PIC makes investment decisions twice as fast using Microsoft 365 Copilot

Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Africa’s largest asset management firm, faced challenges with processing documents, research, and presentations, delaying key investment decisions.

PIC adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot to aid employees in manual work tasks. With Microsoft’s guidance, PIC developed a robust change management strategy, fostering adoption across departments.

PIC can assess and approve investments in six months instead of 12. Employees are more productive and happier. For example, preparing presentations takes two hours instead of two days, while creating surveys takes two hours instead of a month.

The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is the largest asset management firm in Africa. Fully owned by the South African government, it mostly serves public sector entities. “These stakeholders trust PIC to invest their funds and generate strong returns,” shares Dan Mabuza, Head of Platforms Reliability Engineering at PIC.

Every day, PIC processes a massive volume of documents, presentations, minutes, and research to create documents like due diligence or approval submissions, which are vital for a governed institution. Analyzing the huge amount of information manually took a lot of time, sometimes causing PIC to miss out on valuable investment opportunities. “Our organization is constantly under pressure to maximize efficiency and that’s why we need to leverage technology as an impact multiplier,” adds Mabuza.

Structured change management

PIC saw the potential of Microsoft 365 Copilot in digesting information and speeding up workflow. After trying out the solution with 50 licenses, it was clear that PIC needed a more structured approach for widespread use. “We reached out to the Microsoft team to help us plan a more deliberate change management roadmap. This seemed like a chance to address past challenges in technology adoption,” shares Makano Mosidi, Chief Technology Officer at PIC.

Through training sessions and presentations, the Microsoft Customer Success Team shared best practices and helped PIC identify key business scenarios. The company built a champions’ network to further drive adoption. PIC also used its knowledge platform, Tech Lounge, to share insights and success stories from business users. “The impact has been tremendous. The demand for licenses has increased by over 1,000% from our initial 50 users, and the requests just keep coming,” shares Mabuza.

Today, PIC employees use Copilot to more quickly process and approve investment opportunities, reducing the turnaround time from 12 to six months on average. “With Microsoft 365 Copilot, we’ve significantly reduced the time needed for research, due diligence, committee submissions, and approvals,” shares Mabuza. “The solution also helps us retrieve and analyze past opportunities, making sure we don’t lose valuable context when revisiting older documents months later.”

“With Microsoft 365 Copilot, we’ve significantly reduced the time needed for research, due diligence, committee submissions, and approvals.”

Dan Mabuza, Head of Platforms Reliability Engineering, Public Investment Corporation (PIC)

The swift and thorough response to investment opportunities has enabled PIC to secure advantageous deals, strengthening stakeholder trust and driving economic growth in South Africa. “The best opportunities go to those who can respond the fastest,” says Mabuza. “The people who entrust us with their funds provide mandates with specific targets we must measure and achieve. That’s why it’s important that Copilot helps us meet those targets and streamline reporting.”

Faster content creation

PIC also relies on Copilot to quickly generate content, everything from reports and speeches to presentations. Since Copilot is integrated into PIC’s Microsoft 365 productivity suite, its staff can toggle between solutions. “I can easily turn a Word document into a PowerPoint presentation. What used to take a day or two, I can now do in an hour, delivering exceptional results every time,” shares Lungile Mashele, Energy Specialist at PIC. “That’s a huge lifesaver when I’m pushed for time to deliver a presentation for the board.”

“I can easily turn a Word document into a PowerPoint presentation. What used to take a day or two, I can now do in an hour, delivering exceptional results every time.”

Lungile Mashele, Energy Specialist, Public Investment Corporation (PIC)

This versatility extends into other tools like Excel, where Copilot helps with analyzing data and generating insights. With this feature, Mashele was able to create a survey for workplace satisfaction in Forms using Copilot. “In just five minutes, I generated the questionnaire with all the key data from an Excel sheet, which included prompts to schedule reminders as well. It only took me an additional two hours to refine and approve the survey—cutting down a process that would have taken an entire month if done manually.

Happier, more productive employees

PIC employees are also much better informed on meetings thanks to Copilot. Instead of having to spend a full day creating meeting minutes, they can use Copilot to generate it in just 30 minutes. “When someone joins a meeting late, Copilot gives a summary of the discussion up to that point. This means that the person can just catch up right away without needing the others to spend time explaining what was said before,” shares Mabuza. The IT team can even use Copilot to generate a user manual based on a Microsoft Teams call on the topic, completing the task in minutes instead of hours.

By relying on Copilot, employees are able to be more productive with their time. As such, PIC can continue to function effectively without having to add to its headcount. “We can now allocate our resources more effectively. By investing in Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, we empower our existing staff to achieve more,” shares Mosidi.

“We can now allocate our resources more effectively. By investing in Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, we empower our existing staff to achieve more.”

Makano Mosidi, Chief Technology Officer, Public Investment Corporation (PIC)

The employees themselves feel more satisfied. “I have basically reclaimed my weekends, leading to a better work-life balance,” shares Mashele. PIC staff are also continuously learning and growing, both personally and professionally. “Copilot creates curiosity not only towards the tool itself but also towards other solutions like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint,” explains Lindile Mjikwa, Product Manager at PIC. “People are becoming experts in features, formulas and strategies that they haven’t used before.”

After a year, nearly everyone with access to Copilot has become a dedicated user. “Those who have licenses value them highly, often saying, ‘You can take anything, but not my Copilot license,’” shares Mabuza. “It’s like having a personal assistant who never gets tired, is available 24/7, and answers any question, no matter how basic or complex.”

Careful use of AI

Crucially, PIC ensures that Copilot use is highly secure, responsible, and optimal. “Our small IT team has adopted Microsoft Security Copilot to investigate incidents faster and protect the entire IT environment,” explains Mabuza. “Copilot’s governance features make it easy to ensure compliance with our policies. Tools like Microsoft Purview help us monitor how Copilot is used, giving stakeholders and boards confidence that everything is managed securely and within PIC’s guidelines.”

A successful Copilot implementation has given PIC the confidence to expand its digital ecosystem with Microsoft technologies. Already leveraging Microsoft Azure for secure infrastructure, Power Platform for automation, and Microsoft Fabric for data analytics, the organization is now rolling out Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

Currently, PIC is working to extend Copilot licenses to more employees. “Demand is growing daily, and we want to expand our current capacity by at least 100 additional licenses in the near future,” shares Mabuza. “Looking ahead, we also aim to deepen our expertise in prompting. Personally, I want to become a prompt expert—it’s the key to unlocking even more potential from Copilot.”

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