Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat vs Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft has done a terrible job branding its AI experience over the years. Do you remember “Cortana”? Microsoft thought that naming their AI tool after the AI in the game Halo would make it cool. Cortana was never very good, and Microsoft EOL’d it.
Microsoft has come up with the name Copilot. Doesn’t Copilot seem less intrusive than AI? The term AI has long been associated with many worries. Microsoft wants to put a spin on AI and named it Copilot. Copilot isn’t a single product, and it is very hard to know what each copilot does until it doesn’t work. If you aren’t licensed for it, don’t worry. Microsoft will remind you, “You don’t have a license for that!”
Enterprise Data Protection
You can find out more info on Enterprise Data Protection here:
Whenever you see this shield symbol in Copilot, you can be sure that Microsoft is treating your data according to the guidelines outlined in the previous link.
First Glance
If you blink, you might not notice the difference between the two names. Having them above each other rather than side by side helps you differentiate them apart:
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
Free
Pay-as-you-go agents
In this post, I will often refer to this as the “Free+Consumption” version to help you keep track of things.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Personal AI Assistant
At the time of writing, it is approx. $30/user/ month
I will often refer to this as the Licensed $30/user version in this post to help you keep track of things.
While most things are included, there are also pay-as-you-go options. Those options revolve around agents and whether they access your data resources. I will discuss this further later.
As you can see, the only difference in the names is the word “Chat.” What makes it more confusing is that both products have a chat option. Well done, Microsoft!
To get to the chat interface, please go here:
Your license will dictate the interface you will see.
Interface
It is funny that Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot have similar “Chatbot” interfaces.
When you log into Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, you will see only the plain logo. The next section describes the differences between the “chat” and “non-chat” versions.
When you log into Microsoft 365 Copilot ($30 a month option), it is almost identical. However, you will see a toggle button above the copilot logo. I have highlighted it because it is the only difference from the experience.
The Chat can take in 16000 characters at a time, and you can also upload a document as an attachment.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Components (Free+Consumption)
Chat
Free, Secure AI type Chat
Powered by GPT 4o
Web Data
Edit in Pages feature to work together more easily with another employee live in real-time.
Agents
Integrated into chat
Paid for on a consumption basis
Staff can choose from the available agents at the store; however, they cannot create an agent.
IT controls
Enterprise Data Protection
Agent Management
Microsoft 365 Copilot Components (Approx $30 per user)
This includes everything that the pay-as-you-go options. However, there are a few differences:
Chat
Scope
expanded to Emails, Teams meetings and chats.
Copilot in M365 Apps
Edit in Pages feature to work together more easily with another employee live in real-time.
Agents
Staff can create an agent. This is not part of the Pay-As-You-Go-Model above.
Agents are free when using public data (from the web); however, if they start using Tenant data or internal locations with enterprise data sources, they will be charged for a Pay-As-You-Go service.
Copilot Control System
It is a comprehensive framework designed to help IT professionals confidently drive the adoption of Copilot and Agents in their organization. It focuses on three main areas: data protection, management controls, and business impact measurement.
Copilot Analytics
It helps agents more easily complete tasks related to conversations, cases, and emails. The Copilot analytics dashboard allows supervisors and customer service managers to identify the impact that Copilot has on their customer service operations.
Here is the full version:
What Are Agents?
Agents are essentially templates for the Copilot chat. Creating one allows you to create a chat environment that focuses on certain topics, formats etc, rather than querying the entire Copilot AI. This helps ensure a more accurate conversation. Agents in Copilot are very similar to customGPT from ChatGPT.
Creating this template allows you to “just start chatting” without prompting the Agent with the same questions every time.
How Can You Make Copilot better with Internal documents?
Location type matters and Sharepoint is one of Microsoft's preferred location repositories. The number one thing you can do is ensure that you have correctly tagged your documents. Correctly tagging the documents helps ensure that the co-pilot doesn’t accidentally reveal sensitive information.
Microsoft recommends not rolling out Copilot company-wide but one department at a time. This ensures that you can restrict locations more easily and better understand the costs associated with Copilot.