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What is Microsoft 365 Copilot? Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI-powered productivity tool integrated...
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Understanding the Different Copilot Tools
As I’m sure everyone is seeing across the technology space, Microsoft and many other technology firms are launching their own Artificial Intelligence tools. Many based upon the same framework (Chat GPT) but with slightly different functionality.
Microsoft’s AI offerings:
Microsoft’s AI suite has been called ‘Copilot’ and comes in three flavours:
Microsoft Copilot 365 Chat
Microsoft Copilot 365 Chat – This tool in included for anyone with a Microsoft 365 subscription, this can be anything from a Business Basic license up to an Enterprise E5 license.
Copilot Chat provides a basic AI with limited access to your company information. This will allow you to request data from the internet and the ability to draft emails etc. Copilot Chat does not allow you to create documents or use company branding templates etc.
An example of Copilot 365 Chat is as follows: 
A finance analyst needed to understand external market conditions for a monthly report they needed to create. With Copilot 365 Chat, they can research current inflation rates and economic indicators from financial sources. Based on this information they can then generate templates based on industry standards and access regulatory updates from the web to include. In short Copilot Chat uses an advanced internet search to assist users with gaining information they need from the web.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft 365 Copilot is similar to Copilot Chat but includes but allows access to your business / corporate information stored within SharePoint, OneDrive and Outlook.
Microsoft 365 Copilot also allows you to create documents, create meeting invites, insert Excel formulas and much more.
Analytics available to show how the tool is being used and to give recommendations on how it can be of further benefit.
Based on the Copilot Chat example above, the finance user can achieve a lot more with Copilot 365 as they can feed their information into their Office apps and create reports off the back of this. For example, they can analyse Excel data to identify spending trends and anomalies across departments without manual formula creation. They can also generate reports in Word that pulls data from their internal Excel documents and any finance reports. Another huge benefit is they can create summaries from any Teams meetings where these topics were discussed.
Real-world impact: Hargreaves Lansdown reported saving up to 92% of time on weekly data tasks and 75% on employee review preparation. This just goes to show how having your own AI assistant can save so much time and costs on productivity.
The fundamental difference becomes clear in these scenarios, Copilot Chat requires you to bring information to it, while Microsoft 365 Copilot brings your organisations information to you.
Microsoft Copilot Agents and Copilot Studio
A Copilot agent is more complex to configure, but can give a better return if you are looking to streamline your business processes. Copilot Studio allows you to build your own agents, directed towards your company data using an API call. (The data source in which you wish to target the agent towards would need to have a supported API).
Users can then access this agent through a means such as Teams or a web browser.
The use of this is costed differently to M365 Copilot, the cost of this is by each message submitted to the agent.
An example of an agent that we have recently built for a customer:
The customer had a HR system which was hosted in the cloud, they wished to simplify their holiday request system so that their staff could request a holiday without having to contact their line manager directly. An agent was created to link directly into the HR system via a supported API. The user accessed the agent via Microsoft Teams and could request a holiday from simply writing ‘please can I request a holiday on the 14th October’ The system then logged the requested into the HR system, and the member of staff received an acknowledgement that the request had been submitted and you will receive an email once approved.
This has proven to reduce processing time and has had great feedback from the staff themselves. A second update to the agent has recently began to provide the staff the ability to see their upcoming approved holidays and also be able to see how many days they have left to book.
Security and Control:
Across all Copilot offerings, there are IT controls which can be implemented to protect your company data.
Useful Links:
Comparison between M365 Copilot Chat and M365 Copilot:
Final thoughts:
AI is not about replacing people — it’s about enabling them to work smarter. Whether you start with Copilot Chat or move towards fully customised Copilot Agents, Microsoft’s AI tools offer a clear path to greater efficiency and innovation.
At Nabra Tech, we work with organisations to plan, implement, and optimise Microsoft’s AI solutions so they deliver real business value.
If you’d like to discuss how Copilot could enhance your organisation’s productivity, our consultants would be happy to help.
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