How to lead a GitHub Copilot rollout that removes blockers and delivers real impact

Published via GitHub Executive Insights

GitHub Copilot is an enterprise-grade productivity tool, enabling teams code up to 55% faster. Developers using Copilot find that it helps them ship more efficiently, reduce time spent producing boilerplate code, and stay in the flow longer. But here’s the catch: Simply purchasing Copilot does not immediately unlock its value.

To realize Copilot’s full potential, leaders need to roll out Copilot strategically, thinking holistically about access, governance, enablement, and adoption. The effort is worth it. Done well, Copilot adoption at scale accelerates delivery, improves developer satisfaction, and creates lasting ROI for your business.

This document will help you empower your developers to fully embrace the product and make the most of AI-powered development.

1. Subscribe your organization

Before you begin your rollout, you’ll need to ensure your organization has an active Copilot subscription in place. There are two ways to subscribe:

• Copilot Business: An individual organization can subscribe directly to Copilot Business. This plan includes core Copilot capabilities like code completion, chat, and code review features.

• Copilot Enterprise: For organizations that are part of an enterprise account, Copilot is enabled and managed at the enterprise level. Enterprise owners control subscription and access across multiple orgs within the enterprise.

What’s the key difference between these plans? Some advanced features—like Copilot coding agent, knowledge bases, and fine-tuning with GitHub Models—are only available with Copilot Enterprise. If your organization wants early access to new capabilities or deeper AI customization, Copilot Enterprise provides the broader feature set.

Pro tips: If you’d like help on deciding which plan is right for your organization, see this guide to choosing your enterprise’s plan for GitHub Copilot. And If you’re unsure which plan you're currently on, or need enterprise-level access, visit your Copilot settings to request access or talk with your enterprise owner.

2. Set policies that fit your needs

Next, you’ll need to set up policies to control how Copilot behaves in your org. This includes deciding whether features like Copilot Chat or Copilot coding agent are enabled and setting filters for content or code matching.

But policies aren’t just technical controls, they’re also a key part of your rollout strategy. Use role-based permissions to pace adoption, manage demand, and build momentum across your teams.

Here’s how a phased rollout can look:

• Start small: Many organizations begin by enabling Copilot for a select group of early adopters. This helps surface blockers, uncover edge cases, and create internal champions who can help others adopt the tool.

• Expand deliberately: As confidence grows, you can scale access team-by-team or business unit-by-business unit.

• Leverage self-service: Many successful organizations enable self-service licensing, allowing developers to claim seats without lengthy approvals, accelerating adoption while keeping license management flexible.

Why take this approach? A phased rollout gives you better visibility into adoption patterns, developer satisfaction, and technical blockers, leading to a smoother, more durable rollout at full scale. Learn more with these tips for a successful rollout of GitHub Copilot.

3. Set up networking (if needed)

While most teams can start using Copilot immediately, certain enterprise environments may require additional networking configuration to ensure seamless access. If your developers connect through a proxy server or firewall, you'll need to configure a few things for Copilot:

• Add key Copilot-related URLs to your allowlist
• Ask your developers to configure proxy settings in their IDE and install custom SSL certificates if required.

Why this matters: Addressing network prerequisites early avoids common deployment blockers, reduces support tickets, and ensures your developers can begin using Copilot without delays. This is especially important if you're running a staged rollout where early adopters serve as your first test group. Identifying network issues at this stage helps clear the path for wider adoption.

More detailed guidance is available in GitHub’s networking configuration documentation.

4. Grant access to the right people

Deciding who gets access and when is one of the most important levers you have to drive a successful rollout. Common access models include:

• Targeted pilots: Enable Copilot for select teams or early adopters who are excited to test and provide feedback.

• Org-wide deployment: Grant access to all eligible developers at once, if you’re confident in your environment and the demand.

• Self-service model: Allow developers to claim a license without requiring manual approval (a highly effective approach we see across many customers).

Why start with early adopters? Smaller pilot groups help surface technical blockers, build internal champions, and generate early wins. These teams often become internal advocates who help promote Copilot adoption across the organization.

You can find more rollout strategies in GitHub’s rollout best practices.

5. Drive adoption across the org

The most successful deployments build support and energy around Copilot. They educate teams, share use cases, and track success.

Strategies that drive lasting adoption include:

• Internal champions: Empower enthusiastic developers to serve as advocates and peer coaches.

• Training sessions: Host lunch-and-learns, office hours, or Q&A sessions to share best practices and answer common questions.

• Leadership alignment: Ensure executives are visibly supportive of Copilot adoption to signal org-wide commitment.

• Success tracking: Monitor usage patterns and gather feedback to refine your rollout as adoption grows.

The goal, of course, is to not just help employees access Copilot, but to actually integrate it into their daily work and start unlocking real productivity gains and ROI. Implementing a strong enablement plan ensures your AI adoption efforts actually stick.

6. Enhance the Copilot experience

Once your teams are comfortable with Copilot, it’s time to glean even more value with GitHub’s latest AI features, including:

• Copilot coding agent: Automate tasks asynchronously and reduce manual toil.

• Copilot code review: Get intelligent, customizable suggestions during pull requests.

• Copilot Spaces: Share context across teams to improve Copilot’s relevance and recommendations.

• GitHub Models: Build custom developer tools that call AI models within your enterprise environment.

• Copilot Autofix: Automatically remediate security vulnerabilities flagged in code scanning.

As adoption matures, these capabilities allow you to optimize security, automation, and code quality. Want to see how it all comes together? Check out this example of how GitHub’s AI features work in tandem across the software development lifecycle.

The bottom line

Rolling out Copilot across your org is a chance to boost velocity, creativity, and collaboration among your dev teams. But getting it right means thinking beyond activation and focusing on the experience, security, and strategy behind it.

Copilot is ready to work hard for your teams, helping deliver increased productivity and profit. Are you ready to let it fly?

Build what’s next with Copilot today >

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