Many years ago, David Ogilvy made an observation that still rings true today:
“The trouble with market research is that people don’t think what they feel, they don’t say what they think and they don’t do what they say.”
The older I get, the more I see this playing out in technology.
If you spend any time talking to business owners, managers, or end users about artificial intelligence and Microsoft 365 Copilot, you’ll hear all sorts of opinions. Some people tell me they’re excited. Others say they’re cautious. Many claim they’re waiting to see where the technology goes before investing further.
Then I look at what they’re actually doing.
That’s where things get interesting.
Watching Behaviour Tells You More Than Listening to Opinions
Over the last year I’ve had countless conversations with organisations evaluating Microsoft 365 Copilot. The feedback is often remarkably similar.
“We’re not sure we’ll use it enough.”
“Our staff aren’t ready.”
“We don’t have enough use cases yet.”
“We want to be careful before spending money.”
All perfectly reasonable concerns.
Yet when I sit down with those same organisations and look at how people work, I see something different. Staff are already using AI tools on their phones, in their browsers, and in personal accounts. They’re pasting email drafts into consumer AI services. They’re asking AI to summarise documents. They’re using it to help write proposals, prepare presentations, and analyse spreadsheets.
In other words, their behaviour is already telling me they’ve accepted AI. They just haven’t consciously recognised it yet.
The actions are often ahead of the stated position.
The Same Thing Happens Inside Microsoft 365
One of the most revealing exercises is simply watching how people use the tools they already have.
Someone may tell me they don’t have enough information to write a client proposal faster. Then I ask Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word to create a first draft from existing documents stored in SharePoint.
Someone insists meetings take as long as they’ve always taken. Then Copilot in Teams produces a meeting recap, extracts actions, and highlights decisions in a few seconds.
Someone believes they’re spending hours processing email because that’s the nature of modern work. Then Copilot in Outlook starts drafting replies and summarising lengthy email chains.
The surprising part isn’t that the technology works.
The surprising part is how quickly people adapt once they see it working in their own environment.
What they thought they would do is often very different from what they actually end up doing.
Technology Adoption Has Always Been Emotional
I think we sometimes treat technology decisions as purely logical exercises.
They’re not.
People rarely make decisions based solely on facts, specifications, or business cases. Emotion plays a huge role. Fear of change. Fear of looking foolish. Fear of making the wrong investment. Sometimes even fear of becoming less valuable.
That’s why surveys and focus groups often struggle to predict outcomes accurately. People answer based on how they imagine they’ll behave in the future.
Reality arrives later.
The same pattern appears with Microsoft 365 Copilot. Many organisations start cautiously, perhaps with a small pilot group. The initial conversations focus on risks, limitations, and concerns.
A few weeks later the discussion changes.
Users begin sharing prompts with each other. Teams start discovering new ways to use Copilot in meetings. Managers realise they can get through information faster. Gradually the conversation moves from whether they’ll use AI to where they should use it next.
The behaviour changes first. The mindset follows.
Pay Attention to What Happens, Not Just What Is Said
When I’m helping organisations assess readiness for AI, I place far more value on observed behaviour than survey responses.
The question isn’t whether someone says AI will help them.
The question is whether they reach for it when they’re busy.
Do they use Copilot to prepare for a meeting?
Do they ask Copilot in Outlook to help clear their inbox?
Do they use Copilot in Excel when they need answers from a spreadsheet?
Those actions reveal far more than any questionnaire.
David Ogilvy understood something fundamental about human nature. People are often poor predictors of their future behaviour.
As Microsoft 365 Copilot continues to become part of everyday work, I think we’ll see the same pattern repeat itself. The organisations that succeed won’t necessarily be the ones that talk most enthusiastically about AI.
They’ll be the ones that quietly incorporate it into their daily habits.
Because when it comes to technology adoption, what people do has always mattered more than what they say.
CIAOPS 