AI tools are everywhere right now, and the noise around which one to use, when to use it, and how much to use it is deafening. But as a business owner, you are consumed by too many tasks and decisions to spend time in the sandbox figuring out these questions. There are some ways around this, but Copilot is one tool your business can start using today, and which by its nature is “tailored” to your business. 

Various AI engines are not competing tools in the way most people think. They overlap, but they are built for different jobs. Problems come up when a business tries to use one tool for something it was never designed to do. 

While many people begin their AI adventures with ChatGPT, Grok, or Claude, your business should almost certainly start with Microsoft Copilot (note: it DOES require a subscription). Below we discuss WHY and give some example illustrations on what this looks like. 

Copilot Is Not Smarter. It Is Better Placed.

The biggest misconception I hear is that Copilot is “better AI” or “worse AI” than, say, ChatGPT. That is the wrong comparison. Copilot’s advantage is not intelligence. Its advantage is location. Copilot lives inside Microsoft 365. Word. Excel. Outlook. Teams. PowerPoint.  

If you are a Microsoft business, that means Copilot is ingrained into your institutional knowledge. It is a robust internal assistant which has access to your data. It can help you easily locate, collect, and use data, and execute routine tasks your business is already conducting.  

Copilot Means your Information is Better Protected

It’s also vital to understand that Copilot is far better than other AI engines when it comes to privacy and data protection. It operates inside your existing Microsoft 365 security and permission model. It only has access to the data a user is already allowed to see, and it respects the same compliance, retention, and audit controls that govern email, documents, and Teams conversations. That means sensitive business data is not being copied into a separate system or exposed to public AI-engine training models. For organizations that care about confidentiality, regulatory compliance, or simply not losing control of their data, Copilot’s placement inside the Microsoft ecosystem is a significant and meaningful security advantage. 

REAL WORLD EXAMPLES

But let’s also examine some real-world examples of how Copilot can help. 

Example 1: Real Excel Work with Real Business Data 

Let’s say you have an Excel spreadsheet that has been touched by five people over three years. Columns are inconsistent. Dates are a mess. Someone added formulas that only made sense to them. A pivot table broke six months ago, and no one wants to touch it. 

With Copilot, you can open that exact file and say: 

“Clean this data, standardize the date formats, and create a pivot table showing monthly revenue by customer.” 

Copilot works on the actual spreadsheet. It fixes formulas in place. It creates usable output.  ChatGPT can explain how to clean data. It can suggest formulas. It can help you think through the logic. But it cannot touch your live spreadsheet inside Excel unless you feed it to ChatGPT.  And even then, it is simply not as consistent or effective at handling those particular tasks.   

Also, refer to “Protection” above: the gray area of IP (intellectual property) protection for most AI engines is unclear at best, and YOU SHOULD NOT be feeding confidential information or proprietary information into those engines. However, Copilot is already inside your system, and by its nature, offers data protection that other engines simply can’t.  

Example 2: The 40 Email Thread Nobody Wants to Read 

Or, consider that long, confusing Outlook email thread which has multiple recipients, attachments, client interactions, clarifications, and confusion. Maybe someone gets looped in late and needs to understand what is going on in five minutes or less. 

This is an excellent use of Copilot, which can read the entire thread, understand the timeline, identify open items, and draft a response inside Outlook. As always, it requires human confirmation of details and context, but it does a solid job with accuracy in this regard. 

You can ask: 

“Summarize this thread and draft a reply confirming next steps.” 

You get a clean summary and a ready-to-send response. ChatGPT can help you write an email. It can help with tone. It can help once you paste content in. But it cannot see the thread. It cannot see the attachments. It cannot understand the conversation history unless you manually recreate it.  And again, it cannot respond with your institutional context while protecting your organizational data. 

Example 3: Turning a Word Document Into a PowerPoint Deck 

Or, consider how Copilot can translate data from one program to another. Someone writes a long Word document. It is thoughtful and detailed, but it is far too long for an executive meeting. 

Copilot can take that Word document and turn it into an actual PowerPoint presentation. Not just an outline or suggested slide titles, but rather real slides: formatted, usable, and editable. 

Example 4: Preparing for a Meeting or Proposal Using Institutional Memory 

Another powerful, time-saving usage of Copilot is that it can use your own routines, data, and process to replicate meeting or proposal preparations, while also tailoring those for the specific audience.  Before a Teams meeting, Copilot can pull together relevant emails, past chats, documents, and action items related to that meeting. Or, you can put together a detailed prompt asking it to mimic client proposals you’ve completed before within the MS 365 environment, again tailoring the proposal to the distinct context and data.   

So When Should a Business Use Copilot Instead of ChatGPT, Grok, or Claude?

Here is the simplest rule I have found that actually works. 

If the work lives inside Microsoft 365, Copilot usually wins. 

Copilot is best at: 

  • Working with real documents 
  • Handling email and meetings 
  • Automating Excel and Word tasks 
  • Reducing busywork inside Microsoft tools 

ChatGPT and Claude are better at: 

  • Creative writing 
  • Brainstorming 
  • Research 
  • Exploring ideas 

The Mistake Businesses Make

Copilot is not a replacement for thinking. It is not a replacement for creativity. It is a productivity engine built into your existing work environment. Used correctly, it saves time and reduces friction. Like most technology, the value shows up only when the tool matches the job. 

A Final Reminder

All AI tools have a learning curve, and Copilot will require some “sandbox” time to figure out how it works for you. It does have subscription costs associated with it, but it may well be worth the time and financial investment to test a tool already embedded into your institution.