Microsoft Copilot
“AI inside Office” — a colleague sitting next to Word and Excel
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft’s AI, built to read and write documents and email directly inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It fits most naturally into organizations that already use Office.
- 1It works right inside Office documents and email
- 2Personal and business plans differ in both name and price
- 3Business plans require a separate license, roughly KRW 40,000 (≈ US$30) per user per month
What sets it apart
These are the differences we found by running the same material through several tools in our training sessions.
No need to move your files
Other AI tools make you open a document, copy it, and paste it in. Copilot is available right inside a Word document or your Outlook inbox. Your materials never leave your internal systems, which counts for a lot in organizations that go through security review.
Already connected to your company data
With an enterprise license, it answers based on the emails, meeting records, and internal documents you have permission to view. Official documentation states that prompts, responses, and the data accessed this way are not used to train foundation models.
Little new approval needed
If your company already uses Microsoft 365, your accounts, admin policies, sensitivity labels, and audit logs apply as they are. You can skip the account setup and security review steps that always slow down a new service.
⚖️ The weaknesses are clear, too
The pricing is complicated. Copilot bundled with a personal Microsoft 365 plan and Microsoft 365 Copilot for business, which costs a separate fee of around KRW 40,000 (≈ US$30) per user per month, do not offer the same capabilities. If you try only the free version and decide 'that's all it is,' you will misjudge what the business version actually does.
💡 In plain EnglishThink of a new hire placed inside the office software your company already uses. You don’t need to set up a separate desk.
What stalls AI adoption is usually not performance but account setup and security review. If your organization already uses Office, Copilot can start with no new contract and no new accounts, so it is the first option to consider when you discuss a company-wide rollout.
Same job, different approach
It’s Friday afternoon, and notes from the meetings you missed have piled up
The old way
- You replay the meeting recording from the start
- You keep stopping to type up notes by hand
- You ask a colleague what your action items are
- You only start responding on Monday
With Microsoft Copilot
- Get meeting summaries and decisions first
- Pull out only the parts where your name comes up
- Pull up related documents and check them in the same window
- You send your reply before leaving for the day
Common uses
Finding unusual values in Excel tables
With your revenue and expense sheet open, ask for “rows that don’t add up,” and it points out what your eyes missed. Always verify the results against the original formulas.
Summarize a long email thread
From a 40-message thread, you get what was agreed, what is still undecided, and what you need to reply to, sorted into three groups. Your response time with clients improves noticeably.
Turn a report into a presentation
It turns a Word report into a PowerPoint draft and adds speaker notes to each slide. The design needs polishing, but you never start from a blank screen.
Who it’s for
Best for
- ✓You already use Microsoft 365 at work
- ✓For people who spend the most time in Excel and Outlook
- ✓Teams blocked from using outside AI because of security reviews
Better served by other tools
- –Companies that run on Google Workspace
- –People whose main goal is creating images or video
- –Individuals who just want the cheapest single AI tool for personal use
Can we use it at work?
The questions that adoption leads and security teams ask first.
Note: before adopting it in your organization, re-check the official terms and product terms of use for how data is processed on free and personal plans and how web search queries are handled.
10-minute quick start
- 1
Go to copilot.microsoft.com and start chatting for free.
- 2
If you have a work account, sign in again with it. The screen you see and the terms that apply will change.
- 3
Open Word or Excel, click the Copilot button on the ribbon, and ask about the document you’re viewing.
- 4
Write down the requests that work well as full sentences. Reusing the same sentences every week is the fastest way to learn.
Copy-and-paste prompts
Replace only the [bracketed] parts, then paste it in.
Read this email thread and organize it into a table with three groups: ① already agreed ② still undecided ③ what I need to reply to. Include the date and sender for each item.
Find rows in this sheet where the totals don’t add up or the figures are inconsistent. If you’re not sure about an item, don’t state it as fact; mark it “Needs review” and give me the cell addresses you based it on.
Turn this document into a draft executive briefing deck of [12] slides. Give each slide a one-line title and three lines of key messages, and add speaker notes.
From this meeting transcript, pull out only the parts where [my name] is mentioned. If I took on any tasks or deadlines, list them in a “who, what, by when” format.
Write a reply to the request below. Give me two versions: ① polite and formal, ② concise and practical. In both, promise a reply within 24 hours. [Paste the request you received]
Using it with other tools
Linking two or three tools changes your work more than any single tool does.
Meeting → Minutes → Report
Internal materials → training course
Before you start
- The free version and the business version are completely different products. Always evaluate Copilot using the business version.
- Even when it answers from internal materials, open the cited documents to check them yourself. It sometimes pulls in an outdated version.
- In organizations where permissions haven’t been cleaned up, “everything I can see” covers more than you might expect. Review your sharing settings before rollout.
- Plan names change often. When you request a quote, check the list of included features, not the plan name.
Pricing: personal use and work use
Plans that individuals pay for are different from plans that organizations contract for by member.
For individual use
Basic chat in the Copilot app and on the web. Lower usage limits than paid plans
Office apps + advanced Copilot Chat
For households sharing one plan
Includes agentic features such as advanced research and analysis
Highest usage limits. Monthly billing only
Using it at work
For organizations with up to 300 people
Using it alongside Office apps
A configuration with stronger security and management features
Requires a separate eligible Microsoft 365 license
25,000 credits for building agents. Pay-as-you-go also available
Checked 21 Sep 2026 · Amounts in KRW as shown on the official Korean pricing pages. Personal and business plans have separate pages, and business prices are based on annual billing. Prices change without notice, so check the official page before you pay. Copilot for individuals: official pricing ↗ · Copilot for business: official pricing ↗ · Copilot for enterprise: official pricing ↗ · Copilot Studio official pricing ↗
Agentic AI — the version that does the work itself
It goes beyond a chat window that only gives answers: agents come with it that work through multiple steps on their own to produce finished results.
Researcher agent
Give it a complex research task and it searches the files, emails, and meeting transcripts you have access to, along with the web, and builds a **sourced report**. It is tuned for digging deep over time, not for quick summaries.
- Nothing to install. Sign in to the Microsoft Copilot app with your work account.
- In the chat screen’s “Agents” list, select the research tool.
Copilot Studio
Build agents tailored to your company’s work and connect them to internal channels, websites, and apps. You can also build multi-agent setups and agents that handle phone calls.
- An admin turns on Copilot Studio in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Build it on the web at copilotstudio.microsoft.com.
Installation steps and requirements follow the official documentation. Researcher agent official docs ↗ · Copilot Studio official pricing ↗
Where Microsoft Copilot falls short
We don’t just list the positives. Here is what fell short when we used it.
- Answers differ from window to window, even for the same question
Asking on the web and asking inside a document draw on different sources, so the answers differ. It’s disorienting at first that results depend on where you ask.
- Similar names make it easy to get lost
Copilot, Copilot Chat, and Microsoft 365 Copilot have similar names, so even after reading the help pages it is hard to tell which one you are looking at.
- The free version struggles with long tasks
Free Copilot has lower usage limits than paid plans, so long back-and-forth sessions where you keep pasting in material will stop partway through. For real work, you’ll end up adding a subscription.
Tools to compare
ChatGPTRebounding with Astra→
GeminiGoogle’s all-purpose AI→
ClaudeThe most talked-about AI→Claude in ExcelAI built into Excel→Claude in PPTEdits PowerPoint directly→
Notion AIDocs and meeting notes in one place→FAQ
Last updated 22 Sep 2026 · The ratings on this page come from John Kim, CEO of Nanum Consulting, who has used these tools firsthand in training and real work.
Building Microsoft Copilot skills across your organization
Send us a message and we’ll reply within 24 hours. We’ll propose a curriculum tailored to your industry and job roles.
Courses on this toolB2A: Sales and Marketing in the Age of Agentic AI