How PwC created a foundation for digital transformation

Headquartered in Athens, HELLENiQ ENERGY is one of Southeast Europe’s leading integrated energy groups. The company operates across the entire energy spectrum—production, supply, and trading of all types of energy—with a strong and growing focus on clean energy and renewables.

Its portfolio includes refining, supply and trading of oil and petrochemical products, hydrocarbons exploration and production, and fuels marketing, while rapidly expanding in the renewable energy sector. Guided by an ambitious transformation strategy, HELLENiQ ENERGY has evolved into a regional energy leader with a diversified portfolio spanning the full energy value chain and a presence in eight countries.

HELLENiQ ENERGY is guided by three core pillars: continuous innovation, employee-centric design, and operational excellence. When the company embarked on its digital transformation journey, it ensured these principles were at the heart of every step. The goal was to introduce AI-powered productivity tools and foster a cultural shift toward digital-first working—driving efficiency, collaboration, and sustainable growth.

HELLENiQ ENERGY’s digital transformation journey began with two aims: boosting operational efficiency and elevating the employee experience. The rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot marked an important first milestone in this journey, delivering notable results—over 70% of employees reported enhanced productivity, while meeting catch-up times improved fourfold.

While the initial rollout delivered promising results, a deeper challenge revealed itself: employees faced slow and complicated access to internal services—especially HR-related ones. Fragmented processes and the high volume of routine queries, such as questions about benefits and performance reviews, were limiting HR’s ability to provide timely support. Recognizing this, the company saw the need for a smarter, scalable HR knowledge source to streamline processes, boost efficiency, and deliver faster, more effective support to employees.

HELLENiQ ENERGY first chose PwC to support a thorough digital transformation strategy starting with the rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot. With Copilot successfully integrated and the groundwork in place, the focus shifted to addressing specific departmental challenges through tailored AI solutions.

PwC Greece began by working closely with HELLENiQ ENERGY to gain a clear understanding of the company’s digital transformation priorities, facilitating that the rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot would be both widespread and impactful. Therefore, PwC collaborated with key business functions such as Finance, Operations, Marketing, HR, and Customer Service to develop 71 tailored use cases that integrate Copilot into daily workflows. These use cases ranged from streamlining document creation and improving team communication to enhancing project coordination. Many were aimed at high-frequency, low-complexity workflows, such as handling leave requests, where full automation can be achieved without compromising the ability to manage exceptions.

To drive adoption at scale, people were placed at the center of the transformation strategy. Therefore, PwC developed a comprehensive Adoption Playbook that combined essential content, technological enablement, and a series of workshops—both general and department-specific case studies. The onboarding approach was gradual and personalised, focusing on individual value to boost engagement. PwC introduced a new delivery model supported by a dedicated operating framework, a community of 600 Digital Stars, and an experienced support team known as Digital Heroes. To support and sustain this effort, a dedicated Centre of Excellence (CoE) was established that played a pivotal role in monitoring adoption and driving more advanced solutions.

Building on the success of the Microsoft 365 Copilot rollout, PwC and HELLENiQ ENERGY collaborated to address the internal HR service delivery challenges by launching an AI-powered assistant named ‘HRaklis.’

Designed to streamline employee access to HR information, HRaklis reimagines how HR services are delivered across the organisation.

PwC began by reviewing more than a dozen of HR policies and collective labour agreements, distilling them into a structured set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) improved for digital consumption. By collecting feedback from employees from HR and IT, the team continuously fine-tuned HRaklis to accurately reflect the organisation’s needs.

HRaklis was built on the same enterprise-grade Microsoft foundation that supported the earlier Microsoft Copilot rollout, enabling consistency, scalability, and secure integration. PwC architected HRaklis using low-code/no-code tools such as Copilot Studio, enabling HR teams to independently manage and update the assistant without IT intervention. Azure Cognitive Services enabled natural language understanding, while Power Automate and SharePoint facilitated real-time data flows and dynamic content management. Microsoft Teams served as the user interface, enhanced with adaptive cards for seamless access to HR services. The assistant’s knowledge base is continuously updated with structured HR content and employee feedback, laying the foundation for proactive service delivery and future integration with broader HR platforms.

Together, PwC and HELLENiQ ENERGY crafted intuitive chatbot workflows for handling common HR tasks like leave requests and benefits inquiries. To further maintain accuracy, the chatbots knowledge base is regularly updated with current HR policies, while sensitive HR data is protected through controlled access via Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Azure. This continuous refinement enables employees to have easy access to accurate HR information, solidifying HRaklis as a key component in enhancing service delivery across the organisation.

HELLENiQ ENERGY’s integration of Microsoft 365 Copilot has contributed to a digital-first culture, supporting productivity improvements across the organisation. Approximately 70% of users have seen tasks like searching, writing, and summarising become 29% faster, while time savings in meetings and email processing have been notable. Improved communication and collaboration have elevated project coordination and prioritisation, as over 500 employees were trained, leading to a 70% adoption rate. Employee satisfaction has grown, with over 75% seeing enhanced engagement and overall experience. Therefore, the Copilot integration has established a solid foundation for ongoing productivity and innovation. Building on this, the HRaklis digital assistant has helped transform how HELLENiQ ENERGY’s HR team operates.

By automating responses and offering employees 24/7 access to routine inquiries, the company has achieved a 70% reduction in repetitive queries, freeing up over 200 hours of HR staff time each month, according to early estimates. This efficiency gain allows HR employees to concentrate on strategic initiatives such as workforce development and talent management, thereby raising the department’s value to the business. Beyond operational improvements, employees can now share knowledge and collaborate more effectively. Information siloes have been broken down, improving communications. HR policies are better understood by employees and HR staff can easily share leading practices.

With these foundations in place, HELLENiQ ENERGY plans to continue extending its HR self-service capabilities and continuing to refine digital integration across its IT systems.