Which Copilot? Explaining the Copilot family tree

Introducing the #CopilotChallenge. Write a prompt using Bing Chat that generates an explanation of what Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Viva Copilot are, what the difference are between the product family and the feature in a product, and the differences in licensing.

My Bing Chat session gave some info that was helpful. It positioned Microsoft Viva Copilot as being “built on the Microsoft 365 Copilot system.” But as I progressed through my chat, I didn’t get satisfactory answers to explain the difference between Copilot ‘the product’ and Copilot ‘the feature’. There was no clarity around Viva Copilot licensing as it doesn’t seem to be available in search results.

Bing Chat has to overcome some problems to find the information and present it.

The first problem is that Copilot is both a range of product families and a feature of products within those families. A mention of “Copilot” in an article needs to be understood in proximity to either the product family, like Microsoft 365, or a product of Microsoft 365, like Microsoft Teams.

The second problem is that there are two ways that the Copilot product families are being referred to. Either Copilot for Microsoft 365, or Microsoft 365 Copilot.

The third problem is that the official sources of information from Microsoft, the blogs and articles, aren’t complete. Bing Chat will try to bring answers from multiple sources together. If the official blogs don’t have the answer, it will find ‘an answer’ on other sources where information might be assumptions or speculation.

I don’t have a deep knowledge of ChatGPT and Bing Chat. I don’t know how it understands an authoritative source, or how it ranks sources to provide a response. But at least Bing Chat will provide sources so you can check it out for yourself.

I found out the manual way. My sources are Copilot announcements on official Microsoft blogs and a LinkedIn post from a Microsoft employee. This is what I came up with.

Microsoft Viva Copilot is a family of other Copilots within different Viva products. e.g. Copilot in Viva Topics.1️⃣

Copilot in Viva will be included in the cost of a Viva Premium suite license.2️⃣

Copilot in M365 is a family of other Copilots within different M365 products. e.g. Copilot in Teams.3️⃣

Copilot in M365 is not included in the cost of any existing licensing for M365. It is a separate license purchase and even requires an upgrade from O365 E3/E5 to M365 E3/E5.4️⃣

References:

1️⃣“Introducing Copilot in Microsoft Viva—A new way to boost employee engagement and performance” - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/04/20/introducing-copilot-in-microsoft-viva-a-new-way-to-boost-employee-engagement-and-performance/

2️⃣ LinkedIn post from Nick Ledger, Employee Experience Specialist at Microsoft. -https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nickledger_microsoft-viva-suite-announcements-activity-7087354732612055040-tulA

3️⃣ “Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot – your copilot for work” - https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/03/16/introducing-microsoft-365-copilot-your-copilot-for-work/

4️⃣ “Introducing Bing Chat Enterprise, Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing, and Microsoft Sales Copilot” - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/07/18/introducing-bing-chat-enterprise-microsoft-365-copilot-pricing-and-microsoft-sales-copilot/

Let’s put that together in something more pictorial, graphical, visual.

You can see how this can become confusing. Copilot is a name for a technology within Microsoft products. Copilot is a family of products, in the case of M365 Copilot and Microsoft Viva Copilot.

• Copilot is a product for Microsoft Teams, Viva Topics and Viva Engage.

• Copilot is a feature for a product, like Copilot in Teams Meetings chat or Copilot in Answers.

My diagram is incomplete. I am not a genealogist I will leave it up to someone else to complete the family tree. But I think you understand the analogy.

Regarding license costs, that is up to where Microsoft draws the line. For Microsoft 365 Copilot, it’s US$30 user / month. It’s not included in any existing M365 license, and you may have to upgrade to use it.

For Microsoft Viva Copilot, it’s included in the Viva Premium suite license at US$12 user / month.

Viva Copilot and M365 Copilot provide different functionality within each of their products. But the objective is the same. Copilot assists you with by providing knowledge and starter content from the product you are working in.

Thank you Lesley Crook and Tom Arbuthnot for inspiring this post. Tom covered Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot in Teams in his recent Empowering.Cloud briefing. Lesley shared a LinkedIn post that announced Microsoft Viva Copilot would be included in the cost of a Viva Premium suite license. But we all struggled to understand “which Copilot” and the family tree of Copilots.

So, how is that prompt coming along for the #CopilotChallenge? Can you get Bing Chat to explain the Copilot product and feature family tree?

Share your results and tag me - @DarrellaaS on Twitter, @DarrellCWebster on Threads, Darrell Webster on LinkedIn.