Executive Summary
- Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI-powered tool designed to improve the productivity and efficiency of your business across the board using natural language commands to help you get stuff done.
- Copilot will be available in various forms across the core 365 suite of apps and services, including Copilot for Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, Outlook, and more.
- There is no official release date for Microsoft 365 Copilot, but it’s likely Copilot will be available before the end of the year. Copilot will be priced at $30 (£23) per user per month as an add-on license.
Introduction
It’s true: the robots are coming.
But don’t worry – we’re not quite a Terminator levels just yet. Instead, Artificial Intelligence has quickly become the hot topic in the business world, and many companies are keen to get involved – or at least understand how AI can best be leveraged for maximum productivity.
With tools like ChatGPT opening the door to generative AI solutions across business functions – from writing email subject lines to coding complete applications – where exactly do you begin?
Well, if you’re a Microsoft 365 subscriber, an all-new tool called Microsoft 365 Copilot might be the perfect way to find a new AI-powered work buddy.
What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI-powered tool which leverages large language models (LLMs) alongside your own data from within Microsoft Graph to unlock new, faster, ways of working. It’s like having an AI assistant available to help you with core tasks across the 365 suite of apps and services.
Copilot is powered by OpenAI, the very same technology which built ChatGPT, following Microsoft’s widely publicised $10 billion investment in the company back in January 2023 – though it had already purchased a stake in the AI company of $1 billion in 2019.
This investment is seemingly already paying off, with Microsoft 365 Copilot the first AI-powered feature announced by the company in March 2023.
How Copilot works with the core Microsoft 365 apps
Here’s how the big Copilot integrations across Microsoft 365 are expected to work:
Copilot in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
In the three main Office apps, Copilot will act like a virtual editor and research assistant and will even be able to produce an entire first draft in Word for you in seconds. Microsoft does make it clear that “sometimes Copilot will be right, other times usefully wrong”, so it’s certainly not a one-and-done tool – but will definitely save a lot of time when producing work with the classic Office apps.
In PowerPoint and Excel, Copilot can also be prompted to produce instant visualisations of data which would otherwise take minutes or hours to accomplish. For example, imagine feeding Excel a large sheet of sales figures and simply typing “Give me a list of the best-selling SKUs for Q2”. It’ll give you a straight answer in seconds.
Copilot in Outlook
One of the OpenAI technology’s strengths is the ability to summarise long chunks of words to save time. With Copilot for Outlook, Microsoft plans to add this functionality so you’re able to get through your email backlog even faster. Imagine simply asking the app to summarise the key points of your day’s emails in bullet-points – that’s possible with Copilot.
Copilot in Teams
In Teams, Copilot will assist by offering meeting summaries in moments. Key discussion points will be listed, along with who said what and when. It will even suggest relevant action items based on the content of the discussion.
Copilot in Power Platform
The Power Platform is already known as a time-saving tool, allowing you to create automations and workflows to get things done faster. With Copilot, you’ll be able to let the AI take care of all of this for you by creating automations to handle repetitive tasks on your behalf – without all the leg work.
Business Chat
One of the more exciting possibilities with Copilot is its ability to ingest large volumes of data then answer questions about it – just like ChatGPT does. So, you’ll be able to ask Copilot for information specific to your business in real time.
For example, you could ask about recent activity with a prospect or customer, and Business Chat would pull from CRM records to give you the low-down. It could also draw from meeting transcripts, calendar entries, emails, and more – and it can surface relevant, personalised answers in seconds.
What is the pricing of Microsoft 365 Copilot?
In a blog post on July 18th 2023, Microsoft finally announced the pricing for Microsoft 365 Copilot for commercial customers.
Taking the form of an add-on licence – meaning you’ll be charged in addition to your existing per-user price – Copilot will cost $30 (approximately £23) per user, per month for customers on the following subscriptions:
- Microsoft 365 E3
- Microsoft 365 E5
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium
When will Microsoft 365 Copilot be available?
To the frustration of the many businesses eager to try the new AI solutions, Microsoft has not yet released a launch schedule for Microsoft 365 Copilot – though they have promised that more news is to come shortly.
Based on the speed at which other companies are building and launching AI-powered tools, there’s every chance that Microsoft will fast-track Copilot – so we wouldn’t be surprised to see it available for customers sooner rather than later.
We’d expect Microsoft Copilot 365 to be available to 365 subscribers by the end of 2023, if not before.
To get up and running with Microsoft’s AI tools as quickly as possible, just ask your Get Support account manager for to let you know as soon as Microsoft 365 Copilot becomes available.
