Genesis Energy taps into AI through Microsoft’s Copilot early access program

Training sessions were recorded and posted online to help train others and, once the path was set, Copilot was rolled out to all 270 Genesis office workers.

Billing and payments were an early target.

Over the past year, all domestic energy companies have moved away from the previous prepayment discount system, to comply with government directives. Genesis had changed its system to reduce costs for those with multiple bills or paying via direct debit.

Financial analyst Andrea Crasta was tasked with making sure these discounts were being passed on to customers correctly – a task that involved more than 100 different data tables.

“In the past, that would have required me to set up a meeting with someone from the data team and set up an investigation that would have taken weeks,” Crasta said.

“With Copilot, even though I’ve never used SQL before, I had to ask a simple question about what the system was doing and if it was performing as well as it could.”

The copilot broke everything down line by line, and Crasta was able to manage everything himself in less than a day.

“It’s amazing – now I can write my own questions, and I can go back to the data team with solutions, not just problems.”

Corporate accounts specialist Shaina Moss says she likes how Copilot condenses and tracks information.

“I spent a lot of time going through long chains of emails, which were not addressed to me,” Moss explained. “Copilot in Outlook provides an overview of information directly and what my actions are – it saves me a lot of time.”

He and Crasta are both fans of Copilot’s ability to teach them via email. The pilot can report whenever Moss is upset while Crasta receives advice that his voice was too formal for a coffee meeting and suggestions to make it more appropriate.

Copilot can also help translate when emails are unclear.

“It really enhances my skills in the role – I become more effective in my work,” Crasta said.

Genesis Energy is now a first for the industry and an example of how to achieve it with full support, said Microsoft A/NZ managing director Vanessa Sorenson.

As part of the Early Access Programme, Genesis has also been sharing its experience with other large New Zealand organisations.

After leading the deployment of Copilot across Genesis, Isabelle Rousseau has become a major cheerleader for the technology.

“Many team members who have English as a second language say the time savings for them is not to the extent,” he said.

“It can easily summarize many complex languages. Also, it can take longer to produce content in English than in your first language, but Copilot helps them explain and communicate in business more clearly.”

Rousseau often uses Copilot to create meeting agendas based on long documents or to condense technical information.

“It sounds like a simple thing, but when it comes to the end of the day and you’re tired, it makes it so much easier.”

“Now I don’t have to work long hours to fit everything in a day – I can often do things between meetings,” he said.

The Genesis team is now working with Microsoft to develop insights in areas such as productivity metrics and employee engagement across the business using Viva Insights.

“We are very ambitious and AI is now part of the DNA of our business,” Ballantyne said.