Microsoft Copilot
: Everything You Need to Know

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Always at the forefront of innovation, Microsoft has equipped itself with its own personal assistant based on artificial intelligence. Its name? Microsoft Copilot. In this article, Mozzaik offers a complete presentation of this AI-boosted assistant that is revolutionizing your Microsoft Digital Workplace. Enjoy reading!

Description & History

Microsoft Copilot was launched by Microsoft in September 2023. This new tool is a bot based on generative artificial intelligence that helps individuals and professionals to be more creative and productive, as well as to communicate and collaborate better.

Microsoft Copilot connects the conversational agent ChatGPT with Microsoft365, leverages data from the Microsoft environment (emails, calendar, documents, etc.), and integrates with Microsoft365 environment applications such as Teams, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

The reason for this integration between ChatGPT and the Microsoft ecosystem? The Redmond giant is investing in OpenAI, the company behind the development of ChatGPT. Consequently, Copilot is based on the Azure OpenAI services and thus on the "LLM" (Large Language Model) ChatGPT4.

The Different Versions of Copilot

The Copilot experience comes in three versions and three subscription plans, tailored to different types of users and needs.

Copilot: The Free Version of Copilot for the General Public

The first version of the AI assistant Copilot is simply named "Copilot."

Description

Copilot is the free version of the personal assistant Copilot. It is the most basic Copilot experience, designed to meet the needs of individuals.

Features

The free version of Copilot offers features designed to facilitate information search and content creation (texts and images).

This "basic" version of Copilot is accessible via a web browser or through the Copilot app available in the Microsoft Store (for Windows) and in the App Store (for Mac).

The free access Copilot experience allows for the improvement of texts, creation of images, and conducting searches in natural language both in writing and orally, as well as from an image.

The free version of Copilot provides access to the latest versions of ChatGPT, GPT-4, and GPT4 Turbo, outside of peak hours.

Use Cases

The use cases of the free version of the personal assistant Copilot are numerous. This tool can, for example, be used to:

  • Create an image from a prompt (instruction written in natural language) to illustrate a document, an announcement, or a presentation;
  • Summarize a document or a webpage to understand its content without having to read it in its entirety.
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Copilot Pro: The Paid Version of Copilot for Individuals

The second version of the Microsoft Copilot personal assistant is called Copilot Pro.

Description

Copilot Pro is a paid version of Copilot for individuals. This subscription, priced at 22 euros per month per user, guarantees a premium experience.

Features

Copilot Pro offers the same functionalities as the free version of Copilot, but with additional benefits, including:

  • Priority access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo Bots during peak hours for conducting research and improving texts quickly and at any time;
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  • The ability to create images even more quickly and in landscape format on the Microsoft Designer image generation platform based on the DALL-E AI model;
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  • The possibility to use the Copilot assistant in certain Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote).
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Use Cases

The public paid version of the AI assistant Copilot can be used in different circumstances, for example:

  • Write, rewrite, or summarize a cooking recipe, an administrative letter, or a blog post in Microsoft Word;
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  • Easily create a presentation in PowerPoint and modify slides from a simple prompt to illustrate a talk or animate a meeting;
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  • Get to know an email exchange in a few seconds by summarizing a discussion history in the Outlook messaging service and respond to a message in the blink of an eye thanks to response suggestions and writing assistance.
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Copilot for Microsoft 365: The Paid Version of Copilot for Businesses

The third version of the AI assistant Copilot is named Copilot for Microsoft 365.

Description

Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 is the paid version of the Copilot assistant intended for small businesses, SMEs, and large corporations. This product is reserved for clients with a Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Business Premium subscription.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is the most advanced Copilot experience. Integrated into the Microsoft 365 suite applications and using data from the Microsoft 365 environment, it boosts the individual and collective productivity of collaborators.

Features

The personal assistant Copilot for Microsoft 365 has all the benefits of Copilot Pro, but with even more features, including:

  • An integrated Chatbot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams to assist employees in writing texts, creating presentations and charts, and solving problems without leaving their digital corporate environment;
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  • Secure access to company information and data for exploring organizational charts via the Copilot Bot while ensuring the confidentiality of internal data;
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  • Access to the Microsoft Copilot Studio code editor. This low-code tool allows for the creation of a custom Copilot AI assistant tailored to the specific needs of the company;
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  • A professional-grade security and data protection policy that adheres to the strictest security and privacy standards;
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  • A generative security tool named Microsoft Copilot Security. This generative AI cybersecurity solution helps IT security teams detect anomalies, analyze malware, and produce reports.
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Use Cases

The use cases for the AI assistant Copilot for Microsoft 365 are extremely numerous, here are some examples:

  • Copilot in PowerPoint allows for the quick preparation of a presentation for a client meeting, simply by describing the desired presentation. Notes and documents related to the case are automatically analyzed to extract relevant information and compile it into a visual that conforms to the company's visual identity. As the icing on the cake, Copilot in PowerPoint generates notes to help the salesperson or consultant find the right words during their presentation.
  • Copilot in Excel enables the analysis of complex sales results, financial outcomes, or market trends. The tool generates tables, charts, and reports to help employees better understand important trends and figures. Even better, Copilot creates scenarios and projections from existing data to help teams identify the most suitable solutions. All this through questions formulated in natural language, such as "What would the results have been if paint sales had remained steady?"
  • Copilot in Word helps salespeople draft solid sales pitches in just a few clicks. The AI analyzes the notes taken by the employee during their client meeting as well as other useful documents, then automatically generates a structured sales letter that respects the model typically used by the company. The business developer only needs to refine this text based on the suggestions made by Copilot.
  • Copilot in Outlook is the ally of highly solicited managers, customer service managers, or communication officers. The AI prioritizes emails related to the most urgent topics (requests for meetings for the coming week, ongoing projects, arrival of a new employee, etc.). Better yet, Copilot can summarize a long conversation history to spare the employee from reading a long chain of emails and save them precious time. Finally, the Chatbot assists the employee in quickly responding to messages by generating text from previous exchanges, as well as selected work documents. To top it all off, the user can automatically adjust the tone of the email, its length, or add context elements.
  • Copilot in Teams helps teams fully benefit from their meetings, brainstorming sessions, and appointments with clients or service providers. During the interaction, the AI summarizes the exchanges, highlights the salient points of the discussion, and can even identify issues that still need solutions. In short, with Copilot in Teams, workgroups conduct more productive meetings whose results can be more easily leveraged later on.
  • Thanks to the Copilot Studio code editor, a company can create a custom HR Bot to automate its leave management process, relieve HR managers of this task, and improve the employee experience. Such a Chatbot could exploit the company's HRIS data, its calendar, and its internal policy regarding leave requests. Ultimately, it can provide a rapid response to employees, who only need to make their leave requests in natural language, and notify HR managers when relevant.

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Alternatives to Copilot for Microsoft 365

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is not the only solution available to companies that want to equip themselves with an AI assistant to be more efficient and improve the digital experience of their employees. Other options should indeed be considered:

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a conversational AI Chatbot launched by the American company in 2022. The ChatGPT technology is integrated into Microsoft Copilot, but can of course be used autonomously from a web browser.

Like Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT allows its users to perform different tasks more effectively and develop their creativity. ChatGPT is particularly useful for writing texts, searching for information, or even generating lines of code.

However, unlike Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT is not integrated into the Microsoft environment and therefore cannot leverage its data to provide relevant answers in a professional context.

Mozzaik Genius AI

Genius is the generative AI solution created by Mozzaïk in 2024. This innovative tool, based on the major LLMs in the market (ChatGPT-4, CLAUDE, MISTRAL, etc.), allows companies to integrate artificial intelligence into their Microsoft Teams and SharePoint digital workplace, securely and at a lower cost.

Thanks to this very serious alternative to Microsoft Copilot, employees save precious time. Indeed:

  • The writing assistance helps to translate, format, correct, or synthesize texts, reports, or others. This feature allows employees to focus on content rather than form.
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  • The Genius also revolutionizes information searching. According to the principle of augmented search generation (GRA), your personal assistant is capable of performing targeted and intelligent searches in a specific database. Thus, employees save time by quickly finding the information they are interested in.
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  • Reinforced by artificial intelligence, this bot can also take care of certain actions for you. Whether it is for meeting follow-up or agenda management, the Genius is capable of creating, sharing, and generating reports to save you time.
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  • It can also provide smart reminders. For example, before a meeting, it can suggest you review a document or synthesize a report before presenting it.
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  • The Genius is also customizable for specific functions. For example, it can become an IT support Bot, programmed to respond only to IT questions from a specific documentary base that includes all your internal procedures. This helps to reduce support tickets and automate low-value-added tasks. You can then create and adapt the Genius that suits any business need (HR, Marketing, Sales, Products, etc.).

Everything you need to know about Microsoft Copilot: the debrief

Microsoft Copilot is the new Chatbot launched by Microsoft. This personal assistant based on artificial intelligence comes in three versions:

  1. A free version with "basic" features for the general public;

  2. a paid version (Copilot Pro), integrated with Microsoft 365 suite applications, designed for individual users with more advanced needs;

  3. a paid version, fully integrated with Microsoft 365 suite applications, using data from the Microsoft 365 work environment, and guaranteeing a high level of security, reserved for small businesses and large enterprises. 

The benefits of Copilot, for individuals and especially for organizations, are numerous. This technology indeed allows for increased productivity and creativity of workers, facilitates communication, promotes collaborative work, improves the digital experience of employees, and strengthens the protection of confidential data and computer security.

If you are considering adopting the Microsoft Copilot AI assistant to boost your company's performance, preparation for Copilot is essential. To effectively use generative AI, and more specifically Microsoft Copilot, be sure to start preparing your organization's data by structuring it, raising your team's awareness of AI principles, and training your employees in the use of generative AI Chatbots

FAQ

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Microsoft Copilot: Everything You Need to Know

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