What’s the Difference Between Copilot for M365, Copilot Studio and Copilot Agents?
In today’s article, we break down the similarities and differences between Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot Studio and copilot agents, to help you evaluate which option is the AI-solution for your business.
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As a market leader in AI-innovation, Microsoft is constantly adding to its range of AI-powered offerings, however, it can be challenging for organisations to fully understand the applications and the benefits of each one, and which tools are most suited to their unique business needs. To help you evaluate which AI solutions are the right fit for your business, Conall O’Kane, Modern Workplace Practice Manager at Storm, outlines the differences between Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot Studio and copilot agents below.
Copilot for M365 Vs Copilot Studio Vs Copilot Agents
What is Copilot for Microsoft 365?
Copilot for M365 is Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant embedded in the Microsoft 365 productivity tools workers use every day, including Teams, Outlook, Microsoft Excel and more. With Copilot for M365 users can carry out tasks like generating text, creating presentations, summarising documents, meetings and emails, analysing data and more. Copilot for M365 enables businesses to reduce busywork and streamline daily tasks, unlocking new levels of business productivity. The licensing cost for Copilot for M365 is $30 per user per month, however, businesses should note that this is an annual commitment.
What is Copilot Studio?
Copilot Studio is a platform created by Microsoft that allows businesses to design and build their own custom AI-copilots tailored to their specific needs. Custom copilots can be integrated seamlessly into your business’ M365 apps to analyse data, automate tasks, provide AI-insight into processes or carry out other actions that assist with business operations. Custom copilots built with Copilot Studio can be used for a vast range of use cases from automating reporting or employee onboarding tasks, to managing compliance tasks and generating documents. Copilot Studio provides businesses with the flexibility to tailor how they use AI, with strong integration with the company’s backend systems and API’s, as well as thousands of pre-built data connectors so company’s can get the most out of their AI solution. Licensing is currently priced at $200 per month with a limit of 25,000 messages per month.
What are Copilot Agents?
Copilot agents are task-specific, AI-powered assistants built with Copilot Studio that can be used to deal with more complex tasks by connecting to your business’ core data sources like SharePoint, OneDrive or Dynamics 365. By operating across different business systems, agents gather more contextual information that allows them to provide better responses and automate more complex workflows and processes. For example, a copilot agent can be used in a customer service setting to pull customer data from the CRM system and provide enhanced customer service using data from the customer's purchase history and previous interactions with the business. Copilot agents are currently available in preview with further details around licensing to be released in the coming months.
| Copilot for M365 | Copilot Studio | Copilot Agents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Functionality | Integrates AI into Microsoft 365 apps i.e. Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams to assist with tasks such as summarisation, content generation, and data insights | A development platform for customising Copilot experiences and creating new AI-driven workflows | AI-powered chatbots built for specific use cases within systems like SharePoint and OneDrive |
| Use Case Examples | Document creation, email & communication drafting, data analysis & insights, collaboration & meeting summaries | Custom business logic & automation, building AI-driven applications or workflows, enabling advanced Copilot experiences | Analysis, insights and summarisation of content from organisations knowledge sources |
| Integration | Direct integration with M365 suite (some connectors available through Copilot studio e.g., SharePoint Server) | Can be published in Teams and connect to your enterprise backends & APIs with 1,000s of pre-built data connectors | Can be added across M365 e.g. SharePoint page, Copilot picker menu & Teams |
| Customisation | Limited to the features provided within Microsoft 365 apps | High customisation potential, allowing users to create custom AI workflows, connectors, and new Copilot-powered applications | Allows some customisation of workflows and decision-making parameters based on business processes |
| Cost / Licensing | $30 per user per month (annual commitment) | $200 per month (25,000 messages/month) | In preview |
In summary, Copilot for M365 is an AI-powered assistant embedded in an organisations M365 environment that can help with day-to-day tasks across apps like Teams, Outlook and Excel, while Copilot agents, on the other hand, are AI chatbots that are more task-specific and can be configured so that they can only access a certain location such as a specific SharePoint site. In contrast, Copilot Studio is the platform that enables the creation of custom AI copilots and AI-driven workflows that can be tailored as your business needs. Take for example, a SharePoint site that stores information about a corporate event, including documents containing details about the even location and agenda. With Copilot for M365, users could easily ask questions and find information about the event. However, as Copilot for M365 interacts with other M365 apps besides SharePoint, it is possible that Copilot could pull additional information from other sources such as Outlook or Teams. In comparison to this, a copilot agent could be integrated specifically for the corporate event SharePoint site, meaning it could help users find information without the risk of pulling content from other sites or sources. With Copilot Studio, a custom AI-driven copilot could be created to assist with more complex event tasks, such as attendee registration or pulling dietary preferences for the menu. This is just one example of how Copilot for M365, copilot agents and Copilot Studio can be used to streamline business processes and enhance productivity.
If you would like to learn more about Copilot for M365, Copilot Studio or copilot agents, get in touch with one of our solution specialists today. Alternatively, you can check out our on-demand webinar, ‘Copilot Studio – AI, Your Way.’
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