If you’re a business owner, you’ll know how relentless it can be. Email. Meetings. Reports. Then meetings again to discuss the reports. What if there was an AI assistant built-in to the tools you already used – which could help you keep on top of your responsibilities?
That’s exactly where Microsoft Co-Pilot comes into play. But should you invest in it? Or is it just more tech hype?
What is Microsoft Co-Pilot?
Microsoft Co-Pilot is an AI agent built into Microsoft 365 apps – like Outlook, Word, Excel, and Teams. It is powered by GPT-4 and trained on your business data – making it context-driven, and surprisingly useful (most of the time).
Here are a few things it can do:
- Write emails in Outlook
- Create Excel formulas and reports
- Write or rewrite documents in Word
- Summarise Teams meetings
- Ask questions about the data in your SharePoint
What Are The Costs?
As of July 2025, Microsoft Co-Pilot is listed at $44.90 AUD per user/month, billed annually. This comes to $538.80 AUD up-front for the year.
In order to get Microsoft Co-Pilot, your users must hold a Microsoft 365 Business Standard, or Business Premium plan. For small teams, this can quickly add up – so be sure to assess the ROI before you push it out to your entire business.
Where Co-Pilot Succeeds and Fails
Where It Succeeds: Administrative users who work exclusively in Word, Outlook and Excel will fnd themselves in a major time saving situation.
Managers who juggle meetings and reports will enjoy using the summarizing, and drafting functions.
It’s great for small tasks that normally eat up 5–10 minutes at a time.
Where It Fails: It can “hallucinate,” meaning it sometimes makes up things, or provides incorrect facts. You will need to fact-check everything you create.
If your team only interacts with Microsoft 365 to obtain emails and calendars – this might be a bit of an overkill.
Is It Worth It?
If you depend on Microsoft 365 heavily and your staffing per business has a high flow of documents, emails and data – yes it is probably worth it.
If you only use Outlook for email, and do not do much inside Word, or Excel perhaps wait for the workflow to mature a little further.
For a full breakdown on all the features and pros and cons, and pricing see our video below:
