Different GenAI-empowered Products in Microsoft Ecosystem
Microsoft Copilot has a specific meaning in Generative AI world. Generally it should be based on a large language model (in Microsoft context, it is very likely Azure OpenAI, which is based on OpenAI). As more advanced AI, it is embedded in different Microsoft products (currently providing chat interface).
Microsoft Copilot in different Microsoft products
Bing search powered by chat. Available only to users of browser (Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome) and Bing mobile app. There is also Bing image creator.
A premium service costing $20 per month. According to Microsoft, this version of Copilot would provide priority access to newer models, including GPT-4 Turbo, during peak usage periods (which is like ChatGPT Plus).
OpenAI Codex-powered IDE for smart code generation/pair programmer. OpenAI Codex is based on GPT-3 and quite old. The latest version is called GitHub Copilot X (based on OpenAI’s GPT-4)
Microsoft 365 Copilot
GenAI-powered Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, Whiteboard, OneNote, Microsoft Viva Learning, Sharepoint
- Integrate with Bing chat
- Chat and control Windows (through command, or Windows apps)
Power Platform Copilot
Copilot in cloud flows (Power Automate)
Azure Copilot
Data
Microsoft Fabric and Copilot in Microsoft Power BI
Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering, Copilot for Data Factory, Copilot for Power BI
Security
Security Copilot, integrated with Microsoft Sentinel, Defender (Cloud, External Attack Surface Management (EASM), extended detection and response (XDR), Threat Intelligence), Intune, Entra, Purview
Extending Microsoft Copilot
Out-of-box Microsoft Copilot may not satisfy all your needs. Microsoft is a platform company, so like many Microsoft products, you can leverage exposed API to extend Microsoft Copilot.
From Copilot Pro (for individual customer), you can customize the behavior of Microsoft Copilot (similar to OpenAI GPTs)
Copilot Studio
This is more targeted Enterprise customer. It is based on Microsoft Power Virtual Agent. Although roadmap is not clear, I hope it can support more Enterprise data source (e.g. Microsoft Dataverse, Sharepoint sites, Teams sites)
You can create customized Copilot.
Currently only Power Automate flow plugin and prompt plugin are supported. Will see if it will expand to “Power Platform custom connectors” and other connectors.
Since above tools are low-code/no-code, what they can create could be limited.
Pro-code
Extending M365 Copilot
3 extensibility scenarios
Power Platform connector plugins: no-code or low-code developer
Microsoft Graph connectors: leverage Microsoft Graph and connect your unstructured enterprise data in Microsoft 365
Teams message extension plugins: connect your structured data in real-time from external sources on the fly
I hope they could be more scenarios (e.g. in other M365 products like Word, Powerpoint, etc.)
Build your own Copilot
The main LLM is Azure OpenAI
Azure AI services encompass all of what were previously known as Cognitive Services (vision, video, speech, language, translator, document intelligence) and Azure Applied AI Services (Azure OpenAI, AI Search, Content safety).
Deploy your own LLM
You can use open-source LLMs
