Ma’aden empowers employees with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI, saving 2,200 hours monthly

Ma’aden, a mining company in Saudi Arabia, aims to grow tenfold by 2040. To do this, it needed to focus on empowering its current workforce for higher productivity and efficiency.

The company used Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Azure OpenAI Service as some of the solutions to help employees be more productive in daily tasks, like getting quick answers on policies, drafting presentations, emails and meeting minutes, and summarizing content.

Ma’aden saw enhanced productivity, with Copilot users saving up to 2,200 hours monthly. Tasks like drafting emails, creating documents, and data analysis have become more efficient, enabling Ma’aden to move closer towards its ambitious growth goals.

Ma’aden, established in 1997, has grown into one of the fastest-growing mining companies globally. It is also the largest multi-commodity mining and metals company in the Middle East. The company has diversified from being a gold producing company by building abundant, world-class phosphate, aluminum, industrial minerals, and copper concentrate operations. With a mission to lead the development of the mining industry in Saudi Arabia, Ma’aden aims to deliver a remarkable 10x increase in EBITDA by 2040.

The company aims to triple its workforce to achieve this growth. However, talent availability and the highly competitive job market remain a big challenge. "Simply hiring people is not even a quick solution, as it takes time to train and onboard each new hire. We have to be efficient with our time and resources, which is why we believe using technology and investing in people are key to one of Ma’aden’s strategy pillars to increase productivity. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the major strategic technology enablers and that’s why we chose Microsoft generative AI solutions,” shares Khalid AlMutairi, Vice President, Information Technology at Ma’aden. “We knew that, with Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Azure OpenAI Service, we could empower our people to work faster and smoother.”

Change management as key to success

Understanding that successful adoption requires more than just making new technology available to users, Ma’aden focused on a strategic change management approach to introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot and generative AI agents into its operations. "I wanted to ensure that every user had the right knowledge, skills, and motivation to use Copilot and generative AI effectively," recalls AlMutairi.

The company assigned champions from each business unit and corporate function. These champions were picked based on their general interest in technology, understanding of business processes, and willingness to learn and try new things. They participated in training sessions and workshops designed to help them understand how Copilot and generative AI could make their daily tasks easier. For instance, Ma’aden showcased use cases of how the Finance team could use Copilot for Excel, or how Human Resources could use it for creating job descriptions. AlMutairi notes, “We intentionally gave Copilot to early adopters—people who are excited about technology—because they would act as change agents for the rest of their teams."

Seeking a top-down approach, AlMutairi also pushed for executives to have training sessions as well on how to use Copilot. This was so that they could serve as role models for other employees and motivate more widespread use. Ma’aden then fostered collaboration within the organization by leveraging Microsoft Teams. "We’ve created Microsoft Teams channels and Viva Engage communities where users can talk to each other, share success stories, and explain how they use Microsoft 365 Copilot effectively in their work," says AlMutairi.

We’ve created Microsoft Teams channels and Viva Engage communities where users can talk to each other, share success stories, and explain how they use Microsoft 365 Copilot effectively in their work.

Khalid AlMutairi, Vice President, Information Technology, Ma’aden

Boosting growth through efficiency

Ma’aden quickly realized tangible benefits. Microsoft 365 Copilot has helped the company streamline various tasks across different functions. "Our people can work faster and be more productive. Copilot helps our employees simplify or entirely eliminate routine tasks," explains AlMutairi. These tasks include drafting and reviewing emails, preparing documents, creating presentations, summarizing content, and extracting insights from Excel files—all of which now take less time to do. Copilot also assists in meetings by taking minutes and defining actions almost instantly.

"We have more than 36,600 interactions using Microsoft 365 Copilot and collectively save up to 2,200 hours in a month in the first phase alone," highlights AlMutairi. These numbers are increasing day by day.

We have more than 36,600 interactions using Microsoft 365 Copilot and collectively save up to 2,200 hours in a month in the first phase alone.

Khalid AlMutairi, Vice President, Information Technology, Ma’aden

In addition to Copilot, Ma’aden developed agents for specific tasks using Copilot Studio. "We have developed an agent for governance documents, and another is for delegation of authority policies," shares AlMutairi. These agents are integrated within Teams for easy access and provide employees with quick answers by searching specific company documents.

By leveraging AI, Ma’aden is able to scale up its operations and remain efficient, all without having to expand its team greatly.

Anticipating broader AI applications

Looking ahead, Ma’aden plans for an even greater integration of AI tools across its operations. "In the future, employees with the right knowledge will be able to create their own tailored AI agents to aid their work. With Microsoft’s support, we aim to continue equipping them with the training to make it possible," concludes AlMutairi.