AI training at Acrow Bridge

Acrow designs and manufactures modular steel bridges for permanent, temporary, military and emergency use. It has more than 70 years' experience and works in more than 150 countries, and its bridges are made from US steel in a fully robotised facility.

Acrow is headquartered in Parsippany, USA, with its UK headquarters in Lydney, UK, where it bought the assets and team of Mabey Bridge in 2019. It also has offices in Canada, Italy and South Africa.

Much of the work at Acrow Bridge runs through long documents: tender responses, contract review, technical reports, market research and data analysis. Acrow Bridge wanted its people to use Microsoft 365 Copilot in that work, safely and in their own roles.

The first group brought together senior and cross-functional staff from global headquarters and regional leadership, so the training had to work for very different jobs, from engineering and IT to commercial, finance and HR.

The first workshop brought together leaders and specialists from across the business:

• Leadership: the CEO, COO, vice presidents and directors
• Engineering: heads of engineering, BIM and production engineers
• Commercial: sales, commercial and project management
• Business functions: finance, HR, IT and marketing

Three more workshops in June 2026 opened the training to teams across the business.

General Purpose delivered four half-day Mastering Copilot workshops online for Acrow Bridge: the first in March 2026, then three more in June 2026. Every exercise was built around Acrow Bridge's own work, from tender responses and contract review to market research and reporting.

• Across all four workshops, attendees expect to save 45 minutes each per day using Copilot, or 17,291 hours a year.
• That time is worth an estimated £366,494 a year in recovered productivity, a projected 13x return on the training in its first year.
• 96% of attendees across all four workshops enjoyed the training and said it will help them get more value from Copilot at work.

• Tender translator: turns Spanish tender specifications into an English executive summary
• Tender comparison: compares tender versions after the Q&A stage, and contracts during negotiation
• Acrow technical agent: answers questions on parts and bridges from Acrow's own technical data
• Engineering research assistant: researches design guidance, fatigue and bolt steel specifications
• Win-loss analyser: finds patterns in won and lost projects and regional pricing for similar bridges
• Export market research: maps opportunities and competitors in the global modular bridge market