Licensed users get this workplace AI assistant, which grounds large language models in organisational data from Microsoft Graph and the Microsoft 365 apps. It respects existing permissions, so people see only what they could already open; without the licence, people use the web-grounded Microsoft Copilot Chat instead.
Also called formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot.
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Terms in this definition
- Get
Key Vault permission on secrets that allows a single secret to be read; App Service Key Vault references need nothing beyond it.
- Chat message roles
Labels on chat messages: instructions go under system, the person's input under user, the model's previous answers under assistant, and results returned by a called tool under tool (or function).
- Microsoft Graph
API giving access to Entra and Microsoft 365 data. Authorisation uses application or delegated permissions rather than Azure RBAC.
- Microsoft 365 Apps
Word, Excel, Outlook and the rest of Microsoft's Office programs for the desktop, licensed by subscription. Admins roll them out using the Office Deployment Tool or Intune.
- AGDLP
Nesting pattern: users go into global groups, which go into domain local groups, which receive the permissions. AGUDLP adds universal groups for forests with several domains.
- Licence
What entitles one particular user to the services a subscription offers. Each product licence is made up of several service plans (one per app or service), and before giving it to someone an admin has to record that user's usage location.
- Microsoft Copilot Chat
A secure AI chat that comes with qualifying Microsoft 365 licences and draws mainly on the web. Unlike the licensed Microsoft Copilot, it only works with organisational content that a user uploads, has open in Outlook or Teams, or reaches through a pay-as-you-go agent.
Related terms
- Agent
A specialised form of Microsoft Copilot set up for one particular job, pairing instructions with knowledge and skills. You can create one in Copilot Studio, SharePoint or Agent Builder, and administrators control them from the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Agent Builder
A Microsoft Copilot tool where people describe a declarative agent in plain language, or fill in a Configure tab, and ground it in sources like SharePoint or Copilot connectors. If the agent later needs actions or workflows, a copy moves into Copilot Studio.
- Agent Dashboard
Gives leaders and analysts a picture of agent uptake and the credits those agents burn through, inside Viva Insights. It won't show data until a tenant has 50 or more Microsoft Copilot licences plus some agent usage.
- Analyst
A reasoning agent built by Microsoft that comes alongside Researcher for people with a Microsoft Copilot licence, and writes and runs code to work through raw data such as multiple spreadsheets. Agent settings don't govern it, because it belongs to the core Copilot Chat experience.
- Enterprise data protection
Covers prompts and responses in Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Chat whenever people sign in with an Entra work account. The term refers to the safeguards and promises Microsoft makes through its Product Terms and Data Protection Addendum.
- Microsoft Copilot app
Microsoft's app for using Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Chat, available in a browser, on the desktop and on phones. Its primary web address is switching to copilot.cloud.microsoft, replacing m365.cloud.microsoft.
- Microsoft Copilot experiences
A location you can pick in retention policies and in Communication Compliance to capture what people ask Microsoft-built Copilots and what those Copilots answer, covering, for example, Copilot Studio, Security Copilot, Copilot in Fabric and Microsoft Copilot. Copilot messages used to fall under the older Teams chats and Copilot interactions location.
- Other AI apps
A location in Communication Compliance and retention policies that captures what people do in consumer and third-party AI tools, ChatGPT, Google Gemini and consumer Microsoft Copilot among them. Enterprise AI apps are covered by their own, different location.