Access Holdings cuts software development tasks from eight hours to two with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Background

Access Holdings needed to accelerate software development cycles and reduce manual overhead in meeting documentation and presentation creation across a large, geographically distributed workforce. Traditional development timelines (8+ hours for coding tasks, 2–3 months for chatbot builds) were not compatible with the pace of change in African financial services.

What Was Implemented

• Deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot enterprise-wide with implementation partner Signal Alliance
• Applied Copilot to: code generation and editing; chatbot development projects; meeting transcription and note-taking; presentation creation
• Measured results over the first three months of deployment

Results

- Coding tasks reduced from eight hours to two to three hours (a 63–75% reduction in task time) - Chatbot development projects compressed from two to three months to approximately ten days - Staff meeting engagement increased by approximately 25% (Copilot takes notes autonomously) - Presentation creation: 45 minutes instead of six hours (not in book text) - Projected: 25% enhancement in staff efficiency and reduction in technology operating costs (expected, not yet measured at time of publication)

Lessons

• Financial institutions with large, distributed engineering teams can see rapid, measurable returns from AI coding copilots in the first three months of deployment
• The most credible metrics are task-level (hours per task, days per project) rather than aggregate productivity percentages
• Named, senior executive attribution (Executive Director, IT and Digitalization) adds credibility to self-reported productivity claims
• Multiple use cases (code, chatbots, meetings, presentations) from a single Microsoft 365 Copilot deployment compound the business case