Maxeda DIY Group is a leading do-it-yourself group with well-known chains such as Brico and Praxis. The group invested in MS Copilot and wanted that investment to pay off: employees using AI with confidence in their daily work. Together with Xylos, Maxeda set up an AI literacy program that brought a broad audience on board, including colleagues who were less digitally skilled.

Investing in MS Copilot licenses is a smart move, but without the right skills and support, that investment delivers little.

The success of AI in your organization depends on your people. When employees understand how AI fits into their work, where it adds value, and what the risks are, adoption speeds up. Maxeda wanted to achieve three goals at once:

• Comply with the EU AI Act by making employees AI-literate

• Provide guidance for effective use of the MS Copilot tools

• Inspire people to use AI for greater efficiency and quality

The MS Copilot journey at Maxeda was set up as a full AI‑literacy learning journey. The goal: let employees at the head offices get started with AI and MS Copilot in an accessible way, so they could learn to apply the tools effectively in their day-to-day work.

Because Maxeda has a diverse workforce, including employees who are less digitally skilled, we opted for a strongly personalized approach. The basic training was therefore offered at three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Employees could choose for themselves which level best matched their experience and needs.

The client chose an active learning journey rather than a one-off training. The program ran in waves and was developed in close collaboration with Maxeda.

By tailoring the training sessions to participants' knowledge levels, there was more interaction during the sessions. This built trust in AI and allowed us to reach a broad audience.

The AI literacy journey combined inspiration (webinars) with action (training and workshops) and guidance (coaching), so that knowledge was not only built up, but also embedded in practice.

Maxeda started with hands-on workshops in small groups, where employees could try out MS Copilot themselves and discover how AI can support their day-to-day tasks. They also organized three webinars on AI Foundations, Data & AI, and AI Governance & Ethics. These sessions created a shared knowledge base within the organization and gave employees room to ask questions. The webinars are also available on demand, so colleagues can watch them back whenever they like.

Two Digital Coaches guided the entire journey. They ran the workshops, inspired employees with practical examples, and were available for individual coaching.

Those one-to-one coaching sessions created a safe environment where employees got answers to concrete questions from their day-to-day work context. Small teams also regularly booked sessions to look at specific challenges or work processes together. The sessions offered a low-threshold point of contact for digital and AI-related questions.

Erik Cuypers, Group CDO & CIO at Maxeda DIY Group, is pleased with the results of the journey:

"I wanted AI knowledge to grow across the entire workforce at Maxeda. We ended up with Xylos thanks to their varied offering of training sessions and webinars. I also absolutely wanted people to be able to attend training in person, so they could talk to the coach. Alongside those one-to-one coaching sessions, there were also general webinars. We even linked data literacy to it. Today, you can feel the enthusiasm. People aren't afraid of AI — quite the opposite: they're using it more and more."

As a follow-up to the AI literacy journey, the Store Managers of Brico and BricoPlanit in Belgium and Praxis in the Netherlands will also be trained on MS Copilot and AI.

Want your employees to work with MS Copilot responsibly and with confidence? Xylos helps you set up a tailored AI literacy program.