Today, as organisations enter a new AI-powered era, BTG is helping customers not just keep up but get ahead, unlocking new ways of working, competing and growing. Recently, our CEO Sam Mudd sat down with Nick Hedderman, UK & Ireland Channel Lead at Microsoft, to explore how this next era is unfolding and what it means for ambitious organisations.
Throughout the conversation, both leaders discussed the scale of opportunity AI presents for organisations across the public and private sectors. Sam described the current moment as “reminiscent of the internet era”, a point in time when pervasive computing began to reshape entire ways of working. Just as the internet fundamentally reshaped how organisations operated, AI is now driving the next major shift in business transformation.
What was once a licensing led relationship has evolved into a strategic partnership centred on consultancy, solution design, implementation, adoption and change management, managed services and continuous innovation. As Sam described it: “The transactional world we used to operate in was very clearly a start and an end point. And now we're on a journey with customers.”
Today, the relationship is built around helping customers innovate and realise value over the long term, moving from transactional engagement to continuous, always-on transformation.
Nick outlined Microsoft’s concept of the “frontier firm”: organisations that combine human ingenuity with AI to transform how they operate. He described four key areas where this is happening: enhancing employee experience, automating and “agentifying” business processes, improving customer engagement, and unlocking new forms of innovation and competitive advantage. Increasingly, this includes deploying intelligent agents alongside people, with organisations building operating models where humans and AI systems work side by side and deliver measurable ROI.
Nick highlighted that BTG is already living this evolution as a “frontier partner”, using its own experience of deploying AI internally to guide customers through the same journey.
Sam shared several examples of how BTG is already integrating AI across its operations – Bytes Software Services and Phoenix Software. Copilot has become embedded in day-to-day working life, helping employees automate meetings, manage inboxes, and produce richer outputs such as enhanced analysis and content.
Beyond Copilot, BTG has developed a suite of internal AI agents:
The impact of AI is increasingly moving beyond experimentation and into measurable business outcomes. Sam highlighted one customer example where Microsoft Copilot achieved 98% adoption, delivering a nine-to-one return on investment through productivity gains, time savings and improved ways of working.
Across both public and private sector organisations, BTG and Microsoft are seeing customers move from pilots into scaled deployment, particularly around automating business processes, improving employee productivity and enhancing customer engagement. This includes everything from streamlining claims and RFP processes to using agents to support cross-functional workflows.
Through a combination of Microsoft technology, BTGs consultancy and technical expertise, and joint customer engagement programmes, organisations are identifying and scaling practical use cases that embed AI into everyday operations.
As the pace of AI innovation accelerates, both leaders reflected on the continued evolution of the BTG and Microsoft relationship and the opportunity it creates for customers. What was once a transactional model has become an always-on cycle of engagement, where organisations are continuously supported to adopt, evolve and scale new capabilities as technology advances.
Together, BTG and Microsoft will continue to help organisations innovate and realise long-term value from AI, cloud, and emerging technologies - building on four decades of partnership with a shared focus on customer success.