Microsoft Copilot is built into Microsoft 365 — which means if your business uses Word, Excel, Outlook, or Teams, you may already have access to it. This guide covers what Copilot can actually do in each application, what it cannot do, and how to get useful results quickly.
What Is Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant integrated directly into Microsoft 365 applications. It uses the same large language model technology as ChatGPT (both are built on OpenAI models) but works within the context of your documents, emails, spreadsheets, and meetings rather than as a standalone chat tool.
This context is what makes Copilot different from ChatGPT. In Outlook, it can see your emails. In Word, it can read and edit the document you have open. In Teams, it can summarise what was said in a meeting you attended. It is not just a text generator — it is aware of what you are working on.
Which Plan Do You Need?
Microsoft Copilot comes in several versions:
- Copilot (free) — available at copilot.microsoft.com, or via the Copilot button in the Windows taskbar. Uses GPT-4 but without access to your Microsoft 365 data.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot — the full version, integrated into Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams. Requires Microsoft 365 Business Standard or higher, plus the Copilot add-on (currently £24.70/user/month on top of your existing plan). Requires Entra ID (formerly Azure AD).
- Copilot Pro (personal) — for personal Microsoft 365 subscribers (Microsoft 365 Personal or Family). £19/month per person. Adds Copilot to Word, Excel, Outlook, and OneNote on personal accounts.
Copilot in Word
Copilot in Word can generate text, rewrite sections, summarise long documents, and adjust tone. The key feature is that it works on the document you have open — you do not need to paste content into a chat window.
What It Does Well
- Draft from a prompt — open a blank document, click the Copilot icon, and describe what you need. It produces a first draft you can edit.
- Summarise a long document — useful for reading lengthy reports or contracts quickly. Ask “Summarise this document in bullet points” and it extracts the key points.
- Rewrite selected text — highlight a paragraph, click Copilot, and ask it to “make this more concise” or “change this to a formal tone.”
- Ask questions about the document — “What are the payment terms in this contract?” or “What action points are mentioned in this report?”
What It Does Less Well
Copilot’s drafts are starting points, not finished work. Long-form drafts often need significant editing for accuracy, tone, and flow. It also cannot access the internet, so it will not know about recent events or current statistics.
Copilot in Outlook
Copilot in Outlook focuses on two tasks: drafting emails and summarising threads.
- Draft an email — click the Copilot icon in a new email, describe what you want to say, and it writes a draft. You specify the tone (formal, neutral, casual) and length.
- Summarise a thread — open a long email chain and click “Summary by Copilot.” It produces a short summary of the key points and who said what — useful for catching up on threads you were copied into.
- Coaching — Copilot can review a draft email and suggest improvements to tone, clarity, and length before you send it.
Copilot in Teams
The Teams integration is one of the most useful Copilot features for businesses. It requires that meeting transcription is enabled.
- Meeting summary — after a Teams meeting (or during it), Copilot can generate a summary of what was discussed, including key points and action items.
- Catch up mid-meeting — if you join a meeting late, you can ask Copilot “What have I missed?” and it summarises the discussion so far.
- Answer questions about a call — after a meeting, ask “What decisions were made?” or “What did [person] say about the budget?” and Copilot retrieves the answer from the transcript.
Copilot in Excel
Copilot in Excel is the most technically capable feature but also the one that requires the most setup. Your data needs to be in a properly formatted Excel table for Copilot to work with it effectively.
- Analyse data in plain English — ask “What are the top 5 products by revenue?” or “Show me months where sales were below target” without needing to write formulas.
- Generate formulas — describe what you want to calculate and Copilot writes the formula for you. Useful if you know what you want but cannot remember the exact syntax.
- Create charts — ask for a chart of a specific dataset and it generates one.
- Highlight patterns — Copilot can identify and highlight trends or anomalies in your data.
Tips for Getting Better Results
- Be specific — “Write a professional email declining a meeting request politely, offering to reschedule next week” works better than “Write an email.”
- Specify tone and length — include “keep it under 100 words” or “formal tone” in your prompt for more consistent results.
- Use it for first drafts, not final outputs — edit everything Copilot produces before sending or publishing. It makes mistakes and sometimes invents details.
- For Excel, format your data first — Copilot works best with data in a named table (Insert → Table). It struggles with unstructured spreadsheets.
Is Copilot Worth the Cost?
At £24.70/user/month on top of existing Microsoft 365 costs, Copilot is not cheap. Whether it is worth it depends on how heavily your team uses the applications it integrates with. For businesses where staff spend significant time writing, summarising, and managing emails and documents, the time savings can justify the cost. For businesses where Microsoft 365 is used mainly for file storage and spreadsheets, the value is less clear.
A practical approach: start with the free Copilot at copilot.microsoft.com to understand what the AI can do, then evaluate whether the Microsoft 365 integration adds enough value to justify the add-on cost for your specific workflows.
