Healthcare Agentathon

At Telefónica Tech, we recently hosted an Agentathon with NHS Trusts to explore the frontier of Agentic AI. In other words, where AI doesn’t just assist as a chatbot but acts as a proactive agent to solve real-world challenges.

 

The energy in the room was electric (and not just because someone brought a three-meter extension cable).

 

We saw healthcare professionals roll up their sleeves and build AI agents that tackle everything from HR headaches to medicines supply workflows.

 

Notably, this wasn’t theory, it was practical innovation and we were blown away by the creativity of all participants.

Why Use Microsoft Copilot in Healthcare?

Healthcare is complex. Policies change, compliance is critical, and staff are stretched thin. Microsoft 365 Copilot brings intelligence into the apps clinicians and administrators already use—Word, Excel, Teams—while Copilot Studio lets organisations build custom agents tailored to their workflows.

 

The benefits:

 

  • Time savings: Automate repetitive tasks like email acknowledgments or document creation
  • Accuracy: Deliver policy-compliant answers instantly
  • Scalability: Support thousands of staff without adding headcount
  • Security: Built on Microsoft’s trusted cloud with enterprise-grade compliance

 

In short, Copilot is no longer just a nice-to-have, it’s a lifeline for efficiency and governance that helps free up valuable time for patient care.

 

But moving beyond using Copilot as a chatbot for information is a challenge for many organisations (not just in healthcare). That’s exactly the bridge that our Agentathon set out to build.

Healthcare Agentathon

What is an Agentathon?

An Agentathon is an immersive, hands-on innovation event where business and technical teams come together to design, build, and test AI agents in a single day. Think of it as like a Hackathon, but instead of coding from scratch, participants use Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio and the Power Platform to turn real-world challenges into working AI solutions.

 

The goal is to create a Minimum Viable Agent (MVA) that automates a process, improves efficiency, and demonstrates immediate value.

 

For NHS Trusts at our recent Healthcare Agentathon, this meant transforming everyday pain points into intelligent workflows.

Get 1-1 Help: Book an AI & Copilot Studio Envisioning Workshop

8 Use Cases from the Healthcare Agentathon

Here’s what NHS Trusts built in just one day at our London office:

This HR Assistant agent acts as an HR expert, providing accurate answers on policies, forms, and systems. It calculates annual leave entitlement by gathering inputs like contracted hours and applying pro-rata logic for part-time staff. It validates data, handles errors, and outputs clear results in hours instead of days… compliant and stress-free.

The Risk Response Assistant automates acknowledgment of risk-related emails. It monitors inboxes, extracts critical details, and consolidates weekly notifications into one professional message. Non-risk emails are flagged for manual review, ensuring compliance and reducing clutter, helping governance teams focus on resilience instead of inbox triage.

The Onboarding Checklist Assistant streamlines inductions by sending managers timely reminders and downloadable checklists for each stage: Pre-Start, Day 1, Week 1, and beyond. It personalises due dates, links resources, and sends reminders only when tasks are due (or overdue).

The Job Description Builder creates NHS-compliant job descriptions in minutes. It matches job titles and bands to national profiles, builds sections like Job Summary and Person Specification, and even adds legal clauses and benefits. Outputs a branded Word document using NHS templates, meaning HR teams can finally retire their copy-paste marathon.

The HR Co-Pilot that its creators named “Doris” provides instant, policy-accurate answers and guides managers through workflows like annual leave, flexible working, and wellbeing referrals. It retrieves templates, summarises policies in plain English, and even scripts sensitive conversations. Furthermore, it escalates complex cases with a neat summary for HR or Occupational Health.

The SOP Navigator helps teams manage Standard Operating Procedures by searching the SOP repository in SharePoint, validating compliance, and generating clear reports for action. This time saving agent flags any SOP gaps and recommends next steps such as fixing naming conventions, making compliance audits a whole lot easier.

The “My Supervision” agent turns Teams recordings into structured, anonymised supervision notes. It highlights action items, assigns deadlines, and formats everything to fit the Trust template, saving a tremendous amount of time. Manual transcription is out; compliance and confidentiality are in.

The Medicines Supply Tool agent supports clinical staff with time-appropriate guidance on accessing medicines (without giving clinical advice). It checks critical drug status, clarifies medicine form, and provides steps based on time of day i.e. in-hours vs out-of-hours. If urgent, it guides staff to on-call pharmacy support. No more frantic “Where do I get this drug?” calls!

Healthcare Agentathon Competition

Needless to say, it was difficult to choose the winners out of these eight creations, but I was honoured to present the much-anticipated chocolate prizes to the following three innovations:

 

  1. Most Original: Medicines Supply Tool
  2. Fastest Impact: SOP Navigator
  3. Greatest Potential: Onboarding Agent

 

Each of these agents solves a real pain point, and they were built using Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio in a single day.

 

Imagine what your organisation could achieve with a little time and the right tools.

Want help with AI agents at your Trust?

The Agentathon proved one thing: AI in healthcare operations isn’t just “coming soon”… it’s here. So if you’re wondering how to start using Microsoft Copilot in more meaningful ways, we’ve got you covered:

 

Our AI & Copilot Studio Envisioning Workshop helps your organisation ideate, prioritise, and implement AI agents that deliver real value. This complimentary, 1-1, half day session is practical, interactive, and the first step toward building your AI roadmap.

 

👉 Ready to explore? Book your workshop today.

Related posts