In January of this year, Microsoft made a multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI’s ChatGPT and then announced a new AI-powered Bing, riding the wave of AI that has really propelled over the past 24 months. There have been a few changes over the year to the products, and I’m hoping to clarify and summarise the most relevant information in this post. As of November 15, Microsoft has combined Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise with Copilot to “simplify the user experience and make Copilot more accessible for everyone”.
What is Copilot?
Copilot is an enterprise-ready AI tool that is designed to work seamlessly with Microsoft 365, Windows 11, and within Edge and Bing. There are several iterations of Copilot that have different capabilities that span across Microsoft’s applications and services, but the two main Copilots are Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot in Windows.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
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AI-powered productivity tool
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uses large language models (LLMs)
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integrates data with Microsoft Graph and M365 apps and services
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works alongside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook & Teams
Copilot in Windows
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everyday AI companion in Windows
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first PC platform to provided centralised generative AI assistance
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available and released in Windows 11 updates (preview)
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previously named Bing Chat Enterprise
Licensing
Currently, Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an add-on plan to E3 or E5 subscriptions.
How will it benefit you and your project team?
As Copilot in Planner is coming in March 2024, natural-language prompts will assist us in creating plans, tasks, and setting goals. A bit like predictive text, we will be able to use Copilot to brainstorm from within Microsoft 365.
Copilot in Word
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Helps create, summarise, comprehend, and refine your documents
Copilot in Excel
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Interact with data in language and not just formulas, help ID trends and create visualisations
Copilot in PowerPoint
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Create presentations from a prompt or transform existing documents, helps condense writing
Copilot in Teams
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Allows you to summarise, create meeting agendas based on chat history
Copilot in Outlook
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Allows you to choose length and tone of emails, summarise emails, suggest action items, replies and follow up meetings
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