Microsoft Copilot overview

Copilot Chat (Basic) is the standalone baseline experience included with eligible Microsoft 365 licenses. It provides a secure, enterprise-ready AI chat that primarily uses web data and has limited use of organizational content. Copilot Chat can use organizational content, but you must explicitly provide that content with your prompt.

You can access Copilot Chat (Basic) through:

• https://m365copilot.com/ (Pin Copilot Chat)
• Copilot Chat in Microsoft Edge (select the Copilot icon in the upper-right corner of the Edge browser). Use Copilot Chat to summarize website content and some document types displayed in Edge.
• Copilot Chat in Outlook and Teams
• bing.com/chat
• bing.com/copilotsearch
• copilot.com
• copilot.ai

Declarative agents that are grounded in instructions and public websites are included with Copilot Chat. Access to custom or other agents is pay-as-you-go only.

To use organizational content with Copilot Chat:

• Copy and paste content, upload a file, or select a file when creating your prompt.
• Use Copilot Chat in select Microsoft 365 apps like Teams and Outlook with content you have open. In this context, Copilot Chat is aware of your open content and can use it instead of requiring you to copy and paste information or upload a file.
• Use a pay-as-you-go agent that has access to organizational content.

Microsoft 365 Copilot (Basic) refers to users without the Copilot add-on license, but who still have standard access to Copilot capabilities inside apps (for example, Word or Excel). These experiences are more limited and might not include full chat integration or priority access. Standard access is subject to service capacity and might vary throughout the day.

You can access Microsoft 365 Copilot (Basic) through:

• https://m365copilot.com/
• Microsoft 365 desktop app
• Microsoft 365 apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote)

In-app features you can use:

• Word: Draft, rewrite, and summarize documents
• Excel: Analyze data, generate insights, create formulas and visuals
• PowerPoint: Create presentations from prompts or existing content, summarize presentations or edit presentations (add images, apply deck-wide formatting changes)
• Outlook: Draft emails, summarize threads, and use the coaching tips to improve clarity, sentiment and tone
• OneNote: Draft plans, ideas, and lists
• Teams: Summarize (up to 30 days) and transcribe meetings, and capture action items
• Forms: Draft questions to create surveys, polls and other forms

Pay-as-you-go access to agents that use work data.

Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) is the full add-on licensed experience, which includes everything in Microsoft 365 Copilot (Basic) and:

• Priority access for better performance and availability. Priority access provides faster response times and more consistent availability even during peak usage periods.
• Deep integration and advanced AI capabilities with Microsoft 365 apps and services.
• Grounding responses in organizational data (emails, files, meetings, calendars, teams, or organizational relationships) through Microsoft Graph, Work IQ, Copilot Search, and semantic indexing.
  • Microsoft Graph brings a personalized organizational data context into the prompt, like information from a user's emails, files, meetings, calendars, teams, or organizational relationships.
  • Work IQ is an intelligence layer that enables agents access to reason over organizational data, content and tools. You can turn Work IQ on or off.
    • When Work IQ is on, Copilot responses are grounded in web, and in Microsoft Graph and Work IQ. Responses are enriched with work-specific contexts such as emails, files, meetings, calendars, teams, or organizational relationships.
    • When Work IQ is off, Copilot responses aren't grounded in Microsoft Graph and Work IQ. Users can still receive responses, but those responses aren't enriched with work-specific context such as emails, files, meetings, calendars, teams, or organizational relationships.
    • Although both use the Work IQ platform, Work IQ is included with Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium), whereas the Work IQ API is a distinct usage-based billing offering that can be purchased and consumed independently for custom apps, agents, and integrations.
  • Copilot Search is an AI-powered universal search experience across all your Microsoft 365 applications and connected non-Microsoft data sources. It's integrated with Microsoft Copilot, so users can find the results they need by using search, then seamlessly transition to chat for deeper exploration or follow-up task completion.
  • Semantic indexing enhances search relevance and accuracy by using advanced lexical and semantic understanding of Microsoft Graph data, resulting in more contextually precise information retrieval. Copilot preserves security, compliance, and privacy, ensuring organizational boundaries are respected while offering a seamless user experience.
• SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM): helps you reduce oversharing and cleanup inactive sites. These tasks declutter Copilot's data sources and improve the quality of the responses.
  • Restricted content discovery: helps you limit discovery of content from specific SharePoint sites, including recently interacted files, in organization-wide search results and Microsoft Copilot responses while those reviews are taking place.
• Microsoft Purview: can classify and label your data based on the sensitivity of the content. It can also help prevent unauthorized sharing or leakage and review Copilot prompts and responses.
• Microsoft Agents: agents are scoped or focused versions of Microsoft Copilot that act as AI assistants and can automate business processes. These Agents use web and work data (Microsoft Graph and Work IQ).
• Usage reports: helps you understand how users are engaging with Copilot and can be useful in tracking adoption over time and in Microsoft 365 apps. Use the organizational messages feature to act on adoption trends they are seeing. It lets you reach your users in the flow of their daily work with targeted, actionable guidance.
• Microsoft Copilot Cowork: you have access to Cowork via usage-based billing. Cowork carries out tasks across your Microsoft 356 environment on your behalf.

You can access Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) through:

• https://m365copilot.com/
• Microsoft 365 desktop app
• Microsoft 365 apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote)

Other resources:

• Major services and features in Microsoft Graph
• Semantic indexing explained by Microsoft (YouTube video)
• Compare features in the Microsoft 365 licenses that affect Copilot
• Configure a secure and governed data foundation for Microsoft Copilot
• Measure insights with Copilot Analytics
• Microsoft offers Copilot experiences in many products. For more information, see documentation, training, and other technical resources to make the most of the enterprise-grade data-security and privacy features for your organization.

• Microsoft Copilot Chat, your AI assistant for work: Guidance on how to get started, use different prompts, and understand the differences between Copilot Chat and other Copilot offerings.
• Microsoft Copilot Chat video tutorial: Short, easy-to-understand videos on getting started and tasks you can do with Copilot Chat.

• Transform ideas into action with Copilot: This course teaches learners how to get started with Microsoft Copilot, craft effective prompts, and use its AI-powered features to enhance productivity, streamline work, and collaborate securely in real-time.

• Copilot Prompt Gallery: Example prompts for your user to help them do their work (for example, "How can I more concisely describe change management?").
• Copilot Success Kit: Use it to prepare your tenant for Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) and to enable your users to create and use agents. The kit includes information on admin controls, licensing and payment methods, training materials, onboarding email templates, and more.
• Copilot Trainer Kit: Downloadable PowerPoint training presentation to help businesses get started with Copilot Chat.
• Copilot user tools and templates: A collection of user-facing tools and templates for you to quickly onboard your organization.