This article was first published on February 15, 2024
Microsoft Copilot is a generative AI assistant that answers questions, drafts content and summarizes information for users across the Microsoft 365 apps your business already runs. Officially launched on February 7th, 2023, Copilot was positioned as representing a significant leap forward in the world of digital assistance, with a focus on enhancing user experiences through natural language and machine learning. Microsoft has changed how the assistant is named, licensed and sold since this article first ran in 2024, which affects what your employees have access to today.
SWK Technologies has updated this article to help your business understand what the assistant does now, how it handles your data and which plans support it:
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot covers a family of AI assistants instead of one product in reality, from a free chat experience included with eligible subscriptions to a paid license assigned to individual users.
At its core, Copilot is a platform designed to facilitate seamless interactions between Office 365 applications by harnessing the power of natural language processing, which helps machines process and understand the human language so that they can automatically perform repetitive tasks, and machine learning. Functioning as a digital assistant, it allows users to search, create, and share AI-powered experiences effortlessly.
The free chat answers questions using web results and content a user uploads or has open in a current email or chat, while the paid license places the assistant inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook and Microsoft Teams with access to work data through Microsoft Graph. Some readers may remember Microsoft used to have an AI assistant called Cortana, which was officially discontinued in 2023. Copilot was introduced as a next generation AI replacement for Cortana and promises a litany of more uses and features.
How Does Copilot Work?
Copilot leverages an internal large language model (LLM) and ChatGPT to understand prompts and generate relevant responses. Microsoft 365 Copilot runs as the signed-in user and draws on the email, files, meetings and chats that person already has permission to open in your tenant. Microsoft does not use prompts, responses or work data to train its foundation models, and Enterprise Data Protection applies to every user who signs in with a Microsoft Entra work account.
Copilot is best utilized as an M365 companion as it interacts with content and information within your Office 365 apps. For example, in Microsoft Word is designed it can be used to assist users specifically in the process of creating, understanding and editing documents.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an integration for the following licenses:
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium and Apps for Business – Eligible for the add-on built for tenants with up to 300 users, with the Standard and Premium tiers also sold as bundles that include the license
- Microsoft 365 E3, E5, F1 and F3 – Eligible for the add-on, which is also the path for tenants with more than 300 users
- Office 365 E1, E3, E5 and F3 – Eligible for the add-on
- Microsoft 365 E7 – Includes the license alongside Microsoft Entra Suite and Agent 365 in a single plan
How Does Copilot Compare to Other AI Tools?
The assistant does not run on a single fixed model, since an automatic router sends each prompt to a quick-response model or a deeper reasoning model based on the complexity of the request. Licensed users also get priority access to the latest OpenAI models and a choice of models, including Anthropic models that Microsoft runs under its enterprise data protections but does not turn on for every user by default. Beyond chat, the paid license adds prebuilt Researcher and Analyst agents for research and data analysis, along with Copilot Studio for building agents around your own business processes.
Get Microsoft Copilot Licensing and Support from SWK
Licensing and permissions now decide how much value your business gets from the assistant, which makes tenant preparation as important as the license itself. SWK Technologies will help you choose the right plan, secure your tenant before rollout and manage your licenses alongside the rest of your subscription.
Contact SWK here to get a free Microsoft 365 assessment and a Copilot licensing plan built around the users who need it.