What is Microsoft Copilot?
According to Marriam Webster Dictionary, the first known use of the word copilot (or co-pilot) was in 1927 and is defined as:
“ … a qualified pilot who assists or relieves the pilot but is not in command”.
(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copilot)
In the modern-day context of Microsoft, my interpretation is that ‘Copilot’ is a ‘catch-all’ branding name attached to product names (i.e. GitHub Copilot, Copilot for Power BI, Windows Copilot etc.) to enable the identification of a set of additional features and functionality associated with a product or service.
Copilot is essentially the friendly name for an embedded support tool based on OpenAI’s GPT-4 model (i.e. generative AI). It can help users navigate the complexities of applicable Microsoft products so they can increase their productivity when using them.
For example, specifically applicable to Microsoft 365:
“Copilot combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your data in the Microsoft Graph — your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings and more — and the Microsoft 365 apps to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet.
And it does so within our existing commitments to data security and privacy in the enterprise.”
(Microsoft Blog Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot a whole new way to work March 2023)
With Microsoft’s roadmap for private preview, public preview and then general availability, I’m sure the rate of release of Copilot-enabled products will gather pace in a very short space of time.
However, whilst the technology is fascinating and the use and business-case scenarios intriguing, my first thought is usually:
“How is it licensed?”
Then:
“How much will it cost?”
Microsoft 365 Copilot
So, first-up is Microsoft 365 Copilot which is still in preview but general availability pricing has been announced at just under £24 / €28 per user per month. This is an add-on to existing Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Premium subscriptions.
It combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with data in the Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365 apps “ … to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet”.
(Microsoft blog Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot your copilot for work March 2023)
Microsoft 365 Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 in two ways:
1. It works alongside the user, embedded in Microsoft 365 apps; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and more, to unleash creativity, unlock productivity and uplevel skills.
And
2. As a Business Chat that works across the LLM, the Microsoft 365 apps and data; calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings and contacts.
Users can use natural language prompts like “Tell my team how we updated the product strategy,” and it will generate a status update based on the meetings, emails and chat threads.
So, potentially exciting features that will provide those that can successfully create a business case for the monthly price tag a great set of time-saving and intuitive tools to help increase productivity and benefit from a ‘Copilot’ to assist with information gathering and distribution tasks.
GitHub Copilot
Next, I would like to cover GitHub Copilot; this is probably the Copilot offering with the most widely publicised and already available services.
It is a cloud-based AI tool developed by GitHub and OpenAI to assist users of Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Neovim, and JetBrains integrated development environments (IDEs) by autocompleting code. First announced by GitHub in June 2021, GitHub Copilot is deemed to work best for users of Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby and Go.
To use GitHub Copilot, users will need either a subscription for GitHub Copilot in their personal account or a seat assigned by an organisation with a subscription for GitHub Copilot for Business.
So, firstly, GitHub Copilot for Individuals is available as a monthly subscription at approximately £8 / €9 each, per calendar month.
If you have an active GitHub Copilot subscription and then assigned a seat as part of a GitHub Copilot for Business subscription in GitHub Enterprise Cloud, your personal GitHub Copilot subscription will be automatically cancelled. You can continue to use GitHub Copilot according to the policies set at the enterprise or organisation level.
Secondly, GitHub Copilot for Students & Teachers is a free subscription available to verified students, teachers and maintainers of popular open-source repositories on GitHub. If you meet the criteria as an open-source maintainer, you will be automatically notified when you visit the GitHub Copilot subscription page. As a student, if you currently receive the GitHub Student Developer Pack, you will also be offered a free subscription when you visit the GitHub Copilot subscription page.
Finally, GitHub Copilot for Business is available at approximately £15 / €17.50 per user per month.
Copilot in Power Platform
There is an increasing amount of pre-release information surrounding Copilot components for Power Platform products.
Copilot in Power Apps will enable app makers to build a complete app just by describing what they need in natural language. It can then help to populate it with sample data and make suggestions for improvements.
Also, by embedding a Copilot control into an app, users can be allowed to ask questions about their data using natural language, such as “What is the most frequent support question?” and receive instant responses without having to manually query data.
However, without the necessary governance and controls in place, this could potentially see a dramatic increase in citizen-developer apps being built, shared and consumed through a corporate Microsoft 365 tenant. The overage costs or consumption of chargeable services associated with the running of Power Apps could also grow at an alarming rate.
Similarly, Power Automate Copilot will enable the use of natural language to edit and extend flows with an AI-based Copilot, thereby, allowing the easier building and iteration of flows as Copilot helps remove blockers or extend flows.
Copilot will also be released for Power Automate Desktop Flows to allow for the use of AI for tasks such as:
- Content creation: creating daily communications to teams or on social media.
- Customer service: gathering feedback and responding accordingly.
- Back office: fast extraction of data, such as phone numbers and addresses, from documents.
Additionally, Power Virtual Agents Copilot will allow makers to quickly create and refine topics using natural language by “describing it to build it.” This could help in the following ways:
· Reduce bot-generation time to hours or even minutes, by leveraging Power Virtual Agents Copilot.
· Connect bots to the most current and useful data sources, like company websites, to answer user questions in minutes, straight out of the box as well as being able to quickly create and deploy functional bots, without having to manually author multiple topics.
· Reduce the cost for development for such use case scenarios as knowledge bases or ‘how to’ for new starters using information already available.
AI Builder
At this stage, I believe it may be useful to discuss how Copilot is essentially extending from the Power Platform into the Azure space through AI Builder. This, in itself, doesn’t carry the Copilot moniker but is a collection of services that interoperate and overlap with Power Platform Copilot.
Firstly, AI Models are seen as democratised access to complex AI models including object detection, sentiment analysis, and many more. This will help simplify tasks, increase productivity and reduce time spent developing by easily applying AI modes, for example:
· Create Text with GPT model: Azure OpenAI Service model enables users to embed intelligent text generation features with a few clicks and makers can interact with the model and build prompts for their workflow which could reduce development time.
· Integrate into solutions: Easily embed generative AI into low code solutions across Power Apps and Power Automate and thereby reduce time to market by quickly and easily adding AI models to applications and workflows.
Again, Power BI sits outside of the official Power Platform product-set but is closely aligned when describing data transformation and visualisation. Power BI Copilot will help users generate data insights from natural language.
Windows Copilot
Windows 11 will include Windows Copilot as standard and is scheduled to be available in preview this year. Windows 11 is the first PC platform to announce a centralised AI assistance to ‘help people easily take action and get things done’.
Bing Chat plugins will also be extended to Windows, enabling developers to integrate apps within Windows Copilot to better serve users and increase engagement on native Windows applications.
Bing Chat Enterprise
So, moving on to Bing, Bing Chat Enterprise is described as an AI-powered Copilot for the web and is now in preview at no additional cost to users with Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium subscriptions.
On release, for users without the above subscriptions, it will also be available as a standalone offering at £4 / €4.50 per user, per month, and will be accessible from Windows Copilot.
Bing Chat Enterprise will enable organisations to unlock the benefits of generative AI, giving employees better answers, greater efficiency and new ways to be creative through Bing.com and Edge Sidebar.
Microsoft 365 Product Set
The ‘already grown-up and ready out of the box’ cousin to Power Platform is the long-established Dynamics 365 product set.
Microsoft Sales Copilot is available to Microsoft 365 customers with an eligible license and a CRM login (Dynamics 365 or Salesforce).
This includes Viva Sales capabilities and will be generally available both as a standalone license and included for users licensed for Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise/Premium.
Microsoft Sales Copilot will enable sellers to get auto-generated opportunity summaries including status, progress and highlights of key changes, inside Dynamics 365 Sales.
· Create contextual emails that utilise customer CRM data to pull in product, customer and opportunity information, inside Dynamics 365 Sales.
· Prepare for customer meetings with a summary view including account information, recent notes, highlights of any issues or concerns, customer news, and more in Outlook, Teams or Dynamics 365 Sales.
· Get real-time tips and suggested answers during Microsoft Teams meetings prompted by competitor or brand mentions by the customers to stay ready to handle objections.
Within the product set of Dynamics 365, for marketeers is Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Copilot which has two new Copilot capabilities included in the new subscription title, which has an initial starting price per month of £1,300/€1,500:
· Easily style email, forms and event registration pages to perfectly match brand guidelines (as simple as using an existing website) using natural language to deliver a consistent brand narrative and customer experience.
· Use natural language to easily orchestrate contextually relevant customer journeys across marketing, sales and service, so customer actions can be responded to appropriately and quickly, generating sales leads or increasing customer satisfaction.
Microsoft Security Copilot
The final Copilot product category, which is also currently only available in private preview, is Microsoft Security Copilot. This is an AI-powered security analysis tool that enables analysts to respond to threats quickly, process signals at machine speed and assess risk exposure in minutes.
Microsoft Security Copilot will act as an overlay to the following:
· Microsoft Sentinel — enables the aggregation of security data to correlate alerts from virtually any source with intelligent security information and event management.
· Microsoft Defender — offers comprehensive threat prevention, detection and response capabilities.
· Microsoft Intune — a device management product that mitigates threats, protects corporate data and improves compliance across all cloud and on-premises endpoints.
Copilot — In Summary
So, the era of Copilot is upon us. This will inevitably create an additional layer of licensing complexity and a need for assessing the value to a business of each new add-on release when calculating the cost for part or company-wide deployment, depending on the needs of the user or organisation.
Some Copilot add-ons will be very user or role-specific, for example, GitHub Copilot or Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Copilot. However, the use case for if and to whom when rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot will need more detailed analysis and understanding.
Therefore, the key takeaway is to engage with licensing experts who can help plan and build the most appropriate and least-cost licensing solution to meet the needs of your business.
As Microsoft license experts, Version 1’s license consultants are best placed to provide independent advice and guidance on a broad range of Microsoft license concerns and optimisation opportunities.
Visit our website for more information and to contact us with any questions.
About the Author:
William Nelson is a Sales Specialist here at Version 1.
