Overview
- NHS England announced on June 7 that it will provide about 505,000 clinicians and support staff with access to Microsoft 365 Copilot as it moves from trial to a staged system-wide deployment.
- A large pilot that gave Copilot to more than 30,000 staff across 90 organisations found users saved an average of 43 minutes of administrative time per day, a figure NHS leaders cite to justify expansion.
- The agreement includes Copilot Studio so trusts can build tailored AI agents, with Agent 365 handling governance to keep agents secure and aligned with NHS policies.
- Rollout will follow a 12-month onboarding programme that aims to scale to 200,000 users in the first six months and complete access by October 2026, with licence allocations set by trust headcount.
- NHS leaders say the move could free millions of staff hours for patient care and ease operational pressures, while third-party financial coverage has also flagged a sizeable commercial value for the deal that NHS England has not centrally confirmed.