Ma'aden saves 2,200 hours monthly in first phase of Microsoft 365 Copilot deployment
Saudi mining giant Ma'aden deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Azure OpenAI Service, saving 2,200 hours per month across 36,600+ interactions in the first phase of rollout.
Background
Ma'aden's growth ambition requires tripling its workforce, but talent availability and competitive hiring markets mean that internal productivity must scale faster than headcount. Routine knowledge work — drafting emails, creating documents, meeting follow-ups — was consuming significant employee time without adding strategic value.
What Was Implemented
- Microsoft 365 Copilot deployed across functions (finance, HR, operations, leadership)
- Copilot Studio used to build custom AI agents for governance documents and delegation of authority policies, integrated in Microsoft Teams
- Azure OpenAI Service underpinning the generative AI capabilities
- Change management program: business unit champions, executive role modeling, Teams and Viva Engage peer communities
Results
First-phase results: 2,200 hours saved per month across 36,600+ Copilot interactions . Tasks including email drafting, document preparation, presentation creation, content summarization, Excel analysis, and meeting-minute generation are faster. AI agents provide on-demand answers on governance and authority policies within Teams.
Lessons
- Change management (champions, executive modeling, peer communities) is as important as the technology for driving adoption of generative AI productivity tools.
- Giving Copilot first to enthusiastic early adopters ("people who are excited about technology") creates internal change agents who accelerate broader rollout.
- Developing custom AI agents for high-frequency policy documents (governance, delegation of authority) extends generative AI value beyond general productivity into domain-specific decision support.