Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption at Ewe: From Rollout to Everyday Use
How About 400 Licenses Turned Into Over 3,000 Active Users and 50 Copilot Champions
Licenses Granted Quickly Are Put Into Practice
There are high expectations for artificial intelligence in everyday work, yet there remains significant skepticism about whether it will live up to its promises. At EWE AG, both sides came together: There was a willingness to use Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the licenses were issued faster than planned. But simply issuing a license doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is actually using the tool.
Whether an AI investment has an impact is only determined afterward: in employees’ day-to-day work. EWE wanted to actively shape this process and brought Arvato Systems on board to help. Together, they developed an adoption program that combines technical implementation, change management, and ongoing training, permanently integrating Copilot into the daily workflows of over 3,000 users.
Advantages
Providing a tool is easy. The real challenge is getting people to actually incorporate it into their daily lives. That’s exactly where Arvato Systems’ structured adoption approach has made a decisive difference for us.
Our Services
Arvato Systems supported EWE with a comprehensive change and adoption strategy. The first phase of the project, which was completed at the end of June 2026, focused on empowering employees, building a community of champions, and embedding new AI-supported ways of working:
- Assessment of Organizational and Technical Requirements
- Development of a Customized Change Management Approach
- Establishing and Moderating a Microsoft 365 Copilot User Community
- Basic Training and Office Hours for End Users
- Onboarding Program for Copilot Champions
- Developing Use Cases in Champion Calls and Deep-Dive Workshops
- Training on Light Agents for Selected Departments
- Measuring Progress Through Usage Data and Regular User Surveys
- Continuous Optimization of Adoption Initiatives
What Happens Next?
With the successful launch of Microsoft 365 Copilot, EWE’s development is far from over. For several months now, the company has been working on comprehensive enablement for Microsoft Copilot Studio to take the next step toward a company-wide agent ecosystem. In doing so, EWE is relying on the proven standards of its previous adoption initiative: targeted training, community exchange, and ongoing support—all to ensure that agents are integrated even more deeply into functional areas and business processes in the future.
About the Client, EWE AG
EWE AG, headquartered in Oldenburg, is one of Germany’s largest, predominantly municipally owned energy companies and has been firmly rooted in the northwestern part of the country for over 90 years. The group combines the business areas of energy, telecommunications, and IT, and serves over 2.2 million customers with approximately 11,000 employees. With annual revenue of approximately 8.1 billion euros (2025), EWE is actively driving the energy transition and digitalization in its regions.
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