is excited to continue working with industry leaders like Microsoft to explore the vast potential of generative AI, both internally and for our clients.
Organizations lack the time and resources to stay in front of the rapidly evolving changes occurring with AI and generative AI technologies. We are staying ahead of the curve for them, applying it throughout our own global enterprise and bringing the best of what we learn to them.
These recognitions remain a testament to our teams’ dedication to innovation in AI. We are immensely proud of their achievements and grateful for their unwavering commitment to excellence. We will continue leveraging innovative solutions to drive business growth and deliver exceptional value to our clients.
Paul Erhart
VP, Cloud Solutions & Services, Insight
Paul leads a multi-billion-dollar cloud business and go-to-market team focused on the world’s top cloud hyperscalers (Microsoft, AWS and Google Cloud) and other cloud-ecosystem solutions. Paul’s team helps clients drive speed, scale, resilience, and innovation to their business — combining technical expertise, broad solutions portfolio and supply chain capabilities to help organizations unlock the power of people and technology.
