Key Adoption Metrics to Track

Overview

“How many licenses do we have?” is not an adoption metric. It tells you how much you spent, not whether you’re getting value. The right metrics reveal whether Copilot is being used, whether it’s creating value, and whether adoption is heading in the right direction.

This video explains the metrics framework you need—usage metrics versus value metrics, leading versus lagging indicators, healthy benchmarks to target, and how to connect Copilot data to the organizational outcomes that leadership cares about.

What You’ll Learn

• Usage vs. Value: Why you need both types of metrics
• Leading vs. Lagging: Which indicators to act on early
• Benchmarks: Target ranges for healthy Copilot adoption
• Business Connection: Mapping Copilot metrics to organizational goals

Script

Hook: not all metrics are equal

License counts aren’t adoption metrics. Knowing that 2,000 people have Copilot licenses tells you nothing about whether those licenses are creating value. It’s an investment metric, not an outcomes metric.

The right metrics tell you whether Copilot is being used, by whom, how often, in which apps, and most importantly—whether that usage is producing real benefit. If you’re only counting licenses, you’re measuring the wrong thing.

Usage metrics vs. value metrics

You need two categories of metrics. Usage metrics tell you who’s trying Copilot. Value metrics tell you who’s benefiting from it.

Usage metrics are straightforward. Active users: how many enabled users engage with Copilot in a given period—daily, weekly, monthly. Prompts per user: how many times each active user interacts with Copilot, which indicates depth of engagement. Feature adoption by app: which M365 applications are seeing Copilot usage—Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Usage frequency: how often active users return—daily users are more adopted than weekly users.

These metrics are important but incomplete. High usage doesn’t automatically mean high value. Someone might use Copilot frequently but not find it helpful for their actual work.

Value metrics go deeper. Time saved: how much faster are Copilot users completing specific tasks compared to before? This can be measured through surveys or time studies. Task completion improvement: are users producing more output—more documents drafted, more emails processed, more meetings summarized? User satisfaction: do users rate Copilot as useful for their daily work? Net Promoter Score or satisfaction surveys capture this.

Usage tells you who’s trying. Value tells you who’s benefiting. You need both. Usage without value means adoption without impact—people are clicking but not getting results. Value without usage means a few people love it but most haven’t discovered it yet. Track both to get the complete picture.

Leading and lagging indicators

Metrics also divide into leading and lagging indicators. Leading indicators predict future adoption. Lagging indicators confirm it.

Leading indicators let you act early. Training completion rates predict future usage—if only 40 percent of enabled users have completed training, you can predict that adoption will be low and intervene before it shows up in usage data. Champion activity—how many champions are active, how often they’re conducting peer learning sessions, how many questions they’re answering—predicts organizational reach. Prompt library contributions indicate that users are discovering new use cases and sharing them, which predicts deepening engagement.

Lagging indicators confirm whether your program is working. Sustained daily usage at 90 days is the definitive adoption indicator—if users are still using Copilot daily after three months, they’ve formed a habit. Productivity metrics—measurable improvements in time spent on key tasks—confirm that usage is creating value. Support ticket reduction for Copilot-related issues indicates that users are becoming self-sufficient.

The strategic insight: act on leading indicators to influence lagging ones. If training completion is low, fix it now before it becomes a usage problem in three weeks. If champion activity is declining, reenergize your champions before organizational support erodes. Leading indicators are your steering wheel. Lagging indicators are your rearview mirror.

Benchmarks for healthy adoption

Benchmarks help you calibrate expectations and identify when intervention is needed. These are guidelines based on Microsoft’s adoption research and the Forrester TEI study—your specific targets may differ based on your organization’s context.

Active usage rate: target 60 to 70 percent of enabled users within 90 days. This means that within three months, roughly two-thirds of people who have Copilot licenses should be using it at least weekly. Below 50 percent at 90 days signals a significant adoption issue.

Weekly frequency: active users should be engaging with Copilot three or more times per week. Once or twice per week suggests they’ve found one use case. Three or more suggests it’s becoming part of their workflow. Daily usage is the ideal end state.

Application breadth: users should be engaging with Copilot in two or more M365 applications. Single-app usage means they’ve found one entry point but haven’t explored beyond it. Multi-app usage indicates deeper integration into their work patterns.

Satisfaction: 70 percent or more of active users should rate Copilot as useful for their daily work. Below 60 percent suggests that users are trying Copilot but not finding it valuable, which will eventually show up as declining usage.

These are guidelines, not absolutes. Government organizations may see slower initial adoption due to security review processes, change management timelines, or workforce demographics. Adjust your targets based on your context—but set targets. Without targets, you can’t tell whether you’re succeeding.

Connecting metrics to business outcomes

Metrics alone don’t tell a story. You need to connect them to outcomes that leadership understands and values.

Map Copilot metrics to organizational goals. If your agency’s strategic plan prioritizes responsiveness, connect Copilot data to responsiveness: “Copilot users process constituent correspondence 40 percent faster.” If workforce modernization is a priority: “Copilot is the most-used AI tool in our portfolio, with 65 percent sustained adoption.”

Time saved translates to capacity for mission work. The Forrester TEI study found that Copilot users saved an average of 11 hours per month. In government, frame this as: “Our 500 Copilot users have created approximately 5,500 additional hours per month for mission-focused work.” That reframes a technology metric as a mission outcome.

Faster document creation translates to improved responsiveness. Track how quickly your teams produce deliverables and compare to pre-Copilot baselines. Better meeting follow-through—captured by Teams meeting summary adoption—translates to improved execution and accountability.

The connection between Copilot metrics and mission outcomes is what makes your data compelling to leadership. Without this connection, you’re presenting technology statistics. With it, you’re demonstrating organizational impact.

Close: your metrics framework

Define your metrics before deployment, not after. Establish baselines, set targets, and agree with stakeholders on what success looks like before you turn Copilot on. Measuring after the fact without baselines is measuring change without a starting point.

Review monthly. Pull your dashboard data, compare against targets, and identify where intervention is needed. Don’t wait for quarterly reviews to discover that adoption stalled six weeks ago.

Report quarterly to leadership. Aggregate your monthly data into a quarterly narrative that connects usage and value metrics to organizational outcomes. Include trend lines, benchmark comparisons, and recommendations.

Adjust targets as your organization matures. Year-one benchmarks are different from year-two benchmarks. As adoption deepens, shift focus from usage metrics to value metrics. Early success is getting people to try Copilot. Long-term success is getting people to benefit from it.

Sources & References

• Microsoft 365 Copilot usage reports — Usage metrics and definitions
• Viva Insights Copilot dashboard — Behavioral metrics and impact analysis
• Forrester TEI Study on Microsoft Copilot — Benchmark data on Copilot value metrics