Building the AI-First Future at cubesys: Lessons from Our Journey with Copilot and Intelligent Automation  

At cubesys, we’ve always believed that technology should make life easier for our customers, our teams, and the communities we serve. Based in Sydney, we’re a cloud consultancy and managed services provider specialising in cloud adoption, automation, digital transformation, and modern workplace solutions. 

With a team of under 50 people, we’ve successfully delivered more than 500 projects for over 200 customers across government, education, health, and commercial sectors. As our customers’ environments became more complex and data-driven, we recognised the need to evolve how we operate and deliver value. 

Prepare your business for AI-powered productivity

Why We Chose to Go AI-First 

Our AI-first journey began with a clear purpose: 

• Accelerate digital transformation for customers 

• Enhance our own operational efficiency and scalability 

• Manage the growing complexity of cloud and data environments 

• Deliver measurable business outcomes through automation and intelligent insights 

Our CEO, Paul Heaton, framed the vision around enabling success through scalable managed services, AI readiness, and Copilot enablement, all underpinned by a human-centred approach to technology. 

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Our AI Strategy 

Our strategy is built on three key pillars that guide every decision we make: 

1. AI Readiness – Modernising our data, security, and governance frameworks. 
2. Copilot Enablement – Integrating Microsoft Copilot into productivity workflows across teams. 
3. Automation First –Freeing engineering time by automating repetitive and manual tasks. 

We became early adopters of Microsoft Copilot for M365 and Copilot Studio and launched a series of AI-powered agents that now support our service desk, change management, and licensing processes. 

Bringing AI to Life: Our AI Agents 

Service Desk Agent 
Our AI-powered service desk agent handles ticket triage, estimates effort, and drafts replies automatically,  freeing engineers to focus on higher-value work. 

“You shouldn’t think of AI as a tool or a piece of technology. You need to think of it as a person, an intern, a junior, an assistant. If you change your mindset and think of it like that, then you'll get much better results.”

Paul Heaton, Co-Founder & CEO, cubesys

Change Control Agent 

Engineers describe what they’re doing in natural language, and the agent generates risk assessments, test plans, communication templates, and known issue checks, ensuring consistency and reducing potential outages.

“The change control agent was a game-changer. Engineers hate paperwork, so risks often weren’t documented properly. Now, the bot identifies risks we hadn’t thought of, writes implementation and comms plans, and helps us avoid outages.” 

Ian Baxter, Associate Director of Delivery, cubesys 

Licensing Agent (pilot) 
To simplify Microsoft licensing, this pilot agent maps features to licensing tiers and provides options to guide staff and customers. The result: less confusion, faster answers, and improved accuracy. 

Early on, we learned an important lesson—the “one bot to rule them all” idea doesn’t work. Our previous attempt at a single do-it-all bot (“CUBEi”) was abandoned in favour of purpose-built, task-specific agents. This shift made our automation more effective, scalable, and easier to maintain. 

Empowerment by AI Champions 

One of the most impactful elements of our journey has been the emergence of internal AI Champions: George, Benson, Joshua, and Shabaz. They’ve played a key role in driving adoption and embedding AI into our day-to-day culture. 

Their role includes: 

• Identifying repetitive or time-consuming tasks that could be automated 

• Encouraging peers to use Microsoft Copilot for research, problem-solving, and documentation 

• Testing AI agents, evaluating their impact, and sharing learnings 

• Capturing best practices and insights in Microsoft Loop workspaces so knowledge is shared across teams 

 Prepare your business for AI-powered productivity

Shifting Our Culture with Systems Thinking 

This transformation wasn’t just about new tools; it was about mindset. We embraced a systems thinking approach, encouraging teams to see connections across functions and engage in constructive debate. 

“The hardest and most challenging part of adopting AI for me has been getting people to change. Every email they write, every query they’ve got—they’ve got to change their habits to use AI first. That is the bit that’s really hard.”

Paul Heaton, Co-Founder & CEO, cubesys 

Microsoft Loop workspaces became our collaboration backbone, hosting: 

• AI tips, FAQs, and how-to guides
• Peer discussions and support
• Experimentation logs and shared learnings

“From day one of our AI enablement journey we knew: if this was going to work, everyone had to be on Copilot. It couldn’t be optional.”

Silvan Maeder, Co-Founder & CTO, cubesys 

We learned to see short-term “chaos” as a natural part of innovation. By creating space for exploration, we found that healthy friction and open discussion often led to breakthrough ideas. 

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Measurable Impact 

The results speak for themselves: 

• Copilot adoption growth: Within the first two months of rollout, Copilot-assisted hours grew by more than 200%. 
• Copilot usage: In the first 30 days, users recorded over 5,500 chats, averaging about six chats per person per day.
• Operational efficiency: Ticket triage time dropped by up to 95% (from 20 minutes to 20 seconds). 
• Risk reduction: Automated risk detection strengthened governance and reduced potential outages. 
• Cultural adoption: Teams reported higher engagement and willingness to experiment with AI tools. 
• Customer value: Faster turnaround times and more accurate risk assessments improved client outcomes.  

What We’ve Learned 

Our journey continues to evolve, but a few lessons have become clear: 

• Experiment, then operationalise: Build small, prove value quickly, then scale through Copilot Studio. 

• Don’t fear the messiness: Innovation can be chaotic, but that’s part of progress. 

• Purpose-built wins: Focused agents outperform generalist solutions every time. 

"Marketing initiated cubesys’ Copilot journey, and I introduced the 4Cs of Copilot Adoption, Culture, Champions, Clarity, and Cadence, as a simple way to explain how we scaled AI across the business. It’s helped us move from experimentation to impact, building trust and momentum across teams. Copilot adoption isn’t a one-time rollout, it’s a rhythm, and the 4Cs have helped us keep that rhythm alive."

Astha Singh, Marketing Lead, cubesys 

What’s Next 

We’re now expanding Copilot Studio to grow and enable our most successful agents and exploring deeper integration with our Halo platform for seamless execution. We’re also beginning to explore Microsoft Fabric to deliver unified, data-driven insights. 

Our partnership with Microsoft remains central to our strategy as we continue to evolve our managed services through AI, security, and compliance. 

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In Summary 

Our AI-first journey has shown that even a mid-sized consultancy can move fast, experiment boldly, and deliver measurable impact. By combining Copilot, automation, and systems thinking, we’re not only transforming how we work but also setting a new benchmark for what’s possible in cloud-managed services. 

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