Microsoft recently announced the availability of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a new offering that adds pay-as-you-go agents to its existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 commercial customers. Copilot Chat enables customers’ entire workforce—from customer service representatives to marketing leads to frontline technicians—to start using Copilot and agents today. It includes:
- Free, secure AI chat powered by GPT-4o.
- Agents accessible right in the chat.
- IT controls, including enterprise data protection and agent management.
Moving forward, every organization will have a mix of Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot to drive AI transformation at scale.
Microsoft aspires to empower every employee with a Copilot and to transform every business process with AI agents. From Dow to Disney, companies are placing bets on Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents, uncovering key scenarios that can deliver ROI. Now, organizations of all sizes are looking to scale their AI transformation and realize the enterprise-wide ROI that comes with broad adoption.
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Essentially, Copilot is the UI for AI, and it all starts with Copilot Chat. It’s the chat experience employees use every day—powered by broad knowledge from the web, built on GPT-4o, and designed to be safe and secure for business use. It represents a shift in how work gets done, enabling employees to work smarter, faster, and more collaboratively.
Copilot Chat includes:
- Web-grounded chat with GPT-4o. Can be used to do market research, write a strategy document, or prepare for a meeting. File uploads allow users to add any document to the chat and ask Copilot to do things like summarize key points in a Word document, analyze data in an Excel spreadsheet, and suggest improvements to a PowerPoint presentation. With Copilot Pages, users can collaborate on content with people and AI in real time—adding content from Copilot, files, and now from the web as well. And users can quickly create AI-generated images for campaigns, product launches, and social media posts.
- Using natural language, now anyone can create agents to automate repetitive tasks and business processes—directly in Copilot Chat. A customer service representative can ask a customer relationship management (CRM) agent for account details before a customer meeting, while field service agents can access step-by-step instructions and real-time product knowledge stored in SharePoint. Agents are priced on a metered basis, and IT stays in control. IT admins can also build organization-wide agents and manage agent deployment, all powered by Microsoft Copilot Studio.
- Copilot Control System. Copilot Chat includes foundational capabilities of the Copilot Control System, including enterprise data protection (EDP) for data privacy and security and the ability to govern access and manage the usage and lifecycle of Copilot and agents, as well as measurement and reporting.
While Copilot Chat is a powerful new on-ramp for employees to build the AI habit, Microsoft 365 Copilot remains a personal AI assistant for work. It includes everything in Copilot Chat and more. Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of GPT-4o grounded in work data—meetings, emails, chats, documents; Copilot in the Microsoft 365 apps—Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; and usage and access to agents. And Microsoft continues to add new capabilities like Copilot Actions to tackle people’s biggest pain points at work. Microsoft’s goal is to empower every IT team to lead and manage at scale with the Copilot Control System and Copilot Analytics to measure the impact and ROI of the Copilot investment.
What this means for ERP Insiders
Copilot Chat bolsters Dynamics 365. Microsoft Copilot Chat has the potential to transform Dynamics 365 by enabling conversational AI-driven interactions that streamline tasks, enhance collaboration, and improve decision-making. With the new Copilot Chat, Microsoft Dynamics 365 users can ask questions and receive instant responses from Dynamics 365 applications using natural language. For example, in Dynamics 365 Sales, users can ask, “What are my top three leads for the week?” and receive actionable insights. Copilot Chat anticipates user needs and provides contextual recommendations based on ongoing tasks. For example, in Dynamics 365 Finance, it might suggest budget adjustments based on current spending trends. Dynamics 365 users can delegate repetitive tasks to Copilot Chat, such as generating reports, scheduling meetings, or updating records. For example, in Dynamics 365 Marketing, Copilot Chat can create a customer segment or draft a campaign email based on user input. Or in Dynamics 365 Customer Service, users can query, “Show me unresolved cases for this month,” and get instant results. Or in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Copilot Chat can forecast inventory shortages and suggest reordering quantities. And through an integration with Microsoft Teams, Copilot Chat can greatly improve cross-functional collaboration. Users can collaborate across teams by sharing Dynamics 365 insights directly within Teams through Copilot Chat. For instance, colleagues can discuss sales performance in real-time during a Teams meeting with data visualizations pulled by Copilot Chat.
AI-enabled capabilities deliver increasing share of ROI from ERP investments. The Return on Investment (ROI) from an ERP platform increasingly hinges on its AI-enabled capabilities, both now and in the future. The share of ROI attributable to AI is growing as these capabilities become more integrated and impactful in driving efficiency, scalability, and innovation. Studies suggest that AI-driven features in ERP platforms contribute between 30% and 40% of the total ROI today. This stems from reducing operational costs through task automation, enhancing decision-making through real-time insights and forecasting, improving engagement through AI-powered chatbots and personalized recommendations, and streamlining workflows, minimizing errors, and accelerating time-to-value. As AI capabilities advance, they are expected to dominate the ROI from ERP systems, driving 50-70% of ROI by 2030. AI will predict trends, disruptions, and opportunities with greater accuracy, driving strategic decision-making. ERP systems with AI will dynamically adapt to market changes, supply chain disruptions, and regulatory shifts. Advanced generative AI tools will revolutionize content creation, scenario modeling, and customer interactions. And AI will help companies achieve ESG objectives by optimizing energy use, reducing waste, and ensuring compliance.
Learn from early-adopters of Copilot Chat within Dynamics 365. Heineken utilized Dynamics 365 Copilot Chat to enhance customer engagement by integrating marketing and sales efforts. The AI-driven chat capabilities provided personalized interactions, leading to improved customer satisfaction and streamlined operations. Kodak Alaris adopted Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, enhanced by Copilot Chat, to gain visibility into customer data and save costs. The AI integration facilitated better decision-making and efficiency in marketing automation, resulting in significant operational improvements. And Microsoft’s internal Customer Service and Support (CSS) team implemented Dynamics 365 Copilot Chat to assist their agents. The integration led to a 12% reduction in average handle time for low-severity chat cases, enabling agents to resolve more cases faster and independently. This improvement was particularly beneficial for newer agents, expediting their onboarding process and reducing reliance on peer assistance.
