CI Showcase 2025: Embracing the future – CI in the age of AI and automation

The Continuous Improvement (CI) Showcase 2025 brought together colleagues from across the University to explore how CI is evolving in an era shaped by AI and automation. Across four engaging online sessions, presenters shared practical tools, inspiring stories and real-world examples of how CI is helping teams work smarter, not harder. 

Whether you attended one session or all four, the Showcase offered something for everyone. It sparked ideas and provided tangible takeaways to apply in your own work. Here’s a recap of what was covered. 

Session 1: Automate with purpose – fix if before you flow it 

The Showcase kicked off with a powerful message: automation is only effective when built on solid foundations. Presenters shared how they used CI to streamline processes before introducing automation, ensuring that inefficiencies weren’t simply automated. Attendees learned how to identify and fix broken workflows and how to use tools like Power Automate to enhance daily tasks. 

This theme was illustrated by Roya Stuart-Rees, who shared how her team in the Department of Economics used process mapping and Voice of the Customer to untangle a complex tutorial allocation process. As she put it, 

Ultimately, it’s not about replacing people with automation. It’s about using the tools we have to work more intelligently – and to make life a little bit easier for everyone involved.  

Session 2: Improve your day – using CI to make small changes with big impact 

This session focused on the power of incremental change. Colleagues demonstrated how small, thoughtful improvements such as better use of Microsoft 365 tools or eliminating unnecessary steps can lead to significant gains in efficiency and satisfaction. 

One highlight was the interactive “discoveries” segment, where attendees shared their favourite time-saving tips, ranging from keyboard shortcuts to clever uses of Teams and Copilot. Discoveries are learnings to share with others that may improve how we carry out our work, enhance personal productivity, or even offer a general life hack. These everyday examples showed how CI can be embedded in even the smallest habits, helping teams work more smoothly and collaboratively.  

Explore the full discovery log from session 2  to learn practical tips, shortcuts and tools shared by colleagues across the University. 

Here are just a few of the discoveries shared: 

• Windows + V to access clipboard history—no more re-copying the same thing twice 
• Power Automate RSVP template that reminds you to respond to meeting invites directly in Teams 
• PowerToys – a set of freeware utilities from Microsoft. The utilities include features such as keyboard remapping, window layout customisation, colour picker, live zoom and spotlight my mouse 

The session also highlighted how tools like Daily Update and Bugs and Butterflies can help teams surface and act on small but meaningful improvements in their day-to-day work. 

Session 3: Efficiency reimagined – CI at Oxford in the age of AI 

In this session, speakers explored how AI is already being used in partnership with CI across the University to reduce repetitive tasks and free up time for more meaningful work.  

Rather than viewing AI as a standalone solution, speakers illustrated how embedding AI into CI processes is unlocking new ways of working—transforming how teams operate, solve problems, and implement sustainable change. From automating data entry to enhancing decision-making, the examples shared demonstrated how combining CI with AI can help teams rethink how they operate and achieve new levels of productivity and creativity. 

The session showcased practical applications of AI that are already making a difference, such as using automation to handle routine communications or leveraging AI tools to support data analysis and reporting. Rather than being the end solution, AI can also be embedded within the CI process itself - enhancing how teams use tools, gather insights and implement change. An example of which is the Finance Division’s use of AI to create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to standardise repetitive tasks, reduce variation and ensure consistency.

Session 4: Let’s get ready to rumble – CI versus AI 

The final session featured a keynote by Antonio Nava from the University of California San Diego, who invited attendees to rethink the relationship between CI and AI. Rather than viewing them as opposing forces, he highlighted how they can work together—each enhancing the other. 

As a practitioner, I don’t think of these as an opposition. I found ways to have AI support my process of process improvement.

He encouraged attendees to embrace both disciplines and to think boldly about the future of work. His message was clear: AI can be a valuable part of the CI toolkit when used thoughtfully and with purpose. 

Don’t do things the way that you’ve always done them just because they’re the most comfortable.

Keep the momentum going 

If you missed a session or want to revisit something that inspired you, you can find recordings, slides, transcripts and other resources on the CI Showcase 2025 site. 

Explore the CI Showcase 2025 site 

To stay connected, join the CI Community of Practice — a space to share ideas, ask questions and keep learning together. 

Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the Showcase. We look forward to hearing your stories of using CI at Oxford and seeing how you continue to drive innovation and improvement in your work.