NHS England has announced a rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot to 505,000 clinicians and support staff across its Trusts, in what is described as the largest implementation of AI-powered productivity tools in the healthcare sector globally.

The agreement, reported by Microsoft News, follows a trial across more than 30,000 NHS workers at 90 organisations, which found that Copilot saved users an average of 43 minutes of administration time per day, equivalent to five weeks per person annually.

The deployment covers a broad range of functions, including patient discharge processes, rota building, bed management, meeting minutes, HR and finance support, board paper drafting and procurement assistance, with the aim of freeing clinical staff to spend more time on direct patient care.

Rob Thompson, Chief Digital, Data and Technology Officer at NHS England, said: "The potential to save clinical staff nearly a day's worth of admin time every fortnight could be a gamechanger for patients. We're making sure every pound is spent on cutting waiting times and boosting care through the Plan for Change and 10 Year Health Plan."

As part of the agreement, NHS organisations will also have access to Copilot Studio, enabling teams to build and deploy AI agents to automate workflows across research, data analysis, HR enquiries and financial processing. NHS England will deploy agents centrally, while individual Trusts will be able to build custom agents to address local operational challenges such as reducing help desk burdens and accelerating freedom of information requests. Agent 365 will govern all deployed agents to ensure security and policy compliance.

Darren Hardman, CEO of Microsoft UK and Ireland, said: "Bringing AI safely into the flow of healthcare will help ease pressures, improve productivity and support better decision-making across the health service."

The rollout will be supported by a 12-month onboarding plan, with a rapid scale-up targeting 200,000 users within the first six months, alongside an extensive training and adoption programme to ensure staff can make full use of both Copilot and AI agent capabilities.

Explore the full details of NHS England's Microsoft Copilot rollout and its implications for healthcare digital transformation.