Challenge
York University had already invested in Microsoft Copilot licenses and was looking to increase awareness, adoption, and effective usage among professional staff. While many employees had access to the platform, there was a need for structured training that would help teams understand how Copilot could support their daily work and deliver measurable productivity benefits. The university was looking to:
-Increase employee adoption and confidence using Microsoft Copilot.
- Help professional staff move beyond basic experimentation to practical workplace applications.
- Identify department-specific use cases that could improve efficiency and streamline administrative processes.
- Ensure staff understood how AI could be used responsibly, effectively, and in support of human expertise.
- Promote a human-centered approach to AI adoption by exploring humanistic affordances, empathetic design principles, and purposeful uses of technology that enhance, rather than replace, human capabilities.
- Maximize the value of existing Microsoft Copilot investments.
Many employees recognized the potential of AI tools but needed guidance on how to incorporate them into their existing workflows in meaningful and sustainable ways. The university also wanted to ensure that AI adoption was approached thoughtfully, with a focus on empowering people, improving experiences, and supporting the work that requires empathy, judgment, creativity, and collaboration
Solution
Logics Academy partnered closely with York University to design and deliver a series of seven professional development workshops tailored to the needs of professional staff across the institution.
Our approach focused on:
- Building foundational knowledge: Helping staff understand the capabilities, limitations, and best practices of Microsoft Copilot.
- Department-specific customization: Demonstrating use cases aligned to the unique workflows of teams such as Human Resources, Finance, and administrative services.
- Practical application: Providing hands-on examples that staff could immediately apply to their day-to-day work.
- Responsible AI adoption: Emphasizing how Copilot enhances human work by supporting repetitive and time-consuming tasks while allowing employees to focus on critical thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, and creativity.
- Long-term adoption: Equipping participants with the skills and confidence needed to integrate Copilot into their ongoing workflows.
Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for people, the training focused on showing how Copilot can serve as a powerful workplace assistant that helps professionals spend less time on routine tasks and more time on high-value work.
Results
As a result:
- Participants developed confidence applying AI tools to support existing workflows.
- York University advanced its goal of increasing utilization of existing Copilot licenses across administrative departments.
- Staff were empowered to focus more of their time on strategic thinking, collaboration, and decision-making while leveraging Copilot to support routine and repetitive work.
- Participants moved beyond foundational use cases to independently explore new opportunities to integrate Copilot into their workflows, demonstrating increased confidence and a deeper understanding of AI's potential to support their work.
- The success of the initial workshop series led York University to expand its professional learning efforts, helping build sustainable organizational capacity and supporting the continued, responsible adoption of AI across professional staff teams.
By combining foundational AI literacy with department-specific application, Logics Academy helped York University accelerate Copilot adoption and build capacity for responsible, productive use of AI across professional staff teams
