NHS trial: AI could save 400,000 working hours a month

A landmark NHS trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot has demonstrated how generative AI could dramatically improve productivity across the health service, freeing up hundreds of thousands of staff hours each month and saving millions of pounds.

The trial - the largest of its kind in global healthcare - involved more than 30,000 NHS staff across 90 organisations. Results showed that AI-powered administrative support saved staff an average of 43 minutes per day, equivalent to five weeks of working time per year. Scaled across the NHS, that equates to more than 400,000 hours saved every month.

The trial highlighted three main areas of efficiency: automated note-taking in Teams meetings (saving around 83,000 hours per month), email summarisation (271,000 hours), and document creation support. More than 10 million emails are sent across the NHS each month - a major source of administrative burden that Copilot’s summarisation tools help to reduce.

Microsoft 365 Copilot integrates AI directly into familiar office tools such as Teams, Outlook, Word, and Excel, enabling NHS staff to automate repetitive tasks through natural language prompts. The technology is now available to all NHS organisations at no additional cost, with more than 50,000 staff already using it.

The pilot forms part of the government’s wider Plan for Change and 10 Year Health Plan, which aim to drive digital transformation and boost efficiency across the NHS. The health service has already exceeded its 2% annual productivity target, achieving 2.7% growth between April 2024 and March 2025.

Health Innovation Minister Dr Zubir Ahmed, who previously worked as an NHS surgeon, said the trial showed how technology could remove one of the system’s biggest frustrations: time-consuming admin. “As an NHS clinician, I know how frustrating archaic technology can be. This partnership with Microsoft will free up staff so they can focus on what they want to be doing - treating patients. Every pound saved is a pound we can reinvest in cutting waiting times and improving care.”

Microsoft UK & Ireland CEO Darren Hardman said the results “prove the extraordinary potential of AI to transform healthcare,” adding that giving staff back 43 minutes a day “redirects time towards patient care and could save hundreds of millions of pounds annually.”