Microsoft Copilot simplifies work enormously thanks to its integration in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams. We present functions and costs and show real use cases for increasing productivity.
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Since January 2024, Microsoft has made its flagship chatbot “Microsoft Copilot” available in various versions to appeal to a wide range of users. While private users can use the basic version of the chatbot free of charge, but without integration into Office applications, private/corporate customers and key accounts have the option of using an extended version for a monthly fee. Direct integration into applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint provides employees and users with real productivity boosts. In addition, Microsoft Copilot is equipped with OpenAI’s advanced GPT language model, which makes it superior to other chatbots in terms of response quality.
- Costs:
- Copilot Free: free (for all users, highly simplified version)
- Copilot Pro: 20$/month (for private customers, freelancers and others)
- Copilot for Microsoft 365: 30$/month (for corporate customers)
- Features of the versions:
- see price table below
- Website:
What are the advantages of Microsoft Copilot?
Advantage 1: Integration with Microsoft 365
Microsoft Copilot (Copilot Pro, Copilot for Microsoft 365) is integrated into all major Office tools: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and more. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is also integrated into Teams. Because everything comes from a single source, Microsoft has been able to standardize the user interface so that Copilot behaves the same way in Microsoft Teams as it does in Outlook, for example. This makes it easier for all employees and increases the possibility of using it in everyday life.
Advantage 2: Security and data protection
Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 and automatically adopts all of the company’s security, compliance and data protection guidelines and processes set there. The highlight functions include: Two-factor authentication, compliance limits, data protection measures and more.
Advantage 3: Business data as the basis
Microsoft Copilot makes it possible for companies to link the chatbot with their own business data – in compliance with data protection standards. Microsoft Copilot uses the Microsoft Graph, a background service that links company data and makes it accessible. The data is taken from the company’s own documents, emails, calendars, chats, meetings, contacts and other business data. Depending on the query, answers can be provided across all tools.
Use cases for Microsoft Copilot in the company
Use case: All important meeting data is always available
You can have topic-relevant emails and chats as well as the documents mentioned in them evaluated by the chatbot during the current meeting. This saves valuable time that would otherwise be spent searching and increases the quality of the meeting for all participants, as important facts are immediately available without anyone having to take care of this task first. A real productivity booster.
Use case: having meetings summarized
Meetings often need to be recorded so that progress can be made from week to week. Copilot automatically creates meeting minutes in teams. These can even be output as a table. This means that no tasks or decisions are forgotten and you save on taking minutes.
Use case: Analyzing Excel data
Copilot can analyze Excel data independently. This is particularly helpful for Excel users who are not data analysts and do not know which analyses to perform, as they do not know the names of the analyses and would therefore have to resort to specialists. Pivot tables, forecasts or chart analyses can be easily created by using Copilot in simple language.
Prompt ideas for analysis:
- “Analyze the data” – Helpful for beginners, is even enough to get some initial ideas.
- “Create a sales forecast for Q3″ – How will the figures develop based on the past few months?
How much does Microsoft Copilot Pro cost?
How much does Copilot for Microsoft 365 cost?
Copilot is free in the basic version. The private customer license “Copilot Pro” costs 20$/month per user, the more powerful corporate customer version costs 30$/month per user.
Advantages: Corporate customers can use Copilot in Teams and connect it to all company data (Microsoft Graph). There is also comprehensive data protection and the chatbot builder “Copilot Studio” (previously: Power Virtual Agents)
