Copilot Chat
A general conversational AI for questions, exploration, drafting, summarizing and fast feedback.
- Best when
- The work is one-off, still ambiguous, or benefits from back-and-forth.
- You provide
- A question, prompt and relevant context.
- You get
- An answer, draft, synthesis or next move, usually within one session.
- Control model
- You drive every turn and decide what happens next.
- Nuance
- With Work IQ on, licensed users can ground Chat in accessible work content such as email, chats and files; with it off, Chat is grounded in the web.
- Not this
- A durable workflow just because you wrote a good prompt once.
In this workshop
“Help me search broadly across my weekly frustrations, then narrow them to one sharp Pain Card.”
Copilot Agent
A reusable specialist configured for a defined purpose, with instructions, selected knowledge and, where enabled, actions.
- Best when
- The same bounded job, method or standard should be applied repeatedly.
- You provide
- A role, instructions, knowledge, boundaries and examples.
- You get
- Consistent handling of the same class of problem; the exact response or action depends on the agent's configured capabilities.
- Control model
- An owner designs and governs it; a user invokes it and reviews the result.
- Nuance
- An agent can be simple or powerful. The distinguishing idea here is reusable specialization, not “a bot that works by itself.”
- Not this
- Automatic proof that a process is safe, correct or ready to scale.
In this workshop
“Run the Painkiller Solution Architect every time a new Pain Card arrives, and return one Build Brief.”
Copilot Cowork
A delegation surface for multi-step work across Microsoft 365. You describe the outcome; Cowork plans, executes and produces work using available skills and apps.
- Best when
- The outcome spans several steps, sources or applications, or should continue while you focus elsewhere.
- You provide
- The outcome, context, boundaries, quality bar and checkpoints.
- You get
- Completed artifacts and, when authorized, actions across Microsoft 365; work may take minutes to hours.
- Control model
- You can follow, steer, pause and review. Cowork pauses for approval before important actions such as sending or scheduling.
- Nuance
- Availability depends on license, tenant enablement, permissions and usage-based billing.
- Not this
- Invisible autonomy or guaranteed correctness. Finished work still needs human judgment.
In this workshop
“Take the approved Build Brief, create the smallest useful version, run it once, show the evidence and improve one thing.”