Reporting Copilot Success to Leadership

Overview

Your leadership doesn’t want 30 pages of Copilot usage metrics. They want answers to three questions: Is it working? What are we getting for the investment? What should we do next? Your reports need to answer these questions concisely, with data that’s easy to understand and recommendations that are easy to act on.

This video covers what leadership actually wants to know, how to create executive-friendly reports, how to tell the adoption story with data and user stories, and how to proactively address the questions they’ll ask.

What You’ll Learn

• Leadership’s Questions: The three things every executive wants to know
• Report Format: One-page summaries and visual dashboards
• Storytelling with Data: Pairing metrics with user stories for impact
• Proactive Communication: Anticipating and addressing questions before they’re asked

Script

Hook: leadership has three questions

Every executive reviewing your Copilot program has the same three questions, whether they voice them or not.

Is it working? Are people actually using Copilot, and is adoption growing?

What are we getting? What’s the return on our investment—in time saved, productivity gained, or mission impact?

What’s next? What should we do from here—expand, adjust, or invest differently?

Your report must answer all three concisely. If it takes more than five minutes to read, it’s too long.

What leadership wants to know

Adoption progress against targets. Not raw numbers—progress against the goals you set. “We’re at 65 percent adoption against our 70 percent target at 90 days.” Context and trajectory matter more than the number itself.

Value delivered. Translate usage into outcomes they care about. Time saved is good. Dollars saved is better. Mission impact is best. “Our 500 Copilot users saved an estimated 2,500 hours this month, equivalent to 15 FTEs of capacity redirected to mission work.”

Issues encountered and how they were resolved. Leadership appreciates transparency. Don’t hide problems—show that you identified and fixed them. “We identified low adoption in the Operations division. Root cause: insufficient training. Action taken: deployed targeted training sessions. Result: adoption increased from 25 to 55 percent in three weeks.”

Recommendations for next steps. Every report should end with a clear recommendation. “Based on Phase 1 results, we recommend expanding Copilot to the remaining 800 users in Q3.” Give leadership something to decide on, not just something to read.

What they don’t want: technical details about configuration settings, feature-by-feature breakdowns, or raw dashboard screenshots without interpretation. Save the technical details for an appendix that’s available if asked.

Creating executive-friendly reports

Format matters. Use a one-page summary as your primary deliverable.

The top section: status and headline metric. Green, yellow, or red status indicator. One sentence: “Copilot adoption is on track at 65 percent active usage against our 70 percent 90-day target.”

The middle section: three to four key metrics with brief context. Adoption rate with trend arrow. Value metric—hours saved or dollar equivalent. Satisfaction score from user surveys. One highlight and one concern, each in one sentence.

The bottom section: recommendation and ask. One clear recommendation. One specific ask—budget approval, expansion authorization, or resource allocation.

Supplement the one-page summary with a visual dashboard. A simple chart showing adoption trend over time, a bar chart of usage by app, and a gauge or dial for satisfaction score. Visuals communicate status faster than text. Keep the dashboard to one page as well.

Supporting detail—department-level breakdowns, detailed survey results, issue logs—should exist but shouldn’t be in the main report. Keep it in an appendix that’s available if leadership asks for deeper information.

Frequency: monthly reports during active deployment phases. Quarterly reports once adoption stabilizes. More frequent than monthly creates reporting fatigue. Less frequent than quarterly loses organizational attention.

Telling the story with data

Lead with outcomes, not activities. Don’t start with “We conducted 12 training sessions and enabled 200 users.” Start with “Copilot users are saving an average of 5 hours per week on meeting preparation and email processing.”

Pair numbers with stories. “Our adoption rate reached 68 percent” is data. “Our adoption rate reached 68 percent—and the HR team reports saving 12 hours per week on correspondence management” is a story. The number provides the scale. The story provides the impact. Together, they’re more persuasive than either alone.

Compare against benchmarks and targets. “65 percent adoption” means nothing without context. “65 percent adoption against our 70 percent target, and above the 60 percent industry benchmark for 90-day adoption” tells leadership you’re on track. If you’re behind target, explain why and what you’re doing about it.

Show trajectory. Where you are today matters less than where you’re heading. A trend line showing steady growth from 30 percent to 65 percent over 90 days tells a better story than a snapshot at 65 percent. If the trajectory is positive, emphasize it. If it’s flat or declining, address it directly with your action plan.

In government, frame data around mission language. Not “productivity improvement” but “mission capacity creation.” Not “cost savings” but “resource optimization.” Match the language your leadership uses in their own strategic communications.

Close: addressing leadership questions proactively

Don’t wait for questions—anticipate them.

Include a “Questions You Might Have” section in your report. Common questions: “How does our adoption compare to similar agencies?” “What’s preventing 100 percent adoption?” “When will we see ROI break-even?” “What’s the risk if we don’t expand?” Answering these proactively demonstrates thoroughness and reduces follow-up cycles.

End every report with a clear recommendation and a specific ask. Not “We should consider expanding Copilot.” Instead: “We recommend expanding Copilot to the remaining 800 users in Q3, requiring 800 additional licenses at $X per month. Based on Phase 1 ROI data, we project break-even within 60 days of expansion.”

Make it easy for leadership to say yes. Provide the data, the recommendation, and the specific authorization you need. The harder you make them work to understand your report or determine what you’re asking, the less likely you are to get a timely decision.

Your report is a decision document, not a status update. Treat it accordingly.

Sources & References

• Microsoft 365 Copilot usage reports — Usage data for executive dashboards
• Viva Insights Copilot dashboard — Impact metrics for leadership reporting
• Microsoft Copilot adoption resources — ROI frameworks and reporting templates