Which Copilot should I use?

General-purpose chat with public web grounding.

Best for

Public research, drafting, summarising, learning, low-risk Q&A.

Not for

Anything relying on internal emails, files, Teams or SharePoint context.

Licence

Included with existing Microsoft 365.

UK availability

Widely available in UK tenants.

Copilot Chat that can also see your work emails, meetings, files and Teams content.

Best for

Meeting prep, catching up after leave, finding decisions across your own permitted content.

Not for

Grounding on content the user is not permitted to see, or on tenant-wide data without permissions review.

Licence

Requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence per user.

UK availability

Available where the licence is assigned.

Copilot inside the specific Microsoft 365 app you are already using.

Best for

Drafting/editing in Word, analysing in Excel, deck-building in PowerPoint, email in Outlook, meeting recap in Teams.

Not for

Cross-app synthesis — use Copilot Chat with Work IQ for that.

Licence

Requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence per user.

UK availability

Modes labelled "chat", "edit" or "agent" may be renamed by Microsoft.

A focused workspace of selected files/notes, and an editable collaborative page for Copilot output.

Best for

Keeping a qualification review, policy update or investigation grounded in a controlled set of sources.

Not for

Ad-hoc single questions — start in Chat.

Licence

Microsoft 365 Copilot licence typically required for full features.

UK availability

Check sharing settings before inviting reviewers.

A simple personal or team agent that only reads public web sources.

Best for

Monitoring public regulator, JCQ or DfE pages; explainer or coaching agents on public info.

Not for

Answering from internal policy, HR, safeguarding or assessment content.

Licence

Usually included; check tenant configuration for metering.

UK availability

Safer starting point than work-grounded agents.

An agent grounded in your Microsoft 365 work data via Graph and permissions.

Best for

Approved-policy assistants where content is already properly permissioned.

Not for

Any tenant without a permissions review first.

Licence

Microsoft 365 Copilot licence; metering may apply to work-data grounding.

UK availability

Only as safe as your SharePoint / Teams permissions.

An agent scoped to one SharePoint site's content.

Best for

Onboarding sites, single-topic policy libraries, controlled approved-source knowledge.

Not for

Whole-tenant grounding or mixed-sensitivity sites.

Licence

Depends on Microsoft 365 Copilot / work-data metering.

UK availability

Prefer a scoped site over a broad content source.

A designed agent with topics, actions, connectors and channels.

Best for

Centre-facing FAQ agents, internal help agents, agents that take actions with approval.

Not for

Regulated AO decisions (marks, grades, malpractice, appeals, sanctions).

Licence

Copilot Studio and Copilot Credits; premium connectors may apply.

UK availability

Requires a formal design, test, monitor and retire lifecycle.

A preview experience on stride.microsoft.com, described by Microsoft as available to Microsoft accounts in the US.

Best for

Personal experimentation and horizon-scanning only.

Not for

UK AO business tenants and any live operational use.

Licence

Microsoft account (not a business Microsoft 365 Copilot tenant capability).

UK availability

Blue / on-radar for UK AOs — do not plan work around it.

Delegated, multi-step, action-taking Copilot that works across Microsoft 365 for you.

Best for

In future: board-pack preparation, multi-source drafting, delegated multi-step work — behind approvals and spending limits.

Not for

General staff today. Regulated AO decisions, ever.

Licence

Microsoft 365 Copilot + Copilot Credits (usage-billed).

UK availability

Announced GA on 16 June 2026 but off by default and usage-billed. Treat as a future app for UK AOs: plan for it, do not depend on it. Enable only after spending limits, action-approval settings, sensitive-conversation policy and an agent register are in place.

Cloud flows for handoffs between Microsoft 365 apps.

Best for

Query intake, reminders, acknowledgements, tracker updates.

Not for

Regulated decisions or anything needing AI credits.

Licence

Standard connectors included with Microsoft 365.

UK availability

Best starting point for automation without AI cost.

Flows that call AI actions such as classification, extraction, prompt or OCR.

Best for

Triage, extraction and summarisation where a human still reviews the output.

Not for

Deciding outcomes for candidates, centres or complaints.

Licence

AI Builder credits or Copilot Credits; premium connectors may apply.

UK availability

Confirm credit availability in the target environment before pilot.