Copilot Chat (Enterprise, work-grounded)
8/10The paid Copilot experience inside the Microsoft 365 web app, Outlook, and Teams that grounds answers in your tenant data: mailbox, OneDrive and SharePoint files, calendar, Teams chats and meeting transcripts. Permissions are enforced from Entra ID, so it cannot show a user content they could not already open.
Key features
Work IQ grounding across mailbox, files, calendar, TeamsPermission-aware retrieval, no training on tenant dataInline citations back to the source file or messagePersistent chat history per userWeb grounding as an optional toggle
Best use cases
- Find the last three emails from a named client and summarise their position
- Pull every SharePoint document a colleague has touched on a project this month
- Draft a follow-up email that references a Teams meeting transcript
- Answer questions about your own policies and HR documents
- Brief yourself on a meeting attendee before joining the call
Weaknesses
Underlying model trails ChatGPT and Claude on complex reasoning, coding, and long-form writing. Retrieval quality is only as good as your SharePoint hygiene, which for most UK SMEs is poor. Sometimes confidently cites the wrong document.
Pricing
GBP 24.70 per user per month on annual commitment (UK list, ex-VAT). USD 30 per user per month for Enterprise; USD 18 for the Business tier (under 300 seats). Price rises on first renewal after 1 July 2026.
The reason to pay for Copilot at all; the only AI that legally sees inside your Microsoft tenant.
Copilot Chat (free, web-grounded)
4/10The unpaid Copilot included with any Microsoft 365 Business or Enterprise subscription. Web-grounded only, with no access to mailbox, files, or Teams content. Capped image generation and access to the latest models only at off-peak hours.
Key features
Free with M365 Business or Enterprise licenceWeb search grounding15 image boosts per dayGeneral drafting and brainstormingNo tenant data access
Best use cases
- Quick general questions that ChatGPT would also answer
- Drafting generic email copy without sensitive context
- Brainstorming when you do not want to leave the M365 window
- Image generation for internal decks at low volume
Weaknesses
Now removed from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (15 April 2026) unless you hold a paid Copilot licence. As a general chatbot, ChatGPT free and Claude free are both better. No real reason to use it over those.
Pricing
Free with any qualifying M365 subscription.
Free, web-only, and not the reason anyone should be picking Copilot.
A persistent collaborative canvas inside Copilot Chat. You ask Copilot a question, then pin the answer to a Page that teammates can edit live alongside the AI. Designed for multiplayer document drafting where the AI is a participant, not just an autocomplete.
Key features
Real-time multi-user editing with AI in the loopPersistent canvas, separate from chat historyConvert Page to Word document or PowerPoint deckMobile editing via Outlook (added 2026)Notebook integration for shaping content by prompt
Best use cases
- Two managers co-drafting a 90-day plan with AI suggestions
- A sales team workshopping a pitch outline before moving to a deck
- Capturing a brainstorm in a shareable artefact rather than a chat log
- Drafting a policy update with HR and legal commenting in parallel
Weaknesses
Discoverability is poor; most Copilot users do not know Pages exist. Not as polished as Notion or Google Docs for collaborative writing. Locked behind the paid Copilot licence.
Pricing
Included in Microsoft 365 Copilot (paid).
Useful as a workshop canvas; underdiscovered even inside teams that pay for it.
The Outlook embed of Copilot. Drafts replies, summarises long threads, suggests meeting times, and turns email content into tasks. The single most useful surface of Copilot for a busy operator, because it acts on inbox content that nothing else legally sees.
Key features
Thread summarisation with action items pulled outDraft and rewrite replies in chosen toneCoaching feedback on draft replies before sendingCatch-up briefing across the day's unread mailMeeting scheduling with calendar awareness
Best use cases
- Catching up on a 40-message thread you were CCed on
- Drafting a long client reply from a one-line instruction
- Summarising what was agreed across last week's email
- Turning a client email into a follow-up checklist
Weaknesses
Tone of generated replies is generic and over-polite, needs editing every time. Cannot yet act across multiple mailboxes (shared inbox handling is weak). Replies sometimes hallucinate facts not in the thread.
Pricing
Included in Microsoft 365 Copilot (paid).
Earns its seat fee on Outlook alone for a busy operator.
Live and post-meeting AI for Teams calls. Summarises meetings, attributes statements to speakers, extracts action items, and answers questions about what was said while the meeting is still running. From late 2026, transcription is no longer auto-enabled when Copilot is used in a meeting, organisers must turn it on explicitly.
Key features
Live in-meeting Q&A (what did Sam say about the timeline)Post-meeting recap with speaker attribution and chaptersCustom summary templates and executive-report modeAudio recap with narrated walkthroughAction item extraction
Best use cases
- Joining a meeting late and asking what you missed
- Generating a written recap for stakeholders who could not attend
- Extracting commitments from a weekly client call
- Reviewing a sales call for objections and follow-ups
Weaknesses
Quality drops sharply on fast cross-talk, heavy accents, or technical jargon. Speaker attribution misfires when participants share a room mic. Plaud-style dedicated meeting recorders still produce richer transcripts and summaries for external meetings.
Pricing
Included in Microsoft 365 Copilot (paid). Teams Premium adds intelligent recap features at extra cost.
Solid for internal meetings; an external recorder still produces better transcripts.
Inline AI inside Word: draft a document from a prompt, rewrite selected text, restructure sections, adjust tone, and (from April 2026) operate in Agent Mode where Copilot performs multi-step edits while explaining each step.
Key features
Draft from prompt, including grounding in selected filesRewrite and tone adjustment on selectionAgent Mode for multi-step in-document editsReference other tenant documents as source materialComment summarisation
Best use cases
- Drafting the first version of an SOP from a Teams transcript
- Rewriting a heavy paragraph in plain English
- Restructuring a long policy into numbered sections
- Generating a one-page summary of a 30-page contract
Weaknesses
Default prose is corporate mush, needs voice editing every time. Long documents lose coherence past about eight pages. Cannot match Claude or ChatGPT for genuinely good long-form writing.
Pricing
Included in Microsoft 365 Copilot (paid). Not available to unpaid users since 15 April 2026.
Use for first drafts inside the M365 fence; expect to rewrite every paragraph.
AI inside Excel. Explains formulas, builds analysis from natural language, generates charts, and (Agent Mode, GA April 2026) makes multi-step changes directly to formulas, tables, and pivots. The closest mainstream tool to a junior analyst, when it works.
Key features
Natural language to formula and pivotExplain this formula and explain this workbookChart generation from promptAgent Mode for multi-step modelling tasksPython in Excel integration for heavier analysis
Best use cases
- Asking what the SUMIFS in cell H42 is actually doing
- Generating a pivot summary from a raw export
- Building a quick variance chart from sales data
- Cleaning a messy supplier list with conditional rules
Weaknesses
Still wrong on complex models and large worksheets, do not trust output without checking. Struggles with real-world messy data where columns are inconsistent. Agent Mode is impressive in demos and patchy in production.
Pricing
Included in Microsoft 365 Copilot (paid).
Useful for explaining other people's models; do not trust new ones without checking.
Copilot in PowerPoint
4/10AI inside PowerPoint. Generates slide decks from a prompt or a Word document, rewrites slides, and applies templates. The weakest of the paid Copilot surfaces.
Key features
Generate deck from prompt or source documentRewrite individual slidesDesigner integration for layout suggestionsSummarise an existing deckTranslate slide content
Best use cases
- Producing an internal status-update deck from a Word brief
- Reskinning an existing deck into your template
- Summarising a 50-slide deck into ten slides
- First-draft training material from an SOP
Weaknesses
Slide design is poor, layouts are generic and the storytelling is flat. Cannot match Gamma or a human designer. Most output needs heavy manual rework. Do not use for client-facing decks.
Pricing
Included in Microsoft 365 Copilot (paid).
The weakest Copilot surface; do not let it near a client-facing deck.
Copilot in SharePoint (site agents)
7/10Site-scoped Copilot agents that answer questions about the content of a specific SharePoint site or document library. Each site has a default agent, plus you can publish custom agents from Copilot Studio to that site.
Key features
Default site agent on every modern SharePoint siteCustom agents scoped to specific librariesApproved agent listing visible to all site usersPermission inheritance from SharePoint ACLsInline citations to the source documents
Best use cases
- HR site agent that answers policy questions from staff
- Project site agent that knows the contract and the meeting notes
- Compliance site agent over a regulator-required library
- Sales enablement site agent over the case study folder
Weaknesses
Quality depends entirely on how well-organised the site is, and most are not. Setting it up well needs a SharePoint person. End users need a paid Copilot licence to use any custom site agent.
Pricing
Custom agents require a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence (paid) for each user.
The right way to surface policy and project knowledge inside SharePoint, if your sites are tidy.
Low-code platform for building custom agents (chatbots, workflow agents, computer-using agents) that integrate with M365 and the wider Microsoft Power Platform. As of May 2026 it supports computer-using agents (UI automation), a redesigned visual workflow canvas, agent-to-agent communication, and Agent 365 governance.
Key features
Low-code visual agent designerComputer-using agents (GA May 2026) for UI automationAgent-to-agent orchestrationConnectors to Power Platform, Dataverse, third-party APIsAgent 365 governance plane for inventory, permissions, audit
Best use cases
- Internal HR or IT helpdesk agent over policy documents
- A workflow agent that triages forms and writes to Dataverse
- Customer support agent on a Teams or website channel
- An agent that automates a legacy desktop app via computer-use
Weaknesses
Iteration cycle is slow compared with an n8n or LangGraph build. Pricing is opaque (per-message capacity packs on top of licences). The low-code abstraction breaks down quickly on non-trivial flows. Computer-using agents are fragile on UI changes.
Pricing
Per-message consumption pricing via capacity packs; Agent 365 governance bundled into M365 E7. Allow at least USD 200 per month per moderately-used agent.
Worth knowing if you are committed to Microsoft; n8n is faster to ship for everyone else.
Microsoft Graph and Work IQ
6/10The data layer beneath everything Copilot does. Microsoft Graph indexes content across the tenant; Work IQ extends it to third-party systems (Salesforce, ServiceNow, Confluence) via Graph connectors so Copilot can ground answers in non-Microsoft sources without exporting data.
Key features
Permission-aware index across M365 contentGraph connectors for third-party SaaSSemantic and keyword retrievalTenant-scoped, no training on dataAudit and DLP integration
Best use cases
- Letting Copilot answer questions from Confluence alongside SharePoint
- Pulling Salesforce account data into a meeting brief
- Indexing a wiki without migrating it
- Bringing ticket history into a support agent
Weaknesses
Connectors are administratively heavy to set up. Each connector has its own quirks and refresh frequency. End-user visibility into which sources are actually being searched is poor.
Pricing
Graph connectors require Microsoft 365 Copilot licences; some connectors require additional Power Platform capacity.
The invisible plumbing; worth understanding before you commit to Copilot at scale.