Sumitomo Corporation’s empowers 9,000 Copilot Champions

Sumitomo Corporation is headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. They are one of the largest worldwide general trading companies with approximately 9,000 employees worldwide.

Challenge

Sumitomo Corporation is on a bold mission to drive new growth through digital transformation. Central to this initiative is reducing daily routine tasks and empowering employees to focus on more creative, value-added work.

In early 2024, the organisation faced a significant challenge: while they were eager to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot across their 9,000-strong global workforce, they recognised that technology alone wouldn’t achieve meaningful change. The IT Planning and Promotion Department encountered consistent requests from employees for tailored, practical use cases and prompts that aligned with their unique roles and tasks.

More importantly, it became clear that a cultural shift — beyond traditional communication and training methods — was essential to inspire widespread adoption and genuine enthusiasm for Copilot.

As Kazuaki Asada, responsible for promoting Copilot adoption, noted:

“Simply providing use cases and prompts tailored to each employee’s work style and tasks won’t achieve true utilization and adoption of Copilot.”

Solution 

To meet these challenges head-on, Sumitomo Corporation partnered with Engage Squared to implement a comprehensive, people-centered adoption strategy built around creating a movement within the organisation. This initiative blended technology rollout with cultural transformation through a series of innovative, community-driven activities:

1. Defining Usage Patterns and Champions
   Using data analysis, the team identified adoption trends and categorised users from innovators to late adopters. Engage Squared and Sumitomo Corporation then established a “Champion” initiative, appointing ambassadors to drive awareness and adoption. Champions were incentivised through recognition and visibility within the company.
2. Activating Champions Through Workshops
   Face-to-face workshops were held across multiple locations in Japan, including regional offices beyond Tokyo. These sessions encouraged Champions to share experiences and discover new Copilot use cases using a “Day in the life” approach — mapping how Copilot could support daily tasks across diverse roles. This grassroots activation extended to group companies and began generating a ripple effect across the business.
3. Building a Visual and Social Movement
   To foster a sense of excitement and community, the team launched promotional posters, custom Copilot stickers, and an internal Viva Engage group. This provided a platform for Champions to voluntarily share stories, tips, and wins, visually reinforcing the growing Copilot movement.
4. Scaling Global Adoption
   Recognising the need for cultural nuance in different regions, Sumitomo Corporation launched global promotion efforts to adapt Copilot strategies for teams in Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. A centralised hub in Japan coordinated these efforts, ensuring information and success stories flowed globally.
5. Sharing Best Practices Beyond the Business
   To extend the value of their initiative, Engage Squared facilitated peer-to-peer discussions and knowledge sharing between Sumitomo Corporation’s Champions and those from other organisations. These cross-company forums enabled the exchange of practical Copilot use cases and deployment strategies, helping accelerate adoption on a broader scale.

Results

Through this collaborative engagment, Sumitomo Corporation achieved not only a successful deployment of Copilot to over 9,000 employees but also cultivated a lasting cultural shift toward digital empowerment. The Champion initiative and grassroots movement created tangible excitement, encouraged creativity, and helped redefine how employees approached their work.

Today, Sumitomo Corporation stands as a pioneering example of Copilot adoption in Japan — and a global case study on how technology, when paired with human-centred change management, can transform the modern workplace.

Key highlights include:

✅ 9,000 employees enabled with Copilot globally
✅ Multi-location workshops activating grassroots Champions
✅ Viva Engage-powered community for organic knowledge sharing
✅ Custom visual collateral fostering excitement
✅ Global strategy tailored to regional cultures
✅ Cross-company best practice exchange driven by Engage Squared

Sumitomo Corporation’s Copilot Champion journey is only just beginning. With a large-scale initiative involving all 9,000 employees worldwide, both Sumitomo Corporation and Engage Squared are confident that a Champion-driven, user-led movement will be the key to sustaining momentum and embedding Copilot as an essential part of everyday work.

Engage Squared remains committed to supporting Sumitomo Corporation in this exciting next chapter — helping to unlock new possibilities with Copilot and driving lasting, meaningful adoption across the entire organization.