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Title

Absa Experiments with Microsoft Copilot to Boost Employee Efficiency

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Absa experiments with Microsoft Copilot, boosting efficiency and customer engagement | Microsoft Customer Stories This is the Trace Id: 03c8841e3275652cf67b930143c6…

Description

South African financial services group Absa experimented with Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot and Copilot for Sales across its corporate and investment banking, relationship banking, legal and marketing teams. Employees used Copilot to summarize financial statements and contracts, translate documents, summarize emails and build Excel analyses; the story quotes an Absa executive saying Copilot saves at least two hours per day for some users, and a marketing colleague saying reading and summarizing a set of PDF documents took 20 minutes.

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…meeting action has been a significant productivity gain,” highlights Parsons. “Copilot saves at least two hours per day for some users.” “Copilot saves at least two hours per day for some users.” Naomi Parsons, Head…
…ding and summarizing these PDF documents took 20 minutes," recalls Schell. “With Copilot, the whole process of reading and summarizing these PDF documents took 20 minutes.” Elizabeth Schell, Senior Digital Change Manager, Corporate Investment Bank, Ab…

Company

Absa

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…ng better prepared to engage with fellow colleagues and clients. READ THE STORY Absa is one of Africa's largest diversified financial services groups, offering an integrated set of products and services across personal and busine…

Country

South Africa

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…r Microsoft 365 Microsoft Copilot for Sales ORGANIZATION SIZE 10,000+ employees COUNTRY South Africa BUSINESS NEED Employee experience Share the story Explore related stories /h2>…

Industry

Financial Services

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…ng better prepared to engage with fellow colleagues and clients. READ THE STORY Absa is one of Africa's largest diversified financial services groups, offering an integrated set of products and services across personal and business banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth and investment management, and insurance. Absa has acknowledged the importance and value of AI and has embraced these opp…

Problem

Absa's leaders felt the only way to remain competitive in a dynamic banking landscape was through the right use of technology and changing ways of working. Its Sales team had to dedicate a lot of time to studying financial documents before client meetings, client-facing teams were inundated with emails, and the formal auditing process was laborious and time-intensive.

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…has embraced these opportunities to transform its digital business landscape. “The only way to remain competitive in such a dynamic banking landscape is through the right use of technology and changing our ways of working,” states Naomi Parsons, Head of Digital Delivery, Absa Corporate and Investment…
…towards smoother operations and potentially improving client interactions." Previously, Absa’s Sales team had to dedicate a lot of time to studying financial documents before client meetings. With Copilot, this preparatory phase has been drastically shortened. “Ordinaril…

Solution

Absa chose to experiment with Microsoft Copilot rather than a standalone AI tool because it was already using Microsoft 365 and Copilot is embedded in the Microsoft application stack. Frontline and other teams, including Corporate and Investment Banking, Relationship Banking, Insurance, Legal and Marketing, use Copilot to summarize financial statements, contracts and emails, generate meeting actions, translate documents, and create pivot tables, formulas and graphs in Excel. Absa also extends its use of AI with GitHub Copilot, aiming to increase its velocity in producing code.

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…soft Copilot as an AI assistant and digital tool to empower its employees. "We could’ve opted for a standalone AI tool, but we were already using Microsoft 365 , and Copilot is embedded in the Microsoft application stack," Parsons highlights. “Using Copilot for Microsoft 365 therefore made perfec…
…rsons, Head of Digital Delivery, Absa CIB Harnessing AI for customer engagement Absa decided to empower its frontline employees across different business areas by leveraging Copilot for synthesizing information and generating content. “We need to engage with clients and explain complex issues like loan approvals…

Business value

An Absa executive says Copilot saves at least two hours per day for some users on tasks such as summarizing emails and generating meeting actions. A marketing colleague reports that reading and summarizing several PDF documents took 20 minutes, audit evidence can be quickly summarized and correlated, and less experienced Excel users can create pivot tables, merge data sources and add formulas without interrupting more technical colleagues.

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…meeting action has been a significant productivity gain,” highlights Parsons. “Copilot saves at least two hours per day for some users.” “Copilot saves at least two hours per day for some users.” Naomi Parsons, Head…
…. With Copilot, Absa’s employees began using Excel for advanced data analysis. “With Copilot, even less experienced Excel users can create pivot tables, merge data sources, add formulas, and create graphs. They can confidently present these to the client without the need to interrupt…

AI capabilities

Generative AI, Document Intelligence

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…Lindelani Ramukumba, Chief Information Officer, Absa Relationship Banking. "With Copilot, we can summarize massive financial statements and contracts, infer trends, and be in a better position to have more informed conversations with the clien…

Technology

Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Copilot for Sales, Copilot in Excel

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…tion, and result of Absa's Copilot adoption Discover more details CUSTOMER Absa PRODUCTS Microsoft 365 GitHub Copilot Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 Microsoft Copilot for Sales ORGANIZATION SIZE 10,000+ employees COUNTRY South Africa BUSINESS NEED Employee…

Headline outcome

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…meeting action has been a significant productivity gain,” highlights Parsons. “Copilot saves at least two hours per day for some users.” “Copilot saves at least two hours per day for some users.” Naomi Parsons, Head…
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12 Oct 2026, 05:23 UTC
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