By Aditya Soni

April 27 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT ) is rolling out

its Copilot 365 AI assistant to all of Accenture's ( ACN ) roughly

743,000 employees, in the biggest enterprise deal for the

chatbot as the software giant seeks to convert more of its vast

customer base into paying users.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed by the

companies in a joint statement on Monday. It is a major boost

for Microsoft ( MSFT ) as just a little more than 3% of its over 450

million 365 enterprise users pay for the $30-a-month offering.

Slow Copilot adoption and uneven cloud growth have deepened

investor worries over returns from Microsoft's ( MSFT ) hefty AI outlay.

Its shares are down 12% this year, after their biggest quarterly

drop since the 2008 financial crisis in January to March.

The move builds on Accenture's ( ACN ) plan in 2024 to offer Copilot

to as many as 300,000 employees. The company has emerged as one

of the most aggressive corporate adopters of AI, even tying

top-level promotions to the technology's usage, per media

reports.

Charles Lamanna, who leads Microsoft's ( MSFT ) M365 apps and Copilot

platform, told Reuters that efforts to offer multiple AI models,

including Anthropic and tools such as "Critique" - which uses

one model to check another's output - are aiding demand.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) has recently pushed Anthropic's technology

aggressively to customers, aiming to reduce its OpenAI reliance

while tapping demand for products from the Claude creator.

A reworked partnership unveiled earlier on Monday ends

Microsoft's ( MSFT ) exclusive access to OpenAI's technology, clearing

the way for the ChatGPT creator to sell its products across

rival cloud platforms.

ACCENTURE TOUTS PRODUCTIVITY GAINS FROM AI

Accenture ( ACN ) said the initial Copilot deployment has paid off.

About 97% of staff said Copilot helped them complete

routine tasks up to 15 times faster, while 53% reported major

gains in productivity, according to a self-reported company

survey of 200,000 users.

"Our teams are already doing higher-value work because of

it," Accenture ( ACN ) CEO Julie Sweet said.

The remarks follow recent reports that have raised doubts

about productivity gains from AI.

A survey of nearly 6,000 senior executives at U.S., UK,

German and Australian firms, published by the National Bureau of

Economic Research in February, found nearly 90% said AI had no

impact on employment or productivity over the past three years.