Beyond ChatGPT: Exploring Microsoft Copilot's Role in the AI Revolution
No matter who you are or what you do – you’ve likely been seeing a lot in the news and online about AI (Artificial Intelligence). AI, in the last couple of years, has improved by leaps and bounds with tools like ChatGPT, DALLE, Google’s Bard (now Gemini) and Microsoft’s Copilot making headlines.
One of the most eagerly anticipated AI arrivals was Microsoft’s Copilot, following their partnership with ChatGPT’s “Open AI” platform and proposed integration with the most commonly used Microsoft 365 applications. Microsoft’s main purpose with Copilot was to make the user experience more efficient, intuitive and accessible.
In this blog, we will be exploring what Copilot is, how it can help you, the variations of Microsoft’s Copilot product, licensing requirements for each and how we can assist you with your company’s AI adoption.
Preface
On October 26th 2018, Microsoft’s $7.5 billion dollar deal closed for their acquisition of GitHub.
Just a couple of years later, “GitHub Copilot” was announced and released on 29th October 2021. GitHub’s Copilot was an AI tool created by GitHub and OpenAI to provide coding suggestions based on natural language prompts.
The following year, ChatGPT was launched by OpenAI on 30th November 2022. This was really the turning point for public-facing AI chatbots. We’d seen this sort of thing before, however, this time, it was much more advanced. Before we knew it the name “ChatGPT” was popping up everywhere; it went viral on social media and everyone was talking about it.
It wasn’t long before Microsoft saw their opportunity to develop this further and integrate it with their services with their rumored $10 billion third investment into OpenAI in 2023.
Although Microsoft don’t have exclusive rights to ChatGPT, their integration with OpenAI certainly shows how much capacity they have to dominate the market.
What is Copilot?
The Copilot that most people are referring to and is applicable to companies is “Copilot for Microsoft 365”.
Copilot’s primary function is to make use of Microsoft 365 applications more efficient, intuitive and accessible. It aids the user and should definitely be seen as an assistant rather than a replacement for people; this is probably the biggest misconception about Copilot and AI in general.
There are, however, other variations of Copilot, and other AI tools, that you may have heard about – each with their own use cases. For ease, I’ve created this table that should be easy to refer to, dependent on what you are trying to achieve.
| Variation of AI Tool | Description | Licensing Requirements (If applicable) | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot for Microsoft 365 | - Integrated with Teams, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, and other Microsoft 365 Apps. - AI-powered chat - Connect to your data in third-party apps using Copilot Studio - Enterprise-grade security, privacy and compliance. | Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 E3, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, Microsoft 365 A5 for faculty, Microsoft 365 A3 for faculty, Office 365 A5 for faculty, Office 365 A3 for faculty, Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Microsoft 365 Business Premium | $30 per user per month | - No trial available - Yearly commit only (billed upfront) |
| Windows Copilot | - AI-powered chat - Support for Paint, Photos, Snipping Tool, Clipchamp, Windows Ink and Smart App Control - Actions like “Change to dark mode”, “turn on do not disturb”, “take a screenshot”, “summarize this website” etc etc | Windows 10 (Limited functionality), Windows 11 | FREE | - Microsoft Clipchamp Essentials subscription sold separately - Only available with latest version of Windows 11. - 50 initial credits for Paint Cocreator |
| Copilot for Sales | - Everything in Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Copilot Studio - Bring sales insights into Outlook, Teams and Word. - Connects to Salesforce Sales Cloud and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and can be configured to connect to other sales solutions. | Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Office 365 E3 or Office 365 E5 | $50 per user per month | |
| Copilot for Service | - Everything in Copilot for Microsoft 365 - Pulls data found in existing knowledge base to provide relevant, timely guidance to agents in their flow of work - Connects to existing contact centre and CRM solutions | Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Office 365 E3 or Office 365 E5 | $50 per user per month | - Designed for call center. |
| Security Copilot | - Respond to cyberthreats quickly - Process security threats to make them more digestible - Assess risk exposure | TBC – Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P1 (Suggested Microsoft Entra P1/P2 and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2) | Not yet known | |
| Copilot Pro | - Use Copilot on the web and in windows, macOS and iPadOS - Access Copilot in selected Microsoft 365 apps incl Word, Excel (Preview Only), PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook - Priority access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo - 100 “boosts” per day with Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator) to create, edit and resize AI images | Microsoft 365 Personal or Microsoft 3635 Family | $19 per user per month | - For home users, not business |
| Copilot (Formerly Bing Chat Enterprise) | - Use Copilot on the web and in windows, macOS and iPadOS - Access GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo during non-peak times - Conversational search with text, voice and images - Create and edit AI images with 15 “boosts” per day with Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator) - Use plug-ins and GPTs | Microsoft 365 E3/E5 Microsoft 365 F3, Microsoft 365 Business Premium/Standard, Microsoft 365 A3/A5 for faculty and higher ed students (18+), Office 365 A1/A3/ or A5 for faculty and higher ed students (18+) | FREE | |
| OpenAI ChatGPT Plus | - Access to GPT-4 - Browse, create, and use GPTs, Access to additional tools like DALLE, Browsing, Advanced Data Analysis etc | NA | $20 per month (Plus), FREE plan available | - Not recommended to input any personal or business information - Records everything you type into it - May collect personal information/files you upload |
| Google Gemini Advanced | - Access to Ultra 1.0 (Google’s largest and most capable state-of-the-art AI model. - Chatbot that can assist with coding, logical reasoning, nuanced instructions and collaborating on creative products - Google One with 2TB Storage included. - Premium subscribers soon to be able to use Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets and more | $20 per month (Advance), FREE plan available | - The same security risks as ChatGPT |
What Can it Help With?
Copilot for Microsoft 365 can assist with creating anything from business plans & budgeting forecasts, to everyday tasks, such as drafting up an email.
Its integration with all of the 365 applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Teams, PowerPoint and Outlook mean that it has the power to greatly improve your workflow.
There are a couple of examples and scenarios for this:
| Scenario | What happened before | What happens with Copilot for Microsoft 365 |
|---|---|---|
| You’ve joined a Microsoft Teams meeting late | You have to ask people in the meeting what you missed and spend time catching up, the meeting runs over | A notification pops up from Copilot asking if you’d like a summary of what you’ve missed, notable action points and tasks designated to you |
| You want to draft up a proposal document for a client | You spend a lot of time having internal discussions, meetings with the client and have to complete multiple drafts of the document before sending it to the client | You ask copilot to create the document for you based on the previous meetings you’ve had with the client and internally, in your tone and style. Following this, you only need to do one more draft to tweak and correct it. |
| You have a business plan presentation coming up that you’ve forgotten is due tomorrow | You have a last minute rush to pull together all the information and spend most of the time making the slides look nice, there is no time to rehearse. | You ask copilot to create a presentation for you based off the business roadmap document you wrote, it creates the slides, adds in images, and provides suggested notes that you can refer to. Now all it needs is a bit of tweaking and a rehearsal. |
These are just a few examples of the uses of Copilot for Microsoft 365, and how it can improve employee efficiency and quality.
A final note on this, there is an excellent diagram from Microsoft where they explain how AI can improve efficiency & productivity:
A Note on Data Use in Copilot
So, what about your data?
For businesses, security and the protection of data is absolutely essential. With that in mind, In reference to “Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365”, Microsoft have provided the following statement.
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 is:
“…compliant with their existing privacy, security and compliance commitments to Microsoft 365 commercial customers, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and European Union (EU Data Boundary)”
and
“Prompts, responses, and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren’t used to train foundation LLM’s (Large Language Models), including those used by Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365”
We don’t want to bore you with all the legal stipulations and privacy policies for all the variations of Copilot so here are some links to help you navigate this based on your requirement:
- Windows Copilot – https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/copilot-in-windows-your-data-and-privacy-3e265e82-fc76-4d0a-afc0-4a0de528b73a
- Copilot for Sales – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-sales-copilot/data-handling
- Copilot for Service/Dynamics – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/faqs-copilot-data-security-privacy
- Copilot (Formerly Bing Chat Enterprise) – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/privacy-and-protections
- Google Gemini (Formerly Bard) – https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13594961?hl=en
- ChatGPT – https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy
We’re always happy to have a conversation with you on Copilot and Data Security/Privacy, so do give us a call if you would like any more information on 01227 473 500.
Copilot & AI - In Summary
We hope this article has helped you navigate Copilot and the rise of all things AI! If you would like to learn more, we’re always happy to have a conversation with you on Copilot/Data Privacy/Adoption and Implementation, just give us a call on 01227 473 500 or email sales@adm-computing.co.uk
We hope this article has helped you navigate Copilot and the rise of all things AI! If you would like to learn more, we’re always happy to have a conversation with you on Copilot/Data Privacy/Adoption and Implementation, just give us a call on 01227 473 500 or email sales@adm-computing.co.uk
We also have 3 upcoming events on AI and Microsoft Copilot, designed to inform you about adopting AI in your workplace, technical considerations and information on how we can support you:
Getting the Most out of 365 & Copilot – A Technical Seminar
Adopting AI in the Workplace – Seminar
Adopting AI in the Workplace – Webinar
You can book these now below:
About ADM
Founded in 1984, ADM Computing is Kent’s largest and longest established IT services company specialising in IT support services that help to reduce IT costs as well as improve network efficiency. We have a long history of charity work and won’t be slowing down any time soon!
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Blog Author
Isaac Ford-Wilson – Public Speaking/Events & Marketing | ADM Computing – Established in 1986.
Isaac Ford-Wilson is ADM’s resident public speaker and finds himself presenting at events all over the country. He also steers the marketing for ADM and manages all of our wonderful events. Isaac is our “go-to” for anything related to emerging technologies and AI. In his free time, Isaac enjoys cooking, watching new films and spending time with his family and friends.
