The AI Playbook

for Optimising
Business Processes
Contents

01 Aim higher with AI that supports business functions 06 AI in action: Marketing

02 The bigger picture: Overall business impact and AI 07 AI in action: Legal

03 AI in action: Finance 08 AI in action: Customer Service

04 AI in action: Human Resources 09 AI in action: IT

05 AI in action: SALES

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 2

An opportunity to realise
more value through AI

The conversation around how workplace AI is Zooming out to apply AI across core business
empowering users has largely revolved around the processes can broaden the purpose of an AI strategy
tools they need to boost productivity, save time – and enhance its effects – by aiming towards longer-
on routine tasks and reclaim creative bandwidth. term business value and organisational transformation.
Equipping individuals with these tools is a big step
forward for an organisation. But it’s also just the In this e-book, we’ll explore the ways that AI can elevate
first step. workflows for business functions that are common
across industries, using specific examples to highlight
Achieving business impact beyond individual the impacts that AI can have on top-line growth,
productivity is the true potential of AI. While bottom-line savings and positive employee experience
strengthening productivity for users is a win for – for your organisation.
businesses, focusing AI solutions to support workflows
across business functions can provide even greater
opportunities to increase revenue, optimise costs and
help employees to thrive.

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 3

Aim higher with AI that
supports business functions
Each area of operations within an organisation has different needs, requirements and KPIs. The systems in place for marketing, sales,
HR, customer service, legal, finance and IT are varied. And they aren’t always optimised for the digital era. Today’s flexible, powerful AI
solutions can be applied to workflows across all these functions, transforming key processes within each area to deliver significant gains
in revenue, cost optimisation and employee experience.

While many business leaders understand this value and agree that deploying AI is imperative to maintaining a competitive advantage,
there is still some hesitation. Whether it’s the lack of a clear AI strategy, concerns over privacy or proving the ROI of their AI investment,
some business leaders have yet to implement AI. While 79% of leaders agree that their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive,
59% also worry about quantifying the productivity gains of AI.1

By focusing AI solutions towards specific business functions, leaders can implement an approach that yields visible, quantifiable
improvements. This targeted approach can also empower business leaders to swiftly validate the ROI of their AI initiatives, showcasing
how these technologies can elevate employee performance, optimise operations and align with long-term strategic goals.

Real-world organisations have used AI to accomplish:

Implementing AI within specific business

• A reduction in the time sellers spend researching functions creates real benefits that enable
prior to customer outreach from four hours to
significant organisational transformation.
15 minutes2
Let’s explore how.
• A 20–30% time and money reduction when working
on RFP responses3

• A saving of up to five hours per week per employee

by eliminating daily processes4

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 4

The bigger picture:
Overall business impact and AI
Time savings and creativity kick-starters are game-changers for individual AI users. But when business leaders broaden the focus of AI from
individual productivity to functional workflows, they can drive more holistic transformation across key departments and areas of business focus.

Increasing revenue Optimising costs Helping employees to thrive

Integrating AI into workflows can boost top-line numbers Implementing AI to support business functions creates AI-enabled workflows can generate greater results for teams,
through a wide range of possibilities. For example, by opportunities for cost efficiencies and cost avoidance – by enhancing the sense of fulfilment and contribution at an
enabling teams and members to improve win rates, reduce streamlining data entry and invoice processing, reducing individual level. By reducing repetitive, low-value tasks and
time to market with new products and services, and generate errors and labour costs, and enabling predictive analytics. making relevant information more accessible, team members
sales proposals faster. Increased productivity and supply chain efficiencies help are empowered to embrace their creativity.
to increase net margin, while businesses can expect a
reduction in external spend on IT contractors, as well as Applying AI to HR workflows can also have a significant
other generative AI licences that are replaced with an all- impact on enterprise-wide employee experience, increasing
up solution. retention and improving hiring practices – and creating
significant value for the company.

Learn how a global communications services provider A global leader in design, engineering and AI solutions are saving employees up to five hours per
uses AI tools to enhance sales processes and environmental services spends 20–30% less time and week that would usually be spent handling routine
revolutionise customer outreach, amounting to £38 money working on RFP responses and sees a 10% tasks, enabling this telehealth provider to recoup
million in annual revenue savings.2 savings in bidding costs.3 thousands of hours by eliminating daily processes.4

Let’s examine exactly how applying AI solutions to specific business functions within the organisation can help unlock these benefits.

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 5

AI in action: Finance
AI helps finance teams avoid getting buried in manual data analysis so they can make smarter
decisions faster. AI tools can pull in real-time financial data, uncover trends and generate accurate
forecasts – giving teams a clear picture of cash on hand, predicting cash flow fluctuations and
flagging risks before they impact the bottom line.

This use case impacts numerous KPIs

Instead of chasing discrepancies or crunching numbers, teams can focus on high-impact
strategies like optimising capital allocation or adjusting spend based on dynamic market
and there are many more that AI
conditions, all while ensuring regulatory compliance with minimal effort. solutions can measure – and enhance
– for finance teams, including:
Here’s how AI can deliver business impact by supporting planning and analysis
processes: • Finance outsourcing spend
• Cost-per-analysis request

Before AI With AI • Deal review time

• Time to close
Lack of insight into customer and AI solutions can help by enabling real-time
market trends can lead to reactive scenario modelling and reducing the time • Compliance rate
rather than proactive processes, taken to deliver insightful, evidence-based
reducing the ability to capitalise on proposals. AI can also assist by rapidly • Forecast accuracy
market opportunities. identifying discrepancies, predicting future
• Employee retention
trends and ensuring compliance with financial
regulations. • Day sales outstanding

Here, the shift to AI can increase revenue by completing high-value tasks faster. AI helps
employees to thrive by providing them with the granular, timely insights they require to perform at
the highest level.

And that’s just one process. AI can also benefit other critical finance processes, including risk
management and compliance, and procure-to-pay.

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 6

AI in action: Human Resources
For HR teams, AI tools can streamline processes like candidate screening and performance
reviews by analysing profiles, predicting fit and suggesting development paths – freeing HR team
members to focus on strengthening the workforce. AI can speed employee onboarding as well. A
robust AI platform allows organisations to simplify access to relevant HR data, improve its quality
and shift focus from routine tasks to executing successful strategic HR initiatives.

There are many more KPIs that

Let’s look at how AI can deliver business impact by supporting recruiting
AI solutions can measure – and
processes: enhance – for HR teams, including:

• Employee onboarding time

Before AI With AI
• Calls answered by agents
Recruiting can be a slow and AI solutions can help analyse the latest
cumbersome process, with a industry trends, recap meetings with hiring • Issue resolution time
high risk of overlooking top managers, draft a job description based on
• Employee retention
talent due to the limitations research gathered and surface potential
of manual CV screening and candidates by accessing HR systems of • Hiring costs per employee
candidate tracking. record.
• Admin costs per employee

Here, the shift to AI helps to optimise costs by accelerating manual processes and simplifying • First call resolution rate
access to relevant HR data. It also helps employees to thrive by equipping HR personnel to take • Workforce demographics
more relevant action to ensure that employees are suited to the expectations of their roles and
can perform to their highest capabilities.

AI can also benefit other critical HR processes, including employee engagement, compensation
and benefits, learning and development, and talent management.

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 7

AI in action: SALES
Selling today isn’t easy: 79% of sellers say they need to support more accounts and are already
spending 70% of their time on administrative tasks such as research, planning, generating
proposals, data entry and internal meetings.5 Applying AI to sales processes is a great opportunity
to help relieve some of this burden and let teams focus on what they do best.
This use case impacts numerous
Let’s look at how AI can deliver business impact by supporting lead generation KPIs, and there are many more that
processes: AI solutions can measure – and
enhance – for sales teams, including:

Before AI With AI • Opportunities pursued

Manual processes lead to broad, Sales representatives can ask AI to identify • Deal size
untargeted strategies that result patterns in customer data, enabling lead-
in a low conversion rate and a scoring and other metrics to assist in • Win rate/close rate
high cost per lead. discovering more high-quality leads. • Customer retention
• Average discount size
Here, the shift to AI can increase revenue by fine-tuning sales processes. It also helps employees
to thrive by streamlining their workflows and improving their effectiveness. • Upsell/cross-sell rate
• Cost per lead
AI can also benefit other critical sales processes, including customer engagement (outreach and
presentations), negotiation and closing, and post-sale follow-up and upsell. • Sales cycle length
• Response rate

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 8

AI in action: Marketing
How can marketing teams today meet the challenge of delivering personalised experiences at
scale while staying agile in response to shifting consumer trends? AI tools enable teams to analyse
vast amounts of customer data in real time, identifying patterns and tailoring campaigns that
resonate with individual audiences. By automatically optimising ad spend based on real-time
performance data, marketers can allocate resources more efficiently, driving higher engagement
This use case impacts numerous KPIs,
and conversion rates without manual adjustments.
and there are many more that AI
solutions can measure – and enhance –
Let’s look at how AI can deliver business impact by supporting campaign
for marketing teams, including:
execution processes:
• Leads generated
Before AI With AI • Agency spend

Manual coordination and tracking AI assists users in analysing campaign • Customer retention
lead to inefficient resource performance, enabling marketers to swiftly
• Employee retention
allocation, higher operational identify and incorporate the most impactful
costs and lack of agility to adapt marketing tactics. This ensures a more • Cost per lead
to market responses. strategic and effective deployment of
marketing resources. • Brand value
• Lead conversion rate

Here, the shift to AI can increase revenue by sharpening marketing effectiveness, optimise costs • Revenue per lead generated
by allocating marketing spend to channels that show data-driven results, and help employees to
thrive by streamlining their workflows to achieve greater results.

That’s just one application for AI within marketing. AI can also benefit other critical marketing
processes, including demand generation, customer insights and strategy, and content creation.

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 9

AI in action: Legal
Legal departments are navigating an increasingly dynamic and complex legal, regulatory and
compliance landscape. AI tools can dramatically reduce the time spent managing compliance,
reviewing contracts and mitigating risk – at scale – by rapidly analysing large volumes of legal
documents, identifying potential risks or discrepancies and flagging issues for review.

These tools also help to ensure that the organisation remains compliant with both local and
international laws by speedily comparing contracts to predefined templates or regulatory
frameworks, reducing the likelihood of legal disputes. Instead of manually reviewing contracts, This use case impacts numerous
legal teams can focus on high-priority negotiations while AI handles standard clauses, keeping KPIs, and there are many more that
operations efficient and legally sound. AI solutions can measure – and
enhance – for legal teams, including:
Here’s another way AI can deliver business impact, this time by supporting
contracting processes: • Outside counsel spend
• Cost per internal review

Before AI With AI • Compliance rate

Managing contracts can feel like AI can accelerate contract reviews and • Contract error rate
navigating a paper jungle, where compare keywords and statements in relation • Number of disputes
critical details can be buried to contract disputes found in legal systems of
under stacks, making the process record – fast. This enables swift analysis and • Dispute win rate
slow, error-prone and inefficient. reduction of time spent on manual reviews
and negotiations.

Here, the shift to AI allows legal teams to reallocate their time to higher-value tasks, creating cost
efficiency by accelerating key analysis, and helps employees to thrive by removing menial tasks
from their responsibilities.

That’s only one of many shifts that AI can enable for critical legal processes, including litigation
and advisor services.

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 10

AI in action: Customer Service
For customer service teams, AI tools can drastically improve response times and elevate service
quality. By analysing incoming queries and automatically suggesting relevant solutions, these
tools help agents resolve issues faster, freeing them to focus on more complex cases that require
empathy and critical thinking.

This use case impacts numerous

Additionally, AI can prioritise tickets based on urgency, customer history or impact, ensuring
that the most critical issues are handled first. This not only boosts customer satisfaction but
KPIs, and there are many more that
also enables teams to scale their operations without sacrificing quality, even during high-demand AI solutions can measure – and
periods. enhance – for customer service
teams, including:
Here’s how AI can deliver business impact by supporting problem resolution
processes: • First call resolution rate
• Calls answered by agents

Before AI With AI • Issue resolution time

Inconsistent resolutions can lead AI can provide agents with step-by-step • Customer retention
to a high volume of unresolved resolution procedures based on customer • Case volume
customer issues, which may history, diagnosed issues and procedures, and
impact customer loyalty and historical resolution data to resolve an issue • Time to first response
repeat service requests. and better respond to a customer’s needs.
• Average call time
• Customer experience (CSAT)
This shift to AI increases revenue by building customer loyalty and lifetime value, enables cost
efficiency by responding to customer needs faster and more intuitively, and helps employees
to thrive by giving them the information they need to excel at their work.

That’s just one aspect of the much broader impact of AI. It can also benefit other critical customer
service processes including issue diagnosis and support assignment.

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 11

AI in action: IT
IT teams are under mounting pressure to respond to growing complexity and scale within
their systems. Enhancing IT workflows with AI solutions can help. By detecting and addressing
anomalies before they escalate into major issues, AI tools free up valuable time for innovation.
From proactive maintenance to real-time performance tuning, AI-enabled insights help IT teams
not only resolve problems faster, but continuously optimise their infrastructure for future needs.
There are many more KPIs that
Let’s look at how AI can deliver business impact by supporting software AI solutions can measure – and
management and acquisition processes: enhance – for IT teams, including:

• IT operation costs
Before AI With AI • IT issue/ticket resolution time
Frequent manual updates and IT leaders can quickly and accurately compare
• IT outsourcing costs
patches can cause delays and available solutions in-market, aggregate
inconsistencies, resulting in multiple threads of conversations, create • Product adoption and usage
software vulnerabilities and a holistic view of all essential business
downtime. requirements for the new solution and • Application downtime
swiftly create a solution RFP. • Network and infrastructure
reliability
Here, the shift to AI increases revenue by keeping end users equipped with the most innovative, • Reduced shadow IT risk
relevant digital tools available to pursue business objectives, and helps employees to thrive by
enabling greater output and success within their roles. • Net user satisfaction (NSAT)

That’s just a glimpse of what AI can do for IT teams. It can also benefit other critical IT operations,
including device management, change management, user adoption and network operations.

The AI Playbook for Optimising Business Processes 12

 Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work, designed to enhance workflows within your key business
functions using industry-leading integration, innovation and security. With Copilot, organisations can harness
the full potential of AI to drive business value by increasing revenue, optimising costs and enhancing employee
experience.

By embracing the momentous shift to AI, you’re boosting more than just individual and team productivity –
you’ve opened the door to tremendous business transformation and operational excellence.

Discover how to use Copilot in your organisation’s everyday apps and workflows to get more impactful work
done, faster.

Start your journey with

Microsoft 365 Copilot

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You bear the risk of using it. This document does not provide you with any legal rights to any intellectual 3
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