Artificial intelligence (AI) is now built into the Microsoft 365 apps many of us use every day. For small businesses that means real opportunities to save time, but also a few important things to get right before switching it on.
Here at Q6IT, more and more customers are asking us whether Microsoft Copilot is worth it, what it costs and whether it's safe. This plain-English guide explains what's available, how it can help, and what to check first.
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant. It can answer questions, draft and summarise text, and help with everyday tasks across Microsoft 365. For businesses, it comes in two main forms.
1. Copilot Chat: included with your Microsoft 365 business subscription
- Available at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 business plans.
- Works like a secure AI chat assistant, signed in with your work account.
- Good for drafting emails, summarising documents you give it, brainstorming ideas and researching topics on the web.
- Your business data is protected, and your conversations aren't used to train Microsoft's AI models.
2. Microsoft 365 Copilot: a paid add-on
- Charged per user, per month, with a dedicated Copilot Business option for organisations with up to 300 users.
- Works inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, using your organisation's own emails, files, chats and meetings.
- Can summarise a long email thread, write up actions from a Teams meeting, draft a proposal from existing documents, analyse a spreadsheet or turn a report into a presentation.
How can Copilot help a small business?
Used well, Copilot can take a lot of the repetitive work off your team:
- Catching up quickly: summarise long email threads or meetings you missed.
- Writing faster: first drafts of emails, letters, quotes, policies and social media posts.
- Making sense of numbers: ask questions about a spreadsheet in plain English.
- Presentations in minutes: turn a Word document into a PowerPoint deck.
- Finding information: locate the right file or email without endless searching.
It won't replace your people, and everything it produces still needs checking, but it can give them back valuable time each week.
Things to consider before you switch it on
1. Who can see what?
This is the most important point. Microsoft 365 Copilot can only see information the user is already allowed to access, but in many businesses those permissions have grown messy over the years. Files shared with "everyone", old SharePoint sites and folders nobody has reviewed can all suddenly become easy to find.
Before rolling out Copilot, it's well worth reviewing your sharing settings and permissions, so staff can only reach what they should.
2. Is your data in the right place?
Copilot works best when your files are organised in OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams rather than scattered across local drives and personal accounts. A tidy-up beforehand makes it far more useful.
3. The cost
Copilot Chat costs nothing extra, so it's an easy place to start. The paid Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on is charged for every licensed user, so it's usually best to start with the people who'll get the most out of it, then expand.
4. Training your team
AI is only as good as the questions it's asked. A little training on writing clear prompts, and on checking the results, makes a big difference to how much value your team gets.
5. Free AI tools and confidential information
Staff may already be using free public AI tools from their personal accounts. Pasting customer details or confidential documents into those tools could put your data at risk. Giving your team a secure, approved option like Copilot Chat helps keep business information where it belongs.
Create a simple AI policy
Whatever you decide, it's a good idea to put a short AI policy in place that covers:
- which AI tools staff are allowed to use for work
- what information must never be entered into AI tools
- that AI-generated content must always be checked before it's used or sent
- who to ask for help or report concerns to
Thinking about Copilot? Talk to Q6IT
Q6IT can help you get your Microsoft 365 ready for AI: reviewing permissions and sharing, tidying up where your data lives, setting up Copilot Chat or Microsoft 365 Copilot licences, and helping your team get the most from it.
Find out more about our Microsoft services, or get in touch with Q6IT to talk about whether Copilot is right for your business.