AI becomes a ‘new best friend’ for West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service

West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (WYFRS) provides critical rescue services to over two million people across nearly 800 square miles in the West Yorkshire area. Operating from 40 fire stations across 5 districts, WYFRS firefighters respond to a variety of emergencies beyond fires, including road, rail, and air crashes, floods and water rescues and chemical incidents.

Like most organisations, WYFRS felt it was being held back by organisational processes which were not as efficient as they could be. It was finding that common administrative tasks such as minute-taking, email management, and report creation were proving to be time-consuming and inefficient. WYFRS is proud to be an inclusive employer, committed to supporting staff with accessibility needs such as dyslexia to thrive in the workplace. In line with this commitment, the organisation was keen to explore the communications support that AI tools could provide.

Recognising the need to modernise, WYFRS embarked on an ambitious, multi-year digital transformation journey to ensure it was in the best position to take advantage of the benefits of digital transformation and AI. This included the migration of many of its legacy systems and process flows onto the Microsoft Power Platform, along with the use of Power Apps to allow the service to create its own bespoke apps for operational and support services. WYFRS has also automated many of its workflows through Power Automate.

With a solid digital foundation in place, WYFRS sought guidance from its long-term Delivery Partner Phoenix to design and implement a Microsoft Copilot solution that would fully leverage the benefits available from AI.

With Copilot, WYFRS’s people gained an intelligent assistant that could assist them in almost every administrative task. Described by some colleagues as their ‘new best friend’ Copilot was quickly adopted for a range of tasks, including:

• Automated meeting transcription and minute-taking
• Drafting of documents and presentations
• Email summarisation and prioritisation
• Accessibility support for neurodiverse staff
• Enhanced collaboration and idea development

The benefits to the service have been numerous, instant, and seemingly limited only by imagination as teams continue to think of new ways to use it. The most immediate benefits include:

• Time savings: tasks that once took weeks can be completed in a matter of hours or even minutes
• Improved accessibility: staff with dyslexia can communicate more effectively and confidently by using Copilot in their writing
• Embracing digital tools: high demand for Copilot licences reflects a growing appetite for digital tools across the service

“Copilot is my best, most knowledgeable friend. Not only does it give me the jumping off point whenever I need to create a new document, it is able to tailor that document to our specific requirements for formatting, style etc.”

Steve Briddon, Watch Manager, West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service.

Ready to empower your teams with AI and streamline your operations? Talk to Phoenix today to explore how Microsoft Copilot and the Power Platform will transform your organisation.

Phoenix is a Microsoft Partner in the Microsoft Pavilion at The Emergency Tech Show at the NEC on 17-18 September. Check out the full exhibitor list here.