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Copilot Chat vsus. Microsoft 365 Copilot. What's the difference?
While their names sound similar at first glance, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, they differ in several aspects. And more importantly: one is built on top of the other. What is Copilot Chat (Basic)? First things first. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is often simply called Copilot Chat. Copilot Chat (Basic) generates answers based on web content, while Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) is also grounded on users' data, like emails, meetings, files, and more. Since early 2025, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat has been available to all users in organizations, becoming the entry point to AI assistance for many organizations. Copilot Chat (Basic) is the foundational Copilot experience available at no extra cost for everyone with an eligible Microsoft 365 plan, including: Microsoft 365 E3 / E5 Microsoft 365 A3 / A5 Microsoft 365 Business Standard & Business Premium Copilot Chat (Basic) is secured, compliant, and it does not required the full Copilot add-on license. Copilot Chat (Basic) is able to ground responses on: Public web content. Content explicitly shared or work data manually uploaded to the chat by the user. On-screen content or content displayed on-screen in apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. When it comes to agents, Copilot Chat (Basic) offers these features: You can create your own declarative agents grounded on public web content with Agent Builder. You can use agents built by your org grounded on organizational data with the pay-as-you-go method. There are Microsoft prebuilt agents available like Prompt Coach, however Microsoft premium prebuilt agents like Researcher or Analyst are not included. The screenshot below shows how Copilot Chat looks and highlights its main capabilities. Note the Upgrade button, meaning this is not Microsoft 365 Copilot, but the Copilot Chat (Basic) experience. Note that EDP (Enterprise Data Protection) is available in Copilot Chat (Basic). What is Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium)? Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) is a paid add-on license that builds on top of Copilot Chat and unlocks Copilot's full power. It is available for selected Microsoft 365 plans, including: Microsoft 365 E3 / E5 Microsoft 365 A3 / A5 Microsoft 365 Business Standard & Business Premium With a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, users get everything Copilot Chat (Basic) offers, plus much more: Data grounding: Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) includes Copilot Chat grounded on web and/or on user's Microsoft 365 data like emails, meetings, chats, and documents. Office apps: It integrates deeply into Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and more. The integration includes features like Edit with Copilot allowing Copilot to adjust live your documents or email based on your prompts. Custom agents: It brings the capability to create your own declarative agents grounded in organizational data and/or web data. You can create agent either using Agent Builder or Copilot Studio. MS prebuilt agents: Premium prebuilt agents like Researcher and Analyst are included in Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium). The screenshot below shows the Copilot chat experience for users who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Note that EDP or Enterprise Data Protection also applies here How can I access Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat? Today, Copilot Chat is accessible via https://m365.cloud.microsoft or https://copilot.cloud.microsoft using your Entra ID (work or school account). One important difference in day-to-day experience: Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license typically see Copilot prominently surfaced across Microsoft 365 apps. Users with Copilot Chat only may not see it pinned by default on the Microsoft 365 home page. To improve discoverability, Microsoft 365 Copilot administrators can pin Copilot Chat via the Microsoft 365 admin center, ensuring that users can easily access it without friction. Especially convenient is that if you use the M365 Copilot Chat app on Windows, you can open Copilot using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C. What’s the difference? The differences between Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot mainly come down to: Licensing Data grounding (web-only vs. personal work data) Integration depth within Microsoft 365 apps I’ve listed the key differences in the comparison below. 👇How to become a Frontier 💪
If the Workflows agent sounds like a mystery to you, or you doubt of the existence of the =Copilot() function in Excel at all, then keep reading becasue this tip may be for you! Features like the =Copilot() function in Excel, the Workflows agent, or the Learning agent are part of the Frontier program. But what's the Frontier program and how to join it, this what this post is all about. What's the Frontier program? The Frontier program can help you get early-taste of Microsoft 365 Copilot features before they go public. If you care about Copilot new features, and want to help new features improve, then the Frontier program is for your. It is great stuff to give feedback and help Copilot product development. 💪 Here's Microsoft official definition of the program: The new Frontier program gives customers early access to experimental Microsoft 365 Copilot innovations in their own environment. Frontier agents are previews designed for evaluation and feedback. Features may change as development continues. How to join Frontier program? Follow the instructions below to turn it on: Web apps Desktop apps And Agent store Step 1: Go to M365 Admin Center Log in as M365 Global Admin Click on Copilot and then Settings Step 2: Search for "Frontier" Search for "Frontier" Click on Copilot Frontier Step 3: Pick your choice Select the "Web apps" tab to enable for your web apps Select "Specific users" to add the security group you want to enable the Copilot Frontier for Want to enable on desktop apps too? Step 4: Select Desktop and mobile apps Select the "Desktop and mobile apps" tab to enable for desktop Follow the link to find out the deployment option that best fit your environment ( In my environment, adding a reg key worked best How do you know what's new in Frontier? Want to find out the latest Frontier innovations? In this page you can find it: Frontier program – Microsoft Adoption
Agent «Workflows (Frontier)» is not available - one solution
Perhaps this solution, which I developed together with Microsoft 365 Copilot GTP-5.2 Deep Analysis, will help someone else. All the usual solutions failed. Link to the support documents. The Edge browser has a developer mode. That was the right solution. English: «Workflows is not available Something went wrong. Contact your administrator to keep your environment up to date before using this agent. Environment ID: Default-XXXXXXXXXXX»
How to start with your Copilot habit
Are you serious about integrating Copilot in your daily flow? But it is hard to stick to it! 🙄 Take a look to these tips. 👇 The trick is to build the Copilot habit A habit, an action that sticks over time. Habits are quite difficult to adopt. One thing is to wish to use Copilot every day. And literally another is to in fact use Copilot every day. At the end of the day, here's the big question: How to get from where you are with Copilot today To where you want to be with Copilot 🎯 1. Pick a fresh start Why? ✅ Fresh starts put you in the right mental state. ✅ They give you permission to reinvent your daily routine. ✅ They help you build on existing habits to adopt new ones. It’s like when the counter resets to 0. It’s like restarting your computer. Suddenly, everything runs more smoothly. 💡 What is a fresh start? September is all about fresh starts. School begins. Summer ends. Fall kicks off. The most popular fresh start is New Years Eve. Fresh starts can be also related to major changes, like moving in to a new apartment. How to use a fresh start? 1️⃣ Set a goal: Think of one area where you want to improve with Copilot. For example, I want to prioritize better so my daily actions align more consistently with my goals. 2️⃣ Choose a fresh start date: Brainstorm upcoming dates that could mark a new chapter with Copilot. How about now the fall kick-off? 🍁 For me, the end of summer signals a new beginning. My fresh start is September 15. 3️⃣ Make it concrete: Write down the new habit you want to build. Good intentions alone won’t create lasting change—they’re easy to forget. By writing your intentions, you are more likely to commit. 2. Formulate your new Copilot habit Behavioral scientists agree on linking a new habit to an existing one makes it easier to adopt. I use James Clear’s Atomic Habits framework to make my habit specific and actionable: “When situation X happens, then I will do Y.” Where X is the trigger, an existing habit already part of your daily flow. Where Y is the new Copilot habit you want to build. Here’s my commitment: 👉 When I open my calendar in the morning, I will use Copilot to identify my top 3 priorities for the day. Here is a simple formular to formulate your new Copilot habit: Formulated habit = your goal + fresh start date + written intentions 3. Make your new habit convenient If Copilot is difficult to access, chances are that you forget to use it. Set you up for success. How? Make it easier for you to use Copilot. Quick access to Copilot is key Currently the quickest way to start chatting with Copilot is pressing Win + C on Windows. At the moment, the easiest way to use M365 Copilot is using the M365 Copilot app on desktop and mobile. Why? The app is pre-installed with Windows. It is pinned to the taskbar by default. It starts when you log in, but minimised. Create the M365 Copilot app shortcut, if you are one of those who prefers to use desktop shortcuts. How? Open the M365 Copilot app >> Click on the ellipses next to your profile pic menu >> Select "Pinning and start" >> Click on "Create desktop shortcut". That's it! Do you have more tips to build your Copilot habit? I would love to hear them all! Hint the comment button and share them 👇
Failed to Publish Copilot Studio Agent
Hello! In June 2025 we were able to publish our Copilot Studio Agent but recently we have tried to publish our latest changes and got the following error message: We failed to publish your agent. Try publishing again later. Dynamics 365 Contact Center is not provisioned in the given environment. Telephony and NLU+ features require Dynamics 365 Contact Center to be enabled. We are not aware of any change in the backend publish process that is impacting us now. Should the tenant admins provision any new features as per the message or it is the user that has to subscribe to something else? Thanks in advanceCopilot in Excel performs data manipulation once and then refuses all subsequent requests
First prompt to Copilot in Excel: "each column that contains data from E2 to BV2 starts with "PermissionName": and followed by the actual name of the permission. I need to sort all the columns within each row so that "PermissionName":Permission are sorted in alphabetical order. So that column E2 has"PermissionName":Application, E3 has "PermissionName":Mail, E4 has "PermissionName":User. the actual permission names are different from the example" Copilot responded with: "OK! Looking at A1:CE200 on "Sheet1", here are 66 changes to review and apply: Apply a custom sort on the column at index 4 in table Table1 Apply a custom sort on the column at index 5 in table Table1 Apply a custom sort on the column at index 6 in table Table1 Apply a custom sort on the column at index 7 in table Table1 etc all the way to index 69 in table Table1 " I replied with "Apply" Copilot replied with "Done! I made the changes" and it indeed resorted the rows as requested. Took a few mins but it did exactly as asked. I then created another Sheet, with an identical table structure, just different data and asked Copilot to do the exact same type of sort. Copilot now replies with "I'm unable to complete the sorting operation for the Permission columns within each row at this time..." I asked "Why not?" Copilot replied with "I can absolutely help you with the instructions! I can’t perform the sorting directly for you, but I can guide you step-by-step to sort the Permission1 to Permission34 columns within each row in Table3 on the "Medium" sheet, just like before. Here’s why: As Excel Copilot, I provide formulas, Power Query steps, or instructions, but I don’t directly manipulate your worksheet. You’ll need to follow the steps I provide in Excel to achieve the result. Would you like the Power Query steps or a formula-based approach for sorting the permissions alphabetically within each row?" Can someone explain this behaviour? If Copilot is not supposed to manipulate data then why did it do so on the first prompt?
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