What exactly is Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant built directly into Microsoft 365 — the suite of tools that includes Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, and SharePoint. It uses the same large language model technology behind ChatGPT, but with one critical difference: it works with your own business data.
Rather than being a separate tool you have to switch to, Copilot sits inside the applications you already use every day. You ask it questions, give it instructions, or ask it to complete tasks — and it responds using the context of your emails, documents, meetings, and files.
What can Microsoft Copilot actually do?
The capabilities vary by application, but here are the most impactful things Copilot can do for a typical SME:
How is Copilot different from ChatGPT?
This is the most common question we get. The key differences are:
- Your data, not public data. ChatGPT knows about the world. Copilot knows about your business — your emails, your documents, your meetings, your files.
- Built into your existing tools. ChatGPT is a separate website. Copilot is inside Word, Outlook, Teams, and Excel — wherever you already work.
- Security and compliance. Your data never leaves Microsoft's infrastructure or gets used to train AI models. ChatGPT processes data on OpenAI's servers, which creates compliance and confidentiality concerns.
- Business context. Copilot understands who you work with, what projects you're working on, and what your role is — because it has access to your Microsoft 365 environment.
How much does Microsoft Copilot cost?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is an add-on licence that sits on top of your existing Microsoft 365 subscription. As of 2025, it is priced at approximately £25–30 per user per month on top of your existing licence costs.
To use Copilot, you need to be on one of the following base licences:
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium (recommended)
- Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 (enterprise)
So for a 10-user business on Business Premium, the total per-user cost would be approximately £47–52 per user per month for licences alone — before any management fees.
Is your business ready for Copilot?
This is where most businesses get it wrong. Copilot is not a tool you simply switch on. There are several things that need to be in place for it to work safely and effectively:
- Clean data governance. Your SharePoint and OneDrive permissions need to be properly configured. Overly permissive sharing settings mean Copilot could surface documents to users who shouldn't be seeing them.
- Sensitivity labels. Documents containing sensitive information — financial data, HR files, legal documents — should be labelled appropriately so Copilot handles them correctly.
- Organised SharePoint structure. If your files are a mess, Copilot's answers will reflect that. A well-structured SharePoint environment means much better results.
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium or equivalent. The security and compliance features of Business Premium are needed to deploy Copilot responsibly.
- Staff training. Copilot is only as useful as the prompts your team gives it. Staff need to understand how to use it effectively to get genuine value from it.
What is Microsoft Copilot Studio?
Copilot Studio is a more advanced tool that allows businesses to build their own custom AI agents — essentially bespoke AI assistants trained on your specific data and designed for a specific business function.
Examples of what you can build with Copilot Studio:
- A client FAQ agent that answers common client questions automatically, trained on your own documentation
- An HR policy assistant that answers employee questions about company policies
- A legal intake agent that collects initial client information through a Teams conversation
- An automated document finder that retrieves specific files based on natural language requests
Copilot Studio connects to Power Automate, meaning your agents can trigger real business workflows — not just answer questions, but actually do things. This is where the technology becomes genuinely transformative for SMEs.
How long does Copilot take to implement?
A properly implemented Copilot deployment for a small business typically takes:
- Readiness assessment: 1–2 days (depending on the size and complexity of your environment)
- Remediation work (fixing permissions, labelling documents): 2–5 days
- Licence deployment and configuration: 1 day
- Staff training: Half day per session
So realistically, from starting the process to having Copilot live and your team trained, you're looking at two to four weeks. Businesses that skip the preparation work and just assign licences typically see poor adoption and limited value — and occasionally expose data they didn't mean to.
Is Microsoft Copilot worth it for an SME?
The honest answer is: it depends on how it's implemented.
Deployed properly, with the right preparation, training, and governance, Copilot delivers genuine, measurable time savings for most businesses. We've seen staff save 1–2 hours per day on routine tasks like email drafting, meeting summarisation, and document creation.
Deployed poorly — licences assigned, no training, no data governance — businesses get minimal value and often find their staff don't use it at all.
The technology is genuinely powerful. The implementation is what determines whether you get value from it.
Want to know if your business is ready for Copilot?
Book a free 30-minute Copilot Discovery Call. We'll assess your current Microsoft 365 setup and tell you exactly what needs to happen before you invest in Copilot licences.
Book Your Free Discovery Call →Key takeaways
- Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant built into Microsoft 365 that works with your own business data
- It can save significant time on email, documents, meetings, and data analysis
- It requires proper data governance and permissions to deploy safely
- It costs approximately £25–30 per user per month as an add-on
- Microsoft Copilot Studio allows you to build custom AI agents for specific business functions
- Implementation quality determines whether you get genuine value from it
About SRX IT Solutions
We are a Microsoft 365 and Copilot AI specialist based in Birmingham, working with SMEs across the UK. We hold a Copilot Premium licence and use it daily — so our advice comes from real experience, not theory. Learn more about our services →