Measuring ROI: Quantifying M365 Copilot Value in Government

Overview

Proving ROI for AI investments is critical for sustained funding and expansion. This video provides a practical framework for measuring Copilot’s value in government contexts, from establishing baselines to collecting data to reporting results that resonate with agency leadership and oversight bodies.

Essential viewing for program managers, CIOs, and executives responsible for demonstrating the value of IT investments.

What You’ll Learn

• Establishing Baselines: What to measure before Copilot deployment
• Success Metrics: Quantitative and qualitative indicators of value
• Data Collection: Tools and techniques for gathering ROI evidence
• Reporting: Communicating value to executives, CFOs, and congressional oversight
• Continuous Measurement: Tracking value over time as adoption matures

Transcript

[00:00 - Introduction]

Welcome everyone. Kevin Tupper here. Today we’re addressing one of the most common questions I hear from agency leaders: “How do we prove Copilot is worth the investment?” ROI measurement for AI is challenging, but it’s absolutely achievable with the right framework.

[00:30 - Why ROI Measurement Matters]

In government, you’re not just accountable to your agency leadership—you’re accountable to taxpayers, Congress, and oversight bodies. You need to demonstrate that every dollar spent on Copilot delivers measurable value. That value might be time savings, cost avoidance, quality improvement, or mission acceleration.

Without measurement, you can’t justify continued investment or expansion beyond pilot programs.

[01:30 - Establishing Baselines]

Before you deploy Copilot, establish baseline measurements. You can’t prove improvement if you don’t know where you started. Key baselines to capture:

Time spent on common tasks: How long does it take to draft a standard memo, prepare a briefing, or analyze a dataset? Survey your pilot users to get pre-Copilot time estimates.

Volume metrics: How many documents, emails, or reports does each user produce weekly? This helps you calculate aggregate time savings.

Quality metrics: Error rates, revision cycles, or stakeholder satisfaction scores for typical deliverables.

User satisfaction: Baseline survey asking about productivity pain points, tool effectiveness, and job satisfaction.

[03:30 - Defining Success Metrics]

Now define what success looks like. I recommend a balanced scorecard with four categories:

Efficiency metrics: Time saved on specific tasks, reduction in administrative burden, faster document creation or analysis.

Quality metrics: Fewer errors, fewer revision cycles, higher stakeholder satisfaction with outputs.

Adoption metrics: Usage rates, active users, breadth of use cases.

Intangible benefits: Employee satisfaction, attraction and retention of talent, innovation and creativity.

Set realistic targets. A 10-20% time saving on knowledge work tasks is reasonable. A 100% productivity gain is not credible.

[05:00 - Data Collection Methods]

How do you actually collect ROI data?

Usage analytics from M365 admin center: Track which users are actively using Copilot, how often, and in which applications. This tells you adoption levels.

User surveys: Monthly or quarterly surveys asking users to estimate time saved, quality improvements, and satisfaction. Ask for specific examples.

Time-motion studies: Select a few representative tasks and measure actual time before and after Copilot. This provides concrete, defensible data.

Case studies: Document compelling individual stories—an analyst who reduced report prep from 4 hours to 1 hour, or an executive who can now process twice as many briefings.

[07:00 - Calculating Financial Value]

Once you have time savings data, translate it to financial terms. If an analyst saves 2 hours per week, multiply by their hourly rate and by the number of weeks. Aggregate across all users to get total time value.

For government, you can also frame this as “hours redirected to mission-critical work” rather than just dollars saved. Congressional staffers understand mission value as much as cost savings.

[08:00 - Qualitative Value]

Don’t ignore qualitative benefits. Document:

Improved work-life balance: Users leaving work on time instead of staying late to finish reports. Faster response to emerging issues: Leadership getting briefings prepared in hours instead of days. Better decision-making: More thorough analysis because Copilot makes it feasible to process more information. Employee recruitment and retention: Talented employees want to work with modern tools.

These factors are real value even if they’re harder to quantify in dollars.

[09:00 - Reporting to Leadership]

When presenting ROI to executives:

Lead with mission impact, not technology features. “Copilot enabled the policy team to respond to the congressional inquiry two days faster” is more compelling than “users love the AI.”

Use concrete examples and case studies, not just aggregate statistics.

Acknowledge investment costs transparently—licensing, training, change management—and show net value.

Present a roadmap for increasing value as adoption matures.

[09:50 - Continuous Measurement]

ROI measurement isn’t a one-time activity. Plan for:

Quarterly ROI reviews tracking trends over time. Annual comprehensive ROI assessments for budget justification. Refinement of metrics as you learn what matters most. Expanding measurement to new use cases as adoption grows.

[10:15 - Conclusion]

Measuring Copilot ROI is essential for sustained investment and expansion. By establishing baselines, defining clear metrics, collecting data systematically, and reporting value compellingly, you build the case for AI as a mission enabler. Download our ROI Measurement Template linked below to start your assessment.