As the pace of change accelerates, companies are swiftly transitioning from experimenting with AI to transforming their enterprises on a large scale. Leaders are concentrating on achieving measurable results, faster time to value, and repeatability within their operations. However, many organizations are facing a common challenge: the issue is not whether to invest in AI, but rather how to scale its adoption and deliver consistent, enterprise-wide impact.
Over the past year, a key realization has emerged. Businesses are no longer questioning the importance of AI; instead, they are seeking ways to integrate it meaningfully into their workflow and to ensure it produces significant outcomes. This is where many organizations find themselves at an impasse.
Intelligence and trust as fundamental elements
At Microsoft, we believe that successful AI transformation hinges on two essential elements: intelligence and trust. Companies need to leverage their unique work intelligence—comprising data, workflows, and expertise—and apply it through AI in ways that are adaptable, secure, and governed. This calls for a platform that supports a diversity of models and continuous innovation without sacrificing enterprise-grade security, compliance, and reliability.
Equally important is embedding AI into the daily flow of work—how employees collaborate, make decisions, and operate daily. To achieve this at scale, systems must be transparent, secure, and accountable. This is where real enterprise value is generated, and where many companies require clearer guidance.
Creating impact at scale involves more than just deploying new tools. It necessitates a trusted foundation that integrates data, security, privacy, and governance, as well as a new model for delivering AI into the business. This is why Microsoft and EY are strengthening their partnership to help companies transition more swiftly from AI goals to tangible business outcomes.
From pilots to production
In today’s market, there is no lack of AI pilot projects. However, pilots alone do not transform businesses. What is needed now is the capability to scale AI across the enterprise, integrate it into core workflows, and deliver sustained, repeatable impact. EY’s experience in this area is invaluable.
As one of the first global firms to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot at scale, EY began with an initial rollout to 150,000 staff, quickly showcasing the potential of embedding AI into everyday work. The results were noteworthy and quantifiable:
- A 15% increase in productivity, reinvested into client delivery and continuous learning.
- Monthly adoption at 94% and weekly usage at 85%.
- 63% of enabled employees utilizing Copilot three or more days per week.
- 81% of employees reported time savings, with 84% redirecting that time to higher-value work, and 73% enhancing the quality of output.
The impact extends beyond individual productivity to AI-driven core business operations:
- Finance operations modernized with intelligent agents, resulting in 95% faster lead times and a more than 37% reduction in operational costs.
- A multi-agent AI framework was deployed among 130,000 Assurance professionals and 160,000 audit engagements.
- Tax workflows were transformed through document automation, reducing manual efforts by up to 90%.
With these outcomes, EY is expanding Copilot through Microsoft 365 E7 to over 400,000 employees globally, moving from initial success to genuine enterprise scale. This exemplifies enterprise-scale transformation—not isolated victories, but sustained impact across the organization. This success is why EY serves as Customer Zero, applying Microsoft AI technologies internally to demonstrate effectiveness before offering solutions to clients.
Investing in results-driven outcomes
Building on this foundation, Microsoft and EY are jointly investing more than $1 billion in a new initiative aimed at helping organizations transition from isolated AI activities to enterprise-scale transformation. This venture combines Microsoft’s AI platforms—including Azure, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Foundry, Fabric, and security—with EY’s extensive industry capabilities and leadership in transformation.
However, what sets this initiative apart is not just the resources provided, but the method of delivery. The focus is on assisting companies in becoming Frontier Firms, where AI is embedded throughout the enterprise rather than simply added on top. In a Frontier Firm, data, workflows, and decision-making are interconnected end to end. AI becomes integral to work processes, enhancing human expertise with intelligent systems.
Achieving this level requires more than investment; it demands execution. Our approach diverges from others by positioning Microsoft and EY as an integrated transformation engine—co-developing, co-engineering, and co-delivering solutions aligned with real business priorities.
A new model for execution at scale
A significant part of this model involves Microsoft’s Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs), who collaborate with EY transformation teams directly within customer environments. Together, these teams:
- Co-create solutions rooted in business needs.
- Accelerate deployment across complex systems.
- Remain engaged from initial use case through full-scale adoption.
This integrated model bridges the gap between strategy and execution, reducing friction across the technology stack and creating a direct path from pilot to production at an enterprise scale. It also ensures that intelligence and trust evolve together, embedding AI across data, applications, and infrastructure in ways that can be governed, secured, and continually optimized. Importantly, it establishes a reproducible blueprint that organizations can use to scale AI adoption across functions, industries, and geographies.
The importance of execution now
Organizations are under pressure to accelerate—moving beyond experimentation to deliver AI across the enterprise requires more than just technology; it needs a clear path to execution, grounded in both intelligence and trust. AI is not merely about streamlining work processes; it’s about empowering people and organizations to do more, focusing on insight, creativity, and higher-value decision-making.
Our collaboration with EY illustrates what is achievable when AI is purposefully deployed at scale. Together, we are sharing those insights with clients worldwide, helping them expedite transformation, unlock efficiencies, and create new growth opportunities. Microsoft and EY are committed to turning AI ambitions into genuine enterprise impacts.
For more details, see the official announcement.