Today, we announced that we are expanding Copilot for Microsoft 365 to a much broader set of organizations, available across more channels, and without a minimum seat required. We are also extending our data residency commitments for Copilot for Microsoft 365 and bringing Microsoft Copilot Graph-grounded chat to Copilot in Windows. Join the upcoming AMA and Tech Accelerator event and engage with experts from Microsoft to learn more about Copilot for Microsoft 365.
Expanding availability of Copilot for Microsoft 365
Starting today, we have removed the 300-seat minimum purchase for Copilot for Microsoft 365 commercial plans. We have also extended support so that Office 365 E3 and E5 customers are eligible to purchase Copilot, and we’re extending Semantic Index for Copilot to Office 365 users with a paid Copilot license. Finally, we have announced that Copilot for Microsoft 365 is generally available for businesses of all sizes, supported on Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Business Premium. This follows a successful early access program focused specifically on small and medium businesses, as well as the previously announced availability for staff and faculty of education institutions with Microsoft 365 A3 or A5 licenses. Commercial customers—including small and medium-sized businesses—can now purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365 through our network Cloud Solution Provider partners (CSPs) and you can learn more about them here.
We still recommend that customers start by giving Copilot to a critical mass of their information workers. We learned during the early access program that this creates a flywheel of interest and adoption, accelerating time to value and an organization’s ability to measure impact in a meaningful way. Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses will be capped by the total number of eligible base licenses that a customer has. That is, customers must have a product license of one of the prerequisite base SKUs for each seat of Copilot for Microsoft 365 they purchase. You can review requirements for Copilot here.
Updating data residency commitments
We’ve heard feedback from our Enterprise customers that they need assurances that Copilot data is managed appropriately across geographically diverse teams. To support, Copilot for Microsoft 365 upholds residency commitments as outlined in the Microsoft Product Terms and Data Protection Addendum.
We’re pleased to share that later this year Copilot for Microsoft 365 will be added as a covered workload under the data residency commitments in Microsoft Product Terms and the Microsoft Advanced Data Residency (ADR) and Multi-Geo Capabilities add-ons. For additional information on Copilot for Microsoft 365 privacy and data storage please visit Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365. To learn more about our commitments to data residency, see Microsoft 365 Data Residency Overview and Definitions.
Microsoft Copilot capabilities coming to Windows desktop
Organizations will soon be able to experience Copilot for Microsoft 365 integrated in Windows desktop, bringing Graph-grounded chat capabilities to Copilot in Windows for users with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license. This update will be available to organizations with Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Copilot in Windows enabled, beginning the week of February 4th. This adds a new, simple way for users to access Copilot, in addition to the current surfaces in Teams, Edge, and copilot.microsoft.com. For information on managing Copilot in Windows, review this article.
Start preparing your organization for Copilot for Microsoft 365
There are steps you can take today to get your tenant prepared for Copilot:
- Prepare your data and assess all relevant data security, privacy, and compliance controls are in place. Copilot inherits your existing permissions and policies so ensuring that these are in place helps ensure seamless deployment. Conduct access reviews for SharePoint sites, documents and tenant data, employ the use of sensitivity labels to protect important data, and validate policies for data loss prevention, retention, and compliance.
- Review prerequisites for Copilot by reviewing overview and requirements for Microsoft 365 Copilot to position your tenant to seamlessly deploy Copilot. This setup guide also provides a simple walkthrough of the process.
- Learn more about Copilot for Microsoft 365, how it works, benefits to your organizations, how your data is handled and protected.
- Familiarize yourself with the admin controls available to manage Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center Copilot page.
- Develop your adoption strategy by leveraging the resources available on our adoption site, including this adoption kit and user onboarding toolkit.
- Check readiness, measure adoption and impact through the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard (in Preview) in Viva Insights or PowerBI that helps organizations maximize the value of Copilot for Microsoft 365. It provides actionable insights to help your organization get ready to deploy AI, drive adoption based on how AI is transforming workplace behavior and measure the impact of Copilot.
To learn more about Copilot, you can review our documentation hub, requirements, setup, and information about privacy, security, and compliance. You can also watch our sessions at this past Ignite on getting ready for Copilot.
For small and medium business customers, join our discussion forum to collaborate with other Copilot for Microsoft 365 users, take part in community calls with open Q&A, hear directly from Microsoft Copilot engineers, and access exclusive resources. Also, check out the resources available on the small and medium business Copilot adoption site.
For a comprehensive introduction and deep dive into Copilot for Microsoft 365, join us during our Copilot for Microsoft 365 Tech Accelerator, February 28 and 29, right here in the Tech Community. Listen in as experts from Microsoft talk delve into preparing for Copilot with recommendations and best practices, share strategies on driving adoption, and measuring and maximizing value for your organization. There will also be plenty of opportunities to ask questions and engage with our experts.
Finally, join our next Ask Me Anything (AMA) tomorrow at 9am PT, here in the Copilot for Microsoft 365 Tech Community. Feel free to post your questions onto the event page ahead of time, and our panel of experts will answer them during the event.
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