Microsoft 365 · Copilot
Microsoft 365 Copilot
AI across Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook — grounded securely on your own business data, deployed by a Microsoft CSP that gets the security right first.
Quick answer
Microsoft 365 Copilot is the paid AI assistant that works inside your Office apps and grounds its answers on your organisation’s data via Microsoft Graph, while keeping that data inside your Microsoft 365 tenant and UK/EU compliance boundary. Foresight licenses and deploys it securely — from around £16.10 per user per month for Business, on a qualifying base licence.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Three products share the “Copilot” name — here’s the difference
Most confusion at the point of purchase comes from this: Copilot Chat is the free, web-grounded assistant included with eligible Microsoft 365 plans; Copilot Pro is an individual add-on for personal subscriptions; and Microsoft 365 Copilot is the paid business product that works inside your Office apps and reaches into your organisation’s data. When people say they want “Copilot for the team”, they almost always mean the third one.
| Plan | Indicative UK price | Reads your company data (Graph)? | Inside Word, Excel & Teams? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot Chat | Free with eligible M365 | No — web-grounded only | Chat interface | A safe, free starting point |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (Business) | from ~£16.10 / user / mo* | Yes — via Microsoft Graph | Yes | SMEs under 300 users |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (Enterprise) | ~£24.70 / user / mo* | Yes — via Microsoft Graph | Yes | E3/E5 estates |
*Indicative, annual commitment, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 base licence (Business Standard/Premium or E3/E5). Promotional Business rates have applied through 2026 — we’ll confirm the live figures.
Your data stays inside your boundary
For a data-secure UK business this is the headline. Microsoft enforces strict data-isolation boundaries for Copilot: your company data stays within your secure Microsoft 365 tenant and its UK/EU compliance boundary, and your prompts and files are never used to train the public foundation models. Copilot Chat carries the “green shield” Commercial Data Protection so day-to-day chat can’t leak into the public web.
Copilot sees exactly what each employee sees — so fix the controls first
Paid Copilot mirrors the access rights of the logged-in user. If a file is loosely shared (“anyone in the organisation”), Copilot can surface it instantly. Before rolling out licences, these controls should be in place:
| Prerequisite | Microsoft licence | Role in your Copilot rollout |
|---|---|---|
| Data classification | Microsoft Purview Information Protection | Applies sensitivity labels so Copilot won’t surface documents a user isn’t entitled to see |
| Access governance | Microsoft Entra ID P2 / Governance | Limits privileges (with PIM) so Copilot can’t expose administrative settings |
| Device integrity | Microsoft Defender for Endpoint | Ensures staff aren’t interacting with Copilot data on a compromised device |
Getting this right is exactly the kind of work Foresight does before we switch Copilot on — a short readiness review, sensitivity labels and access clean-up, then a controlled rollout.
Copilot vs ChatGPT, Claude & Gemini
They’re all capable assistants, but for a business already on Microsoft 365, Copilot is the one that works inside your apps, grounds on your own data, and stays within the security and compliance controls you already run. See the full, fair breakdown on our Copilot vs ChatGPT, Claude & Gemini page.
FAQs
Common questions
Is Microsoft 365 Copilot safe for a data-secure UK business?
How much does Microsoft 365 Copilot cost?
Do we need anything before turning Copilot on?
Buy Microsoft licensing through a partner who supports you
Foresight is a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP). We licence, deploy and secure Microsoft 365 and Copilot for organisations across Greater Manchester and the UK — on transparent fixed monthly pricing.