AIB is rolling out Microsoft Copilot to 10,000 employees as it deepens its commitment to enterprise AI adoption. The move integrates AI into daily productivity tools including Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, and PowerPoint, as the bank looks to streamline work, enhance decision-making, and deliver improved outcomes for customers.
The initiative is being driven by AIB’s AI Centre of Excellence, which is also using Copilot Studio to develop bespoke solutions. These tools allow teams to extract customer insights from vast data sets, enabling quicker, better-informed decisions. Engineering teams will also benefit from GitHub Copilot, a secure AI coding assistant aimed at speeding up software development.
In addition to deploying the tools, AIB is encouraging peer learning across teams to support a culture of innovation and shared knowledge. AIB’s Chief Technology Officer Graham Fagan highlighted the bank’s long-term commitment to responsible AI use and its transformative potential. “We’re scaling AI across the organisation to deliver smarter, faster, and more meaningful outcomes for our customers and our people,” he said.
The bank is also keeping an open dialogue with the Financial Services Union regarding the long-term workforce impact of AI, ensuring transparency and responsibility as automation expands.
This contrasts with the situation at Microsoft, which despite touting major productivity boosts from its AI tools, including $500 million in call center savings, recently laid off over 9,000 employees in its third round of job cuts this year. While the tech giant praises AI’s transformative impact on internal operations like sales and software engineering, the broader employment implications remain a critical point of industry discussion.
For AIB, the focus remains on scaling AI thoughtfully to empower its workforce, not displace it.