Updated on May 23, 2025 to reflect the renaming of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and new screenshots.
In July 2023, Microsoft announced Bing Chat Enterprise, an AI-based chat tool, built on a similar technology as ChatGPT but designed for business users to safely use in day-to-day work. In November 2023 it was officially rebranded to simply Copilot. On January 15th 2025, Microsoft announced the renaming of Copilot to Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
With so many Copilots around, it can be quite difficult for users to understand what is what! Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is included as part of the existing Microsoft 365 subscription. This is an amazing and safe way for your organization to start (or continue) your AI journey. The Copilot that is integrated in the Microsoft 365 apps, and that has access to your internal data, is referred to as Microsoft 365 Copilot. You can read more about it in blog 5 Essential Rules for Using Microsoft 365 Copilot. Here is a 5-step User Guide that can help users in your organization get started.
1. What is Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat?
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is an AI-powered chat tool by Microsoft designed for you to use as a supportive tool for your work. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is built on a similar technology as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but unlike ChatGPT, Copilot Chat doesn’t save any of the information that you feed into the chat, to ensure your data is kept safe. In addition, unlike ChatGPT, which is only trained on data that's over a year old, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (both the consumer version and the enterprise version) uses up-to-date information from the Internet to respond to questions, meaning that you can ask it about current events. It also gives you references to data being used in the responses, which facilitates fact-checking and source reliability.
2. How do I access Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat?
Open a browser window and type in the web address: Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat . Once logged in with your corporate Microsoft 365 account, you will see a green badge at the top saying “Enterprise data protection”. This means that your account is private and that all your data is safe and secure while you use the chat. Please note that if you don’t see this badge or text – you are not using the Enterprise version of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, but rather the consumer version. If you do, the data that you feed into the prompt is used to enhance the product.
If you use Microsoft Edge as your browser, you can also open the side panel by clicking the “Copilot” icon in the right-hand menu bar. As long as you are logged in with your work account you will see the “Protected” badge in the panel.
3. What can I do with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat?
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is a generative AI tool, meaning it can find things for you and generate things for you to help you save time in your work - like your own digital assistant! You can use it to ask questions to get better insights into various topics. For example, “What are the top trends within XXX?” or “What were the key highlights announced at YYY?” You can also ask Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat to summarize a website for you or explain something to you as if you were a 7-year-old (this is useful if you are researching something complex). Unlike traditional web search that just lists links for you with relevant websites, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat provides a summarized response from various data sources in an easy-to-understand language.
In addition to providing you with better insights, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat can create draft texts for you. This is where the real superpowers of the tool kick in. Whether you need to write a job description, a news announcement, a product description, or an official correspondence letter, you can have Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat draft it for you.
4. What do I need to be aware of when I use Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat?
As with all AI-based chat tools, it’s important that you don’t blindly trust the responses you get, even if the response sounds very accurate and the tool persuasive. The answers being generated are built on a language model that uses probability to provide the best possible answer. It is essential to always check sources and to be aware the response might not be factual.
5. What are some power tips for using Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat?
Use natural language and think of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat as your very own human personal Assistant that has read and understood everything on the Internet - all manuals, all articles, all blog posts, all research reports, etc. The more detailed information you feed into the prompt, the better responses you will get. For instance, if you want it to compose a text for you - provide input as to who the text should be for, what it should be about, how long it should be, etc. Another good tip is to go to the "Settings" and, “Notification and App settings” and enable “Allow Microsoft to access page content”.
When this is enabled, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat can access information on the current web page or PDF you are on. This makes for more relevant and useful information gathering and text generation. Again, with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, you don’t have to worry about any information being shared, leaked, or used to feed the AI model.
As with all relationships, the more time and effort you invest, the more you will get out of it – same with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Make it a habit of asking questions every day – about everything and anything. Ask it to help you compose text – even if you don’t need it. The more you use Copilot Chat, the more valuable you will find it! 😊
The general availability of Copilot has been announced to be on December 1, 2023. Copilot with Commercial data protection (Bing Chat Enterprise) was announced in Preview in July 2023, available for organizations’ IT Administrators to enable as an option. It is provided to all organizations that have a Microsoft 365 subscription (E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium) at no additional cost. In August 2023, it was enabled by default for all organizations that had Microsoft 365 unless it is actively disabled. IT Administrators can learn more about enabling/disabling Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat for your organization in the Manage Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
In November 2023 it was officially rebranded to simply Copilot. On January 15th 2025, Microsoft announced a renaming to Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.