21 January 2025
Microsoft Puts Copilot Chat in Front of Every Business
21 January 2025
Microsoft has announced Copilot Chat: a secure, work-grade AI chat included for Microsoft 365 business subscribers at no extra cost, with the option to pay as you go for "agents" that automate specific tasks. The full Microsoft 365 Copilot — the one embedded in Word, Excel and Outlook — remains a paid add-on per user.
Why this is significant
Most UK SMEs run on Microsoft 365. That means, practically overnight, most UK SMEs now have a sanctioned, admin-controlled AI chat sitting inside their existing tools — no shadow accounts, no pasting client data into a personal chatbot.
Microsoft's strategy is transparent and clever: give the chat away, get your staff hooked on the habit, then sell the deeper integration and the agents. Whether you buy the add-on or not, the free tier alone changes the question from "should we allow AI at work?" to "how do we use it well?"
Three sensible first steps
- Set a simple usage policy. One page. What's allowed, what isn't, and where client data may and may not go.
- Pick two workflows, not twenty. Meeting summaries and first-draft emails are the classic quick wins.
- Train before you buy. Licences don't create productivity; confident users do. Prove value on the free tier first.
The tools have arrived at your staff's desks. The only question is whether the skills arrive too.