Co Pilot differences

[YeOldeStonecat]

So yeah, I'm a dinosaur and ..despite the industry fully diving into it.....I'm resisting AI.
However, gotta know!

All in all, not really many clients asking about it. Had one client with their own internal IT department..order up some licensing for it.
Just had another client ask about it, one or two of his staff was playing with the "freebie" one built into Windows. But he wanted it on his computer....appears to be stubborn to install into Classic Outlook, but the free one shows up in New Outlook.

So that's the freebie.
And then there's the full blown licensed one from 365 ...$30/user/mo.

People been playing with it? What's the diffy? ( I know I could Google it, but figure a conversation and examples will be fun)

 

[callthatgirl]

I set up Copilot for sales in Outlook. Never used it. Testing Toggles to use instead (template use).
One of my clients had me test it for $360 a year, I gave up lol --I told client, he loves ChatGPT

 

[Sky-Knight]

I can't do my job without it, or rather... I refuse to do so.

M365 Copilot takes notes for me in meetings, allowing me to concentrate fully on the customer on a human level. I'll get the recording, transcript, and keynotes delivered to my inbox later. Senior leadership uses the recordings to audit meetings, and improve team training on customer interactions.

When I'm sucked into a long email chain, I can ask it for a summary to bring me up to speed without reading the entire email chain. It's vastly better at this than my personal scanning.

When I'm drafting a contract, it can translate my specific brand of technobabble into boardroom language, at a click. No more lost cycles word hunting to communicate in a written format. This one specific thing has contributed directly to an increase in deals sold, it's measurable... 40% increase in my close rate directly attributed to Copilot. This alone is worth about $100,000 a month in raw revenue to my org.

It remembers all the goofy strange things in Excel that I never remember, helping me mine data and perform discoveries more readily. I can focus on process instead of specifics.

It sanity checks technical workflows against Microsoft documentation, allowing me to verify my work scope is complete and translate a statement of work, into a standard of practice document with attributions in about half the time.

If you're an engineer working in the business space, and you need to communicate with various business units and you are not leveraging this tool, you're at a massive competitive disadvantage. This thing doesn't replace my experience, or my technical skill, but it does serve as a functional augment for my faulty memory.

Oh, and because of Microsoft's Privacy Principles: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy/privacy-report Copilot is designed from the ground up for information ownership, compliance, and data sovereignty. Independent audits validate my data remains my own, forever. Which is amusingly enough the reason why so many people hate Copilot. It's ChatGPT that doesn't learn how to use you, while you're learning how to use it. But another upside? Once you have a prompt that's useful? You can share it, and others will get the same results, because it's a tool, and you learn to use it just like any other software.

The project is utterly essential to me, I cannot do my job without it, I do not want to try.

 

[timeshifter]

I think there are as many Copilot flavors are there are versions of Outlook. I'm a paid ChatGPT user. I started using it soon after it came out. Never really dabbled with Copilot. Copilot is interesting, but I'm not too interested in the basic free one. Would like to dabble with the $30 per month version that's integrated with 365. Problem that's holding me back there is that to the best of my knowledge it's not a month to month, you have to commit to a full year, so it's really $360 a year.

 

[callthatgirl]

@timeshifter same here, I had the $360 one for that client the problem was....no data in it for me to use it was a new account and this was in Jan of 2024, so it was more difficult to figure out. Now it's all over hell. In the pinned task bar, finally launched it today after reading this post. It's works like chatgpt I guess, I had it run my business forecasts. I like chatgpt still but will consider copilot so I can show clients how to use it. Migh as well add one something to my services. The Outlook Copilot app that shows doesn't do anything after you click "reply" so that's Microsoft's way of teasing you. It's colored at first, then when you repl it grays out.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

So....starting to do some Google'ing..

Microsoft Copilot...(free)
Microsoft Copilot Pro...$20/mo
Microsoft 365 Copilot...$30/mo

 

[Sky-Knight]

Multiple products, each with a different focus and all the same names. Think about how many different things known as "Outlook", welcome to that party... again.

Microsoft Copilot is indeed the free web tool.

Microsoft Copilot Pro, is yet another terribly named product, because it's the "home" edition of the bot, for personal Microsoft accounts only, that gives you the full ChatGPT like experience via the web tool. This is the ChatGPT analog for individuals.

Microsoft 365 Copilot, is indeed $360 / year, because there's no monthly commitment. Again, it makes me well more than it costs for a year on a weekly basis, so I'm a huge advocate. This thing bolts into the entire M365 stack and works serious magic. I can generate a PowerPoint presentation deck, from a word document and attached Excel spreadsheet at a click. The built in Research agent drafts white papers for me. Every time I sit down and think about this I remember another place where I use this tech. Seriously, I cannot do my job without it! Another note, if you've got a customer thinking about Teams Premium for a hearing impaired team member that needs the captions, get them Copilot instead, it's SO MUCH BETTER for this task!

Security Copilot, this is an Azure service that's also a bit misnamed, because it's becoming the M365 Admin portal AI assistant for all things Azure and M365 on TOP OF being responsible for deep enrichment and rapid research capabilities accessed via Microsoft Sentinel (SIEM / SOAR). This is a HUGELY POWERFUL PRODUCT but it's also ABSURDLY EXPENSIVE. Supposedly we're going to be able to buy this for ourselves, and use it on our customers soon, so larger Microsoft partners will have even more of an advantage.

Github Copilot, this is your programmer's assistant, integrates with all the Visual Studio flavors, helps with code.

Microsoft Copilot Studio, this is a collection of development tools for building AI agents and related assets.

Decide which Copilot is right for you

Microsoft has several Copilot AI virtual assistants, including Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Security Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Copilot Studio. Decide which Copilot is right for you and your organization. Which Copilot is right for me?

learn.microsoft.com

Oh, and let's not forget:
Azure AI Services
Azure OpenAI
Azure AI Foundry
Azure Machine Learning

For those people that need AI at the infrastructure level to build new cool things.

Copilot is not a product, it's not a brand, it's an entire ecosystem.

 

[britechguy]

For those people that need AI at the infrastructure level to build new cool things.

No snark intended, as they do exist (and you're one of them), but that's not most workers in most settings.

Copilot in its many guises is overkill for more people than not.

It's one of the reasons that even in M365 Family I've already elected to "downgrade" to the Classic level (no integrated Copilot) because I just don't have much use for it in the context of the Office suite of programs. And the other uses I do have for AI don't require integration, whether using Copilot or another LMM chatbot.

 

[timeshifter]

M365 Family I've already elected to "downgrade" to the Classic level (no integrated Copilot) because I just don't have much use for it in the context of the Office suite of programs.

I didn't realize you could do that. I thought the price for Personal and Family went up from $69.99 to $99.99 and $99.99 to $129.99 respectively - a $30 increase that wasn't optional. So you can opt out and still pay the old rate and not have the AI bolted on?

 

[britechguy]

Yes. I'll post details later. I'm not home right now.

 

[britechguy]

What I wrote for a blind-tech centric group with regard to "downgrading" back to the Classic service level for M365 Family or Personal. You do have to cancel and immediately resubscribe to the Classic service level. The free Copilot trial will continue up until your actual renewal date.
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I realize that the partial screenshot I am going to place in this post will not be directly helpful to many, but for those of you that do have sighted assistants around, it will show them precisely what they should be looking for. I'll also give a brief description of the identifying text for screen reader users.

First, go straight to the cancel page for M365 for your account: https://account.microsoft.com/services/microsoft365/cancel?fref=billing-cancel
If you're logged in to your Windows account and it's MS Account linked, this should take you straight there without having to do any of the steps from within MS-Word or another Office Suite program to get there.

Here is what you should see, literally, if you scroll down the page a bit, it is not at the top:
Bottom_of_M365_Cancel_Page.jpg

There is a section that is labeled: Choose a plan that's right for you.

Immediately beneath that are two boxes, both of which have bright yellow strips beneath the following respective text:
- Current Subscription
- Current Subscription without AI

The first will show the new "default" form of M365 Family or Personal (depending on your current subscription) with the price increase related to keeping integrated Copilot after the trial period ends at your next renewal date. In the USA that's $30/year more than an existing subscription price. In my case, since I'm the primary subscriber for M365 Family, immediately below is: Microsoft 365 Family, $129.99/year.

The second option, without AI, will show the price you're currently paying, as "Classic." In my case, immediately below is: Microsoft 365 Family Classic, $99.99/year. Then, after the list of services that go with the non-AI version, is a Switch Plan button which, if activated, would keep me on the Classic level when my renewal date arrives, leaving my current services unchanged.

There is a third box, with no yellow banner, that reads Microsoft 365 Personal, $99.99/year, that is about the "with AI" version of M365 Personal. If you are a M365 Personal subscriber already, this box may either be entirely absent or might be replaced with one for M365 Basic. I just can't say.