Microsoft Digital has updated its internal guidance regarding the deployment of Microsoft 365 Copilot, and this story reflects that guidance, originally published in May 2024. The company is receiving valuable feedback to improve its products and deploy them more quickly to employees. This is accomplished by addressing compliance requirements raised by works councils early in the process and by working with them in a more collaborative way.
This collaborative approach has strengthened the relationship with works councils, leading to the formalization of their feedback in product improvements. The works councils played a crucial role in the recent deployment of Microsoft 365 Copilot by agreeing to a conditional tolerance, allowing its use within certain restrictions. This allows for rapid company-wide deployment while providing councils time to review the product and suggest improvements or block certain features.
How Works Councils Work
Improving collaboration with works councils internally at Microsoft is a primary focus for Irina Chemerys, Carsten Schleicher, and Edith Dubuisson.
Works councils represent employees in some geographies, advocating for their rights and interests in the workplace. As AI technology grows in influence, these internal organizations play a key role in discussions about AI’s impact on the modern workplace.
Microsoft Digital’s approach has evolved from inconsistent engagements to more strategic opportunities for feedback to improve products for all customers. Irina Chemerys, a global program manager, streamlined the approval process for new technology across works council countries. Chemerys designed a global approach using a single platform for efficient communication with Microsoft Digital and product groups. This created a cohesive global community and fostered collaboration among all councils, allowing smaller countries to leverage resources from larger ones.
This unified approach significantly improved coordination and trust among works councils. “We built this standardized community, and we were able to discuss Copilot as an AI technology and how we should proceed with this in a globalized setting,” Chemerys says.
This process was crucial when it came time to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot products. “This helped us navigate the tolerance phase that Germany introduced not long after,” Chemerys says.
Germany Opens Tolerance Phase for Copilot
Initially, the German works council resisted the deployment of AI technology. Their primary concerns were how Copilot responded in ways that could be interpreted as potentially evaluating individual employee performance or making inferences about employees without the data to support them. Building trust with the works councils was critical to alleviating concerns and building a collaborative approach to AI technologies.
“In my conversations with works councils, I would emphasize that AI is akin to a speeding train—the technology is evolving faster than we can review all aspects of it,” Chemerys says. “Our best course of action is to prepare and steer its direction.”
The country’s works council eventually agreed to a tolerance phase for Copilot and other AI tools, recognizing the need for controlled deployment given the inevitability of technological advancement.
“From a legal and ethical perspective, generative AI is a tool that could be used to establish performance and behavior control in a company,” says Carsten Schleicher, chairman of the Microsoft works council in Germany. “But we don’t give resistance or feedback because we don’t want AI—we want to address the potential impact of a tool.”
A major concern involved Copilot’s ability, if prompted, to generate summaries and rankings of employee performance. This kind of assessment did not align with Microsoft’s AI principles. Engineers then engaged directly with the works councils to understand their feedback and identify ways to address these concerns in the product.
“Another market-wide concern is the potential for AI tools to hallucinate false information it generates without a clear source,” Schleicher says. “AI represents an exciting evolution in our interaction with computers, yet the ultimate decision-making should always remain in human hands, ensuring thoughtful analysis of the insights provided by AI.”
Early adopters, including some works council members, participated in the first Copilot deployment wave. Their hands-on experience and feedback during regular meetings were channeled to the product engineering team. This early access facilitated a quick agreement, enabling the continued deployment of Copilot and leading to impactful product improvements for all customers.
France Agrees to the Tolerance Phase
Due to the rapid evolution of AI products, France had to adjust its approach to working with works councils. Juliette Reigner, a manager of works councils in France, noted, “We didn’t have all the answers regarding what the impact of Copilot would be. Usually, in a consultation process, we are required to have all the details—but AI requires us to be more agile and flexible in our approach than ever before.”
The works council in France implemented a flexible tolerance phase, asking members to be part of a new technology committee. The committee conducted weekly sessions to review new technologies like Copilot, with council members involved in testing and pre-deployment planning.
Edith Dubuisson, program manager who manages the relationship with the works council in France, stated, “We suggested that works council members be part of pre-deployment testing and product planning to be part of innovation, and to better understand the impact of new technologies like Copilot … Copilot is not proactive in what it does—it will not perform tasks that it is not tasked with and has limitations in place to protect workers rights and well-being.”
Final consultations with French works councils took place in February 2024, resulting in approval for continued Copilot development and deployment.
Following the successful tolerance phases in Germany and France, other countries quickly followed suit, with the Netherlands being the last to agree to the rollout upon reviewing the potential impacts on employees.
Works councils continue to offer invaluable feedback in the fast-moving AI era. They serve as trusted partners in product development by proactively identifying potential issues and opportunities. “If the councils raise concerns about a feature or capability, it’s likely our customers will share those concerns,” Chemerys says. “By capturing their feedback in early stages, we can design better products, so we have shifted to thinking about works councils as competitive advantages and co-innovators.”
