How PwC is tapping into a small group of volunteer ‘super users’ to boost employee engagement with AI

Good morning!

As companies think about how to roll out AI across their organizations, they need to make sure they’re getting their own employees on board with the new technology.

Employers are trying everything from offering online classes and educational partnerships with universities, to skill-based bonuses to try and get their workers to learn new AI skills. But PwC is trying something a little different—the company has a group of AI “super users” who serve as tech tool role models for the rest of the workforce.

Last year, PwC announced a $1 billion investment in the new technology. Shortly after the consulting company rolled out its AI upskilling initiative “My AI” in August 2023, around 350 employees assembled into a volunteer team called “GenAI Super User Network” to lead workers through this tech transformation. Most aren’t experts in computer science or the technical aspects of the tools—but they are overseen by My+ Activators, who are employees experienced in the field.

“We all come from very different backgrounds throughout the firm, so it really is just people that are interested in learning about and leveraging the tool,” Megan Spindell, a PwC AI super user who works in sales and marketing, tells Fortune. 

As a volunteer peer AI leader, Spindell attends calls twice a week with fellow super users to discuss use cases within their respective PwC departments. Instead of providing insight into how to scale and implement new AI functions, these tech advocates instead discuss how workers are faring with the new tools and brainstorm ways to fix any issues. Spindell also helps her sales and marketing coworkers learn how to use AI tools like ChatPwC, a genAI chatbot that synthesizes client documents and data, and M365 Copilot, which can generate first drafts of emails and deliverables. Spindell fields general questions about the tech daily, and spends time figuring out how to leverage the AI tools to optimize the daily tasks of her division’s staffers.

Yolanda Seals-Coffield, chief people officer for PwC, tells Fortune peer leaders like Spindell are critical to the company’s AI implementation. “Super users play a key role in helping upskill our employees, along with our existing team of My+ Activators. These groups embody an authentic enthusiasm for learning new tools and championing the firm’s investment in AI,” she says. “Both represent various parts of the firm, so they are effective with not only taking learnings back to their respective teams, but also hearing on-the-ground feedback about how My AI is resonating with our people.”

The super user team is only one part of the company’s overall tech upskilling strategy. Other initiatives include AI prompting parties, in which workers come together every couple months to test out ChatPwC, and trivia game PowerUp, which quizzes staffers on the AI curriculum.

Currently, about 95% of the company’s 75,000 staffers have voluntarily engaged with “My AI” training and activities, clocking in 360,000 hours of use since the launch. Workers who use the interactive bot ChatPwC report an overall 20% to 40% increase in job productivity from the time freed up by using the AI, according to PwC.

Looking forward, Spindell predicts the number of super users at the firm will only increase—AI tools will continue to seep into every part of the firm, engaging that same curiosity which led many super users to join the brigade in the first place.

“We're only at the beginning,” she says. “We just started launching these prompting parties, we're pretty new to Copilot, our ChatPwC is constantly evolving, and people are constantly getting more and more involved in it. The more you are integrated in the tool and seeing its benefits, the more people are actually becoming interested in learning. Then you can join the super user groups and become part of that as well.”

Emma Burleigh
emma.burleigh@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com