Microsoft CoPilot

Municipality of Asten

Asten municipality uses Copilot, an AI chat assistant based on generative artificial intelligence, as part of the digital toolbox within its office automation. Copilot supports employees in daily tasks. Its use is creativity-enhancing, advisory and supportive in nature, with human decision-making remaining leading.

Last change on 17th of October 2025, at 7:55 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Other algorithms
• Impact assessment: Field not filled in.
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

Organisation and business operations

Begin date

Field not filled in.

Contact information

[e-mail]

Responsible use

Goal and impact

The municipality of Asten uses Copilot Chat as a generative AI chat assistant to support employees in cognitive tasks within the office environment. The aim is to promote creativity, efficiency and digital skills through support in brainstorming, information structuring and drafting.

Copilot Chat is used solely on the basis of user input and does not access internal data or systems within the municipality's Microsoft 365 environment. No automated decisions are made and Copilot Chat is not used for processes that directly impact citizens or policy-making.

The impact of use is limited to individual employee support. To ensure the use of Copilot Chat in a responsible manner, the municipality of Asten has drawn up seven principles.

Considerations

Asten municipality chose to use Copilot Chat as a generative AI application because of its potential to support employees in cognitive tasks such as information structuring, brainstorming and text generation. The consideration explicitly considered the limited impact on processes and data, the absence of automated decision-making, and the possibility of keeping the use strictly advisory.

Human intervention

Human intervention is a fundamental principle in the use of Copilot Chat within Asten municipality. Copilot acts solely as an advisory tool and supports employees in their work. The final responsibility for the content, interpretation and application of generated output always lies with the employee. This ensures that Copilot does not make decisions and that human control is maintained. Furthermore, users are informed that transparency requirements are always taken into account in (future) publications.

Risk management

Asten municipality adopts a risk-based approach to the use of AI applications. For Copilot Chat, risks such as sharing sensitive information, misinterpreting generated output and creating dependencies have been recognised. These risks are mitigated through clear guidelines, awareness among employees, and the provision of support by the CISO and PO. The established seven principles are an integral part of this risk management.

Legal basis

The use of Copilot Chat within the municipality of Asten falls under the regular frameworks of information management and digital support for employees. No personal data are processed and there is no automated decision-making. As such, its use is in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG), provided employees adhere to internal guidelines, including not sharing confidential or sensitive information with AI applications.

Operations

Data

Copilot Chat only processes input provided by the user during use. No internal data from the Microsoft 365 environment is shared or processed. Employees are instructed not to share confidential or privacy-sensitive information with Copilot, in accordance with established principles. No storage or reuse of data takes place within municipal systems.

Technical design

Copilot uses large language models (Large Language Models, LLMs) from OpenAI, provided as a service through Microsoft Azure. These models are trained on large amounts of text data and can therefore understand and generate natural language. Within the Microsoft 365 environment, Copilot can invoke these models to support users in answering questions, writing text and structuring information. Processing takes place within Microsoft's secure cloud infrastructure, in line with applicable privacy and security standards. More information on the architecture and operation can be found at: Microsoft Copilot Architecture and Azure OpenAI Service.

External provider

Microsoft