Globo's strategic adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot is driving continuous innovation

Globo, recognized as the largest media conglomerate in Brazil and among the largest globally, engages with 99.6% of the Brazilian population, reaching over 100 million individuals across the nation daily. The group is a reference in media production and technological innovation, with operations that span across broadcast and cable television, streaming, digital platforms, and channels abroad.

The company, which strives to keep itself current and is widely recognized for its quality standards, was looking for ways to address the challenge of innovating and increasing employee efficiency, since it operates in a market that is constantly evolving and competes not only with other TV channels, but also with streaming and video platforms. They were focused on finding solutions that would boost productivity and address the challenges of this macro scenario involving multiple screens, without compromising quality, which is essential for a creative and dynamic environment like Globo's.

Strategic planning and cultural alignment

From the beginning, Globo has taken a meticulous approach to ensure that Microsoft 365 Copilot implementation was aligned with the business strategy. This adoption began in late 2023, shortly after the tool was launched globally. According to Technology Manager Wagner Xavier, the process was structured in three main phases and focused on helping employees embrace the culture of artificial intelligence (AI). “We created a program called “Você Mais IA” (roughly translating to: You Plus AI) to bring these tools to the daily routine of employees who were already familiar with Microsoft 365, prioritizing their productivity and continuous learning”, explains Xavier.

The project involved collaboration from several areas, including Legal, HR and IT, to ensure compliance and data security. HR played a central role in managing cultural change, working to engage employees and overcome concerns. The IT team led the technical implementation, ensuring that the tools were set up to meet the specific needs of the business areas. The legal department, in turn, helped draw up guidelines for the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence, building up employees’ trust and aligning the project with corporate policies. This synergy between areas not only boosted adoption, but also ensured a robust implementation, aligned with the company's values and strategic goals. Isabel André, Workplace Adoption and Innovation Coordinator at Globo, highlighted the importance of this multidisciplinary approach: “We set up a committee to structure a sound AI adoption plan, with special attention to the media industry specificities.”

According to Wagner, they focused on aligning the adoption of the tool to the organizational culture: “It’s not just about introducing a new tool, but showing that it is an integral part of the company’s culture and strategic goals.” This alignment was crucial to get different areas of the group to buy into the initiative, resulting in massive support and engagement from higher management, which was paramount to ensure a successful outcome. Gustavo Freire, from Beyondsoft, who helped with user adoption and training, highlights the importance of getting other areas and leaders involved: "Support from leadership was essential in engaging users and motivating them to learn a new technology that complements their work."

Best practices and methodology for adoption

One of the major benefits was the adoption of best practices that aligned technology to the company's values and strategies. Among those benefits is the direct engagement of high executives, who joined roadshows with different area leaders to align the strategic vision and reinforce the importance of the project.

At the same time, there were initiatives to overcome cultural challenges and encourage adoption, while dynamic, hands-on workshops helped employees explore Copilot's features in their daily work. Regarding these events, Wagner Xavier highlighted: “The workshops allowed employees to develop practical solutions to business challenges.”

In total, around 250 employees joined the Microsoft 365 Copilot onboarding workshops, which was held over three consecutive days, with approximately 80 participants each day. The workshops were carefully planned to combine hands-on training and interactive sessions, allowing participants to understand Copilot's capabilities and how to apply them in their workflows.

This phase ended with an internal competition to acknowledge the best use cases for the tool. Employees from different areas presented innovative projects developed with the support of Copilot, showcasing the transformative impact of technology on their routines. A panel comprised of Globo executives, Microsoft experts and Beyondsoft representatives assessed the solutions based on technical and strategic criteria. Isabel highlighted the relevance of this competition: “It was an opportunity to celebrate achievements and further encourage the strategic use of AI.”

João Labre, from Beyondsoft, praised Globo's unique approach in adopting Copilot: “From the beginning, it was clear that Globo was not just training their users, but actually promoting the effective adoption and creating an environment of enthusiasm and engagement.”

This innovative process, which combined gamification, hands-on training, and celebration of results, reinforces Globo's commitment to transforming technological adoption into a driver of innovation and productivity throughout the company.

Impact on productivity and savings

The results of the implementation are already being noticed in Globo’s day-to-day operations. Letícia Pinheiro, an installation and operations technician, has developed an application to record incidents in transmissions, showcasing how Copilot can empower employees to create innovative solutions. Transmission incidents refer to problems or interruptions that may occur during the operation of Globo's TV or radio signals, such as power failures, technical problems involving equipment, or connectivity issues with antennas and retransmitters. These incidents are critical because they can directly impact the quality or even interrupt the broadcast to the public. Diogo Guimarães, a Technical Leader at Globo, highlighted: “This case is a clear example of empowerment. She learned how to use Copilot with the tool itself to create an application with Microsoft Power Apps, which has significantly improved incident management – something vital to our operation”. According to Letícia, "with Microsoft Copilot, we have taken maintenance failure management to a whole new level at TV Globo. We accelerated the development of the G5Hub application, optimizing our operation and achieving automation that increased productivity by 78%. This advancement has also improved operational efficiency and driven innovation in Mission Critical environments.”

Another example is that of Karem Brum, who used Copilot in Excel, creating advanced routines in VBA to validate data in complex spreadsheets, which previously required significant manual effort. This automation not only reduced the time required to perform tasks, but also minimized errors, increasing the quality of the results delivered. "Copilot has broadened our skills, allowing us to act as experts in the VBA programming language. As a result, we have made significant improvements to the process, achieving a 97% reduction in execution time, reducing the occurrence of errors in data manipulation and streamlining our tasks”, says Karen Brum, Value Management Specialist at Globo. Additionally, the adoption of Copilot has fostered a culture of continuous innovation. Isabel highlights that the company is already planning to expand the program, with new mentoring groups. “Our goal is to make each employee an agent of change, applying best practices and boosting productivity in their area.”

Overcoming barriers and challenges

Cultural transformation was one of the biggest challenges to overcome. Isabel highlighted the importance of working closely with employees: “We work side by side with them, speaking the language they understood, explaining the value of the tool and allaying their fears.”

The creation of a best practices guide was also important to help ensure the ethical and efficient use of technology. This cultural transformation is essential for the media sector, especially in a highly competitive scenario with accelerated content consumption.

For Globo, this digital literacy represents an opportunity to optimize internal processes, increase operational efficiency and maintain its leadership position in the market. Sued Santos, Tax Analyst, has this to say about the impact of technology on everyday life: "Copilot has revolutionized our work, automating processes and increasing efficiency. This allowed analysts to focus on more strategic tasks. The experience has been truly transformative, generating value and optimizing time."

Future plans and expansion of transformation

Globo is already planning the third phase of implementation, which promises to drive even more innovation. Guimarães shared his expectations: “We want to focus on automation and solutions that improve the quality of life of our employees, allowing them to focus on more strategic activities.”

With new training sessions and a major hackathon scheduled, the company hopes to expand the use of Copilot, including Copilot Studio, and explore new features as the technology evolves.

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