Why Microsoft Copilot Sits Unused at Accounting Firms, and How In-Person Training Changes That
How do accounting firms get professionals to actually use Microsoft Copilot?
Train people in person, on their own client work, inside the apps where Copilot already sits. Make the time count toward CPE where the program is accredited, and follow up with templates so the habit survives the session. For Forvis Mazars, regional, CPE-accredited workshops trained 300+ professionals, each earning 4 CPE hours, and drove adoption of existing AI tools, including Copilot.
This post is about the Copilot rollout itself. If you want to know which business development workflows to apply AI to, our post on AI for business development at accounting firms covers that. Here the question is narrower: the firm has bought Copilot, the licenses are assigned, and people are not using it. Why, and what helps?
Why does Microsoft Copilot go unused at accounting firms?
Copilot usually arrives firm-wide with a launch email and a link to vendor training. Professionals try it once on a generic task, get an average result, and go back to the way they worked before. Accounting adds its own pressures: billable time, careful handling of client data, and offices that work differently. Each one gives people a reason to wait.
- Utilization pressure. Time spent learning a tool is time not billed. A generic webinar loses to a client deadline every time.
- Copilot is easy to ignore. It lives inside Outlook, Teams, Word, and Excel, apps people already know how to use without it. Habit wins unless someone shows them a reason to change.
- Data caution. Careful professionals hold back when nobody has said clearly which tools are approved and what client information belongs in them.
- One script for every office. Regional offices have different clients, team structures, and habits, so firm-wide messaging lands unevenly.
None of these are problems with Copilot itself. They are enablement gaps, and they are common in professional services firms of every size.
Why does in-person training work better for Copilot adoption?
In the room, people ask the questions they would never type into a chat window, and they watch a colleague get a useful result on real work. An instructor can fix a weak first attempt on the spot. For a tool that hides inside familiar apps, seeing it work on your own meeting prep or account plan is what turns a button into a habit.
Self-paced courses still have a role in building broad awareness across a firm. For changing how client-facing professionals actually work, in person usually wins, especially for the first session. Virtual sessions work well for follow-up once people have seen the tool work in front of them. Our in-person AI training page explains how we run sessions on site.
Why does CPE accreditation matter for AI training at accounting firms?
Accountants carry continuing education requirements, and their time is measured closely. When AI training is CPE-accredited, the hours count toward an obligation people already have, so attending stops competing with everything else. At Forvis Mazars, the workshops were CPE-accredited and each participant earned 4 CPE hours. Credit details depend on the program and are confirmed when it is scoped.
Accreditation also sends a signal. It tells professionals that the firm treats AI skills as part of their professional development, not as an optional extra squeezed in between client meetings.
How was the Forvis Mazars program structured?
It was a series of regional, in-person, instructor-led workshops for Forvis Mazars, a 40,000-person professional services and accounting firm. Sessions covered standardized account planning, presentation and meeting preparation, and adoption of the firm's existing AI investments, including Microsoft Copilot. Each began with market-specific discovery and ended with templates and next-step guidance.
- Discovery before each session. We learned the local team structure, client profiles, and existing workflows, so each workshop taught against how that office actually works.
- Copilot inside real work. Rather than a feature tour, people used Copilot and the firm's other existing tools on account planning and on preparing for presentations and client meetings.
- Follow-through. After each session came customized account planning templates, a summary of key insights, the gaps we observed, and next-step guidance for continued adoption.
- Operating model guidance. Guidance on when and how to use AI was written into the firm's operating model, so adoption did not depend on who happened to attend.
What changed after the workshops?
The firm saw three outcomes: account planning standardized firm-wide, an operating model refreshed with guidance on when and how to use AI, and more consistent meeting engagement across regions. More than 300 professionals were trained. The series is Phase One of a multi-year, enterprise-wide enablement strategy, so it was designed as a foundation rather than a one-off event.
How should a firm measure Copilot adoption after training?
Measure use, not attendance. The Microsoft 365 admin center includes Copilot usage reporting that shows active users by app over time, which tells you whether Copilot is being used after a session. Pair that with a look at the work itself: are account plans and meeting prep actually changing? A full room is not the same as a changed habit.
Look at usage by office and practice group, not only firm-wide. A flat number in one region usually points to a specific gap, such as unclear data rules or a workflow the training did not reach. That is where the next session should go.
What about smaller accounting and bookkeeping firms?
The same principles apply at a smaller scale: start with the tool you have, learn on your own work, and build up gradually. We have worked one-on-one with the owner of a small bookkeeping and accounting firm, starting with Claude fundamentals and building up to workflows for the firm's day-to-day work. The platform differed, but the approach did not.
Where should an accounting firm start with Copilot adoption?
Pick one region or practice group, check its Copilot usage, and run one in-person session on a workflow people already find tedious, such as preparing for a client review meeting. Write down which tools are approved and what client data belongs in them. Then follow up with templates and check usage again a few weeks later.
Our page on AI and Copilot training for accounting firms sets out how we run these programs, and our Microsoft Copilot page covers Copilot training more broadly.