If your business already runs on Microsoft 365, Copilot is the obvious first question, and for many teams it is a fair place to start. It is worth being clear about what you get, though, because “Copilot” covers more than one thing.

Two Copilots

Copilot Chat comes with qualifying Microsoft 365 business subscriptions. Used with a work account it carries Microsoft’s enterprise data protection. It is a capable chat assistant. How much of your own work content it can reach has changed more than once, so treat it as a good general assistant rather than one that knows your business.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is the paid add-on (there is a Copilot Business version for smaller organisations). This is the one that works across your emails, meetings, chats and files, and sits inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. For most businesses, this is the version people picture when they say “Copilot”.

Pricing and what is bundled have changed several times, so check Microsoft’s current plans before you budget.

Why Copilot suits a Microsoft business

  • It is already where your team works. No new app, no new login.
  • It respects your existing permissions. People see only what they could already open.
  • It is managed with the rest of Microsoft 365, by whoever looks after your tenant now.

Why you might choose something else anyway

You are no longer forced to pick Copilot just because you are on Microsoft. Anthropic’s Claude has a Microsoft 365 connector that reads Outlook mail and calendar, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams, within each person’s permissions, once your Claude owner enables it and a Microsoft Entra global administrator grants consent. It is read-only by default, with write actions such as sending email available if you choose to enable them. ChatGPT’s business plans also connect to Outlook and SharePoint, with admin control over which apps are enabled.

So the real question becomes: which assistant does the writing and thinking your team needs, given that all of them can reach your Microsoft data? For long documents, proposals and careful drafting I usually lead with Claude. For teams who live inside Word and Outlook and want AI in the ribbon, Copilot often wins on convenience.

Before you switch anything on

Whatever you choose, the risky part is the same: AI that can search your Microsoft 365 will find everything a person has access to, including the folder that was shared with “everyone” years ago. Spend an hour on sharing and permissions first. It is the least glamorous step and the one that matters most.

My usual recommendation

Trial Copilot with two or three people on real work for a fortnight, alongside one alternative. Measure it on a specific job, such as drafting replies or summarising a long document, not on impressions. Then standardise on the one that did the job better, and write it into your policy.