Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant for the Office world. Microsoft 365 Copilot works directly inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. Not to be confused with GitHub Copilot — the separate AI tool for software development.

Integrated products

Copilot drafts texts in Word, analyzes spreadsheets in Excel, builds presentations in PowerPoint, and summarizes emails and meetings. The biggest lever: Copilot accesses a company’s own data via the Microsoft Graph — documents, chats, calendars.

Model base

Copilot launched on OpenAI models. Microsoft now runs a multi-model strategy: OpenAI remains the default, with Anthropic models (Claude) available as an option in Copilot Chat and Copilot Studio. The close OpenAI partnership continues but is no longer exclusive.

Cost and licensing

Microsoft 365 Copilot is a paid add-on license per user per month — on top of the existing Microsoft 365 license. For agent management, Microsoft sells Agent 365 as a separate product (15 US dollars per user/month).

EU Data Boundary

Microsoft processes Copilot data for EU customers within the EU Data Boundary — a central GDPR argument. Important: Anthropic models run outside this boundary and are disabled by default for EU tenants. The data residency entry provides more context.

Stand: Juni 2026