For KPMG Canada’s Christine Andrew, Copilot isn’t just a time saver—it unlocks high-value impact

What matters to Christine Andrew is not that Copilot saves time, it's what that time makes possible.

The AI executive appreciates the faster meetings and the lighter administrative load, but she likes to frame her AI-powered productivity tool as one that helps her deliver higher value work and make a more meaningful contribution to her company.

"There is a productivity play there, but I think the real advantage is being able to reallocate the time to more strategic activity and higher value activity," says Andrew, Managing Director for AI Enablement at accounting firm KPMG in Canada.

Previously, Andrew notes, the mechanics of work consumed a large amount of her executive time: developing plans, carrying them out, then circling back to track and reporting on progress. With Microsoft 365 Copilot compressing the planning and reporting, much of that operational drag has been reduced. The result isn't just speed, but a strengthened focus on "very high quality" execution-more attention paid to how plans are delivered.

By reclaiming hours once spent on repetitive tasks, Andrew says, she can reallocate her attention toward deeper reflection on how the business is going. The executive now has "the time and space" to pause more often, step back from the immediate flow of meetings and deliverables, and ask more fundamental questions about market trends, risks ahead and clients' necessities.

Another added value of using Copilot in her day-to-day is that she now has more time to connect with other organizations about their AI adoption strategies and challenges, which Andrew finds extremely valuable for understanding best practices.

"I would say it definitely has changed the way I work. It's definitely made me more effective," she says.

An accessible and easier-to-use tool

Andrew relies heavily on Copilot in Teams to keep pace with a calendar that's often double- or triple-booked. Meeting recaps and "catch me up" prompts serve as a stand-in for being in multiple places at once, keeping her up to speed when she can't attend every meeting.

She uses Copilot Chat as a "thought challenger," stress-testing draft strategies by asking what's missing, what skeptics might question or how a CEO with a different vantage point might react.

The impact, she says, is tangible. While preparing for a recent keynote, Andrew used Copilot's research capabilities to analyze the audience, what mattered to them and the challenges they faced. The result wasn't just a smoother presentation. The conference organizers invited her back.

Nearly three years ago, Andrew led KPMG Canada's initial Copilot early-access program, piloting just 40 licenses. Feedback was strong, even when the product continued to evolve. She later helped expand the rollout to a thousand users before handing it off to IT, which ultimately deployed Copilot to all 12,000 employees across the firm in 2025.

Copilot's deep integration with Microsoft's ecosystem makes it more accessible and easier for employees to use than other AI tools on the market, Andrew says. And, equally important, it enables people to use AI "responsibly and safely" within KPMG's trusted environment, aligning with the firm's ethics and risk standards.

Today, adoption is tracked weekly. Teams share high-value use cases. Employees are required to set AI-related goals as part of performance management. The company has also set up multiple training programs focused on using AI effectively and responsibly.

For Andrew, the scale-up wasn't just about chasing novelty. It was about freeing people from low-value work so they could spend more time thinking, advising clients and tackling harder problems.

Copilot doesn't shorten your workday, she says. It changes what you do with it.

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