Microsoft Copilot, the latest addition to the Microsoft 365 suite, promises to revolutionize the way we work by providing intelligent assistance and automation. In this blog, we will delve into the availability and licensing options for Microsoft Copilot, as well as explore the requirements and prerequisites for harnessing its full potential. Whether you are an IT professional, a business decision-maker, a Microsoft 365 user, or simply an enterprise software enthusiast, join us as we navigate the new era with Microsoft Copilot’s latest insights.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Copilot for 365 is an AI-powered assistant designed to enhance the work experience and productivity of users within the Microsoft environment. With its integration into various Microsoft apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, Copilot offers a range of features to assist users in tasks like email drafting, data analysis, and content creation.

To clarify any confusion, it’s important to note that in this article, we will be referring to Copilot for 365 simply as “Copilot for 365.” This is not to be confused with Bing Chat, which Microsoft recently re-named Copilot. Yes, it’s quite confusing.

Copilot Integration into Microsoft 365 Apps

Copilot for 365 integrates seamlessly with popular Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. It provides real-time intelligent assistance, enhancing creativity, productivity, and skills for users. Whether you need help transforming your writing in Word, creating stunning presentations in PowerPoint, analyzing and exploring data in Excel, staying on top of emails and communication in Outlook, or collaborating with teammates in Teams, Loop, Whiteboard, and OneNote, Copilot has a range of features and capabilities to support you.

How Copilot Protects your Company Data

When it comes to security, privacy, and data residency, Microsoft ensures that Copilot is built with the same principles that they use for all their products. User data is not used to train any AI models, and the information contained within prompts, the data retrieved, and the generated responses all remain within the 365 service boundary. Copilot utilizes Azure OpenAI services for processing, which are hosted in Microsoft datacenters. For European Union (EU) users, Microsoft has implemented additional safeguards to comply with the EU Data Boundary, ensuring that EU traffic stays within the EU Data Boundary.

What You Can Do with Copilot

 Microsoft’s copilot technologies are large language model-backed virtual assistants that can access user data and public content online to answer questions with natural language responses. Different copilot integrations serve different roles, and organizations need to know which copilot is right for them.

Copilot for 365 can help users navigate the web more efficiently, provide important context about content and websites, write emails, assist with data analysis in Microsoft Excel, create proposals in Microsoft Word, and presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft has demonstrated exciting use cases that improve work experience, remove creative blocks, and speed up decision-making.

Estimating the return on investment (ROI) is crucial, as Copilot can save significant time and increase productivity. For example, Octopus Energy in the UK increased customer satisfaction from 65% to 80% by using AI to write emails. By crunching the numbers, organizations can see that even if Copilot helps save just one hour a month for a busy sales executive or data analyst on a $50,000 annual salary, there is an 11x return on investment. And with Copilot’s capabilities, the time-saving potential goes beyond just one hour.

Licensing Options for Copilot

To license Copilot, you need to have an eligible 365 or Office 365 subscription license. Eligible licenses currently include:

• Business Standard
• Business Premium
• E3
• E5
• A3
• A5

Copilot Licensing Cost

The cost for Copilot is $30 per user per month, regardless of your industry, size, or Enterprise Agreement discount level. It’s important to note that Copilot is an add-on license and is not included in existing M365 or O365 packages. Therefore, the cost of Copilot will depend on the underlying M365 license, with potential budget increases ranging from 53% to 240%.

It’s worth noting that Copilot is not compulsory for every user. Strategic decisions can be made based on users’ roles and usage. This allows organizations to decide who needs Copilot the most, whether it’s top-tier executives, sales professionals, or data analysts. By targeting specific users, organizations can maximize the benefits of Copilot while keeping costs under control.

Would You Like to Start Using Microsoft Copilot?

As Delmarva’s largest Microsoft Partner, we’re able to help you properly license Copilot in your organization. We’d love to chat with you and get you properly licensed. Just give us a call at 410.543.8200.