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Divergent IT Team
Microsoft Copilot AI Adoption for Business Managed Services

Our Own AI Journey

Nancy Galimi
Nancy Galimi

I have always believed that in order to fully understand and integrate something into your life you must emerge in it. 

It all began in October of 2024. We were invited to an event. The event had a heavy focus on AI and how AI was going to revolutionize the way we work. It really opened our eyes! Back in 2024 we were fully focused on our business, growing our team, fostering a wild dog and moving our daughter to college in Florida. Life was busy and the AI subject was not in our daily lives.  

After three days emerging into AI learning and many conversations we came to the conclusion - we needed to start using it. We didn’t start by selling AI. We started by using it. We came back to our office and had a meeting with our team. We shared what we learned. By then we had jumped on board with the belief that “AI won’t replace humans but will replace those who don’t use it.” We had a plan. 

We decided to start by adopting Copilot and name two team members AI Ambassadors these two people champion responsible AI adoption, share success stories, help team members learn new tools, act as a bridge between leadership, staff and clients. Before advising clients about AI, we believed we needed to understand what adoption actually looked like inside a business. 

So Divergent IT Became Customer Zero

We invested in AI education, tested tools inside our own Microsoft environment, introduced Copilot, experimented with agents and workflows, developed governance practices, and learned where AI created value - and where human judgment mattered. As we continue learning and evolving, we recognize that AI works best when people stay in the loop. We believe that responsible AI requires: 
 
  • Human judgment
  • Clear ownership
  • Appropriate security
  • Data governance
  • Employee education
  • Verification of AI-generated information
  • Leadership accountability
Fast forward to today we have participated in Microsoft training, industry AI accelerators, certifications, workshops, and hands-on experimentation. We keep learning because AI keeps changing.
 
 

What We Have Learned

AI is not about technology. It is about outcomes.

Through our internal AI rollout, we discovered that the real value is not the tool itself. The value comes from reducing friction, improving communication, eliminating repetitive work, and creating capacity for higher-value activities.
 

Adaptability matters more than expertise.

One of the strongest themes throughout our journey has been AQ (Adaptability Quotient). We learned that AI rewards curiosity, experimentation, and a willingness to continuously learn. The people who gain the most value are not necessarily the most technical. They are the most adaptable.
 
 

AI requires human judgement.

We continually reinforce that AI is a tool, not a replacement for critical thinking. Successful adoption requires validation, oversight, accountability, and clear human ownership.
 

What We Have Tested

Internal Productivity Workflows

We tested AI for:
 
  • Email drafting and rewriting
  • Meeting summaries and action items
  • SOP development
  • Task assignment and tracking
  • Documentation creation
  • Workflow redesign and automation
  • Knowledge organization and retrieval

Copilot Adoption

The team has used Copilot for:
 
  • Summarize meetings
  • Capture decisions and action items
  • Improve follow-up accountability
  • Support ticket and project management
  • Increase communication clarity

AI-Powered Process Improvement

Our AI Accelerator work focused on:

  • Identifying operational bottlenecks
  • Redesigning SOPs
  • Testing AI-assisted workflows
  • Measuring business impact
  • Building repeatable systems

Rather than automating for automation's sake, the focus has been on improving real business outcomes.

What it means to our clients

We recommend from experience, not theory.

Our clients benefit because we have tested AI in our own operations first. We understand what works, what fails, and where human review is still required. Along the way, we've learned that the greatest value of AI is not replacing people. It's empowering them.

As we continue advocating for the responsible use of AI, our commitment to clients remains simple: we will lead with experience, prioritize security and governance, maintain human oversight, and help organizations adopt AI in ways that create meaningful business outcomes while preserving trust, accountability, and human judgment.

 

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