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RSM reimagines the future of work as a Frontier Firm

Leading professional services firm RSM acted as their own Customer Zero by globally scaling Microsoft Copilot to transform operations, upskill teams, and act as a knowledge repository.

November 19, 2025

More than 80% of the global workforce says they lack the time or energy to do their jobs. RSM, a global audit, tax, and consulting services firm, saw this as an opportunity to redefine productivity by spearheading the Frontier Firm model as the next stage in their century-long evolution—first for themselves, and then for their customers.

With a focus on serving mid-sized and growing companies, RSM is a Microsoft Solutions Partner certified across the full Microsoft Cloud and AI platform, delivering deep specialization and cross-industry reach. In 2026, RSM will celebrate their 100th anniversary—a milestone they’re marking with a firmwide focus on embracing generative AI at scale. As part of a $1 billion, five-year investment in AI and digital transformation, RSM is reshaping how their professionals work, learn, and collaborate. At the center of this transformation are Microsoft 365 Copilot and Modern Work, seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Cloud technologies including Azure, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry, Microsoft Fabric, and Dataverse.

A cornerstone of this transformation is RSM’s decision to act as its own Customer Zero by embracing Copilot as both a work assistant and a catalyst for change. By building internal credibility and fluency first, the firm is learning from within and applying those lessons to help clients navigate similar shifts. That internal-first approach is more than just tactical—it reflects a broader cultural transformation that’s already underway.

A century-old firm with a frontier mindset

As RSM leaned into the Customer Zero strategy, they quickly recognized that internal technical change needed to be matched by cultural change—one that empowered employees not just to use new technology, but also to explore, experiment, and adapt with confidence. “Frontiers need pioneers—and we need to encourage and empower that pioneering spirit,” said Kristin Lewis, Enterprise Marketing Lead for Microsoft at RSM. “I think that comes from the top.”

Rather than deploying pilot AI tools in isolated use cases, RSM made a deliberate decision to commit to broad internal adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot across the firm. To support this momentum, RSM developed enablement efforts––including Microsoft certifications, peer learning cohorts, and storytelling platforms––to reinforce AI fluency as part of everyday work.

“There's a large cultural shift at RSM as we're creating a place where employees can feel safe learning and upskilling in the AI era,” said Lewis. "Most importantly, people are really collaborating cross functionally to level up in the Frontier Firm era.”

“There's a large cultural shift at RSM as we're creating a place where employees can feel safe learning and upskilling in the AI era.”

—Kristin Lewis, Enterprise Marketing Lead for Microsoft, RSM

Reimagining work from the inside out

This blend of top-down commitment and grassroots innovation quickly took hold. One business developer used Copilot to dramatically reduce the time required to run detailed account targeting—shifting from what previously took weeks at scale to just 10–15 minutes per list review.

Other employees began configuring their own agents, building personalized Copilot workflows, and sharing their solutions internally. As more teams experimented, leaders at RSM paid close attention—capturing team-driven innovations and turning them into training opportunities for others. Their approach to upskilling is intentionally adaptive, shaped by what employees are doing in real time.

At the same time, RSM began to recognize a larger opportunity for transforming individual innovation into institutional knowledge. The firm is now developing an internal storytelling platform—powered by Microsoft Copilot Studio and underpinned by Microsoft Fabric and Dataverse—to archive, organize, and share the full arc of client transformation projects. By capturing how teams approach, adapt, and deliver with AI, RSM is creating a durable knowledge base that scales experience across the firm.

“If there was someone who could have been here all 100 years and could know every project we've done in each role we served, and could tell that story, that would be so powerful,” said Mike Gillis, partner at RSM. “And that's what this will do. We could take someone new to the firm, someone who's only been here a year, but now they have the benefit of storytelling of 100 years.”

“If there was someone who could have been here all 100 years and could know every project we've done in each role we served, and could tell that story, that would be so powerful.”

––Mike Gillis, Partner, RSM

From change agents to shared stories

With Copilot at the center, RSM is building not just better workflows but a living archive of its expertise. These stories are now informing how RSM guides clients through their own transformations, combining firsthand experience with frameworks for prioritization, adoption, and long-term impact.

Looking ahead, the goal at RSM is to sustain this cycle of experimentation, learning, and reuse, both internally and with clients. With Microsoft as its strategic technology partner and Copilot as an embedded part of daily work, the firm is charting a path not just for AI adoption but for cultural transformation.

“That is the pathway to converge into the agentic future, the agentic workforce,” said Lewis. “So humans working with agentic teams––those two will come together. We're thrilled to have both of those happening in tandem, and I think the culture change is really happening.”

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