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Advice / Career Paths / Training & Development

How This Global Tech Leader Is Using AI to Accelerate Accessibility in the Workplace

Two smiling people facing the camera. The person on the far left is wearing a blazer, sweater, and collared shirt. The person to their right has long hair and is wearing a dark shirt.
Hallam Sargeant and Marci Jenkins of Avanade.
| Courtesy of Avanade

Technology can help build a bridge to a brighter global future—and at Avanade, that vision couldn’t materialize without its partnership with Microsoft. Leveraging its decades of expertise, the company provides AI-driven solutions that optimize business operations, foster innovation, and drive growth, all while keeping people centered at the forefront. Avanade’s knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem also means they have firsthand experience with exciting tech initiatives.

Take for instance their company-wide integration of M365 Copilot, a generative AI-powered service that aims to enhance user creativity, productivity, and skills. For Hallam Sargeant, Avanade’s Chief Inclusion and Talent Officer, personal AI assistants like Copilot can be a game changer. When reviewing data compiled by the company’s AI researchers, Sargeant learned how AI can foster digital accessibility. In fact, one success story from Microsoft stood out.

“We have a visually impaired employee who had never been able to design and edit slides in PowerPoint,” he says. “Now, using the dictation feature in Copilot, she can create her own decks. It sounds so simple, but stories like this show how AI technology like Copilot can make a dramatic difference for people with disabilities.”

More than one billion people around the world live with a disability—yet according to recent studies, over 95% of website homepages have at least one accessibility failure, such as low-contrast text. Tools like Copilot are great for building inclusive content, Sargeant says, and checking for errors that impede digital accessibility. For example, Copilot can scan a PowerPoint presentation or web page for color contrast, font size, or missing alternative text. A user can also link to their organization’s guidelines for accessibility standards, and Copilot will review and check accordingly. It’s an added measure of accountability that can help transform digital accessibility across internal workspaces and the larger digital landscape.

Copilot also excels at processing large chunks of data, and for neurodivergent individuals, this feature can help alleviate the anxieties of information overload.

Of course, AI isn’t perfect, but Avanade is diligent about implementing guardrails that curb bias, Sargeant explains. In addition to a long-standing digital ethics policy, Avanade has developed a Responsible AI framework to ensure the company’s AI usage remains fair and grounded in the human experience. One requirement is using representative data sets and diverse teams to discourage any possibility of discriminatory outcomes.

“I think the most important point is to keep humans in the driver’s seat,” Sargeant says. “AI can only be as inclusive as the people who build it, so it’s crucial to continue pursuing outcomes that shape a diverse workforce.”

When rolling out the program at Avanade, Sargeant also considered Copilot’s impact on teamwork and connection. One initial concern was that Copilot would eliminate the need for interactions that naturally occur in a work environment.

“The fear turned into something like, ‘What if people stop talking to each other as soon as they get access to a Copilot?’,” he explains. “It turns out those fears are mostly unfounded. In our research, team communication and collaboration weren’t negatively impacted after Copilot was introduced, and in some cases, those scores went up because people were able to ask more strategic questions. It all comes back to keeping a people-first strategy around AI.”

A people-first approach

Marci Jenkins, a member of Avanade’s executive team and the IT Special Programs Lead, has been closely involved in the company’s Copilot’s work. She’s seen how the AI-based program can refine workflows in real-time.

“Copilot gives everybody a level playing field to seek out information, and simultaneously boost their creativity,” she says.

Copilot’s capabilities aren’t just beneficial for big projects—they even come in handy for routine tasks like managing your Outlook inbox. Copilot can analyze long email chains to provide a summary and relevant action items. Or maybe you’re in a meeting and missed an important talking point. With Copilot’s ability to transcribe audio recordings, Jenkins notes, you don’t have to ask the speaker to repeat themselves.

“When I think of leveling the playing field regarding inclusion, it’s about everyone having the same access to information, without the need to call attention to a distraction or difference,” she says.

Copilot can help create a more inclusive work environment, but it’s not without its challenges. After all, Jenkins points out, the way a person interacts with AI is a change in their behavior. While Copilot may help cut down the time it takes to complete a task, it requires a change in how someone does their work. And for some people, there’s a considerable learning curve.

“When it comes to folks with disabilities who may already have a little bit of extra effort or work required to do their job, we have to provide time and space for them to figure out how Copilot can work for them and get comfortable,” she says. “With gen AI, we need to look at the capabilities and say, ‘Okay, how does this need to work for these different needs individuals might have?’ And there is still work to do in this space.”

Like Sargeant, Jenkins took a people-first approach when deploying Copilot. When entire groups or teams are first onboarded, Jenkins focuses on instilling a sense of community, paving the way for an inclusive journey. Office hours are available, and employees are encouraged to share their wins or frustrations to empower and educate others.

“We want people to feel like they’re a part of this journey with us,” Jenkins says. That’s why Avanade’s Copilot pilots also provide feedback on the rollout and how they’re using the tool, which helps improve and optimize the collective user experience.

“Everybody works differently, and not everyone will use the tool the same way,” she says. “We try to give each person as much help as we can so they can leverage Copilot’s capabilities to the best of their ability.”

Preparing for the future of inclusive work

While Copilot can revolutionize how people work, collaborate, and create, both Sargeant and Jenkins recognize that mastering AI is an ongoing process that requires guidance and patience.

“One thing I will acknowledge is that AI use requires a fair amount of training,” Sargeant says. “We’ve set up several required courses that employees take through our School for AI. We’ve heard feedback from our neurodiverse users that learning these tools can feel daunting, so I encourage everyone to take their time as they learn how to integrate Copilot into their daily work activities,” Sargeant says.

Jenkins recommends that the key to effectively integrating AI tools like Copilot into a workforce is meeting people where they are.

“When you implement gen AI, it's not about turning something on and giving it to someone,” she says. “You have to help them figure out what this means for them and how they work. Taking that approach—that it’s not one approach for everybody—where you consider the group and the individuals to help them leverage these new capabilities in the tasks they already do every day is super important.”