Copilot(s) on my mind

A post dedicated to Copilots. When did we hear about it for the first time? Have you followed how the concept has evolved? What’s what? I recently had to delve into this myself and I thought I might as well write down my thoughts in a post. So here it is!

One or several Copilots?

The headline to this post probably already reviled it, in Microsoft context, we are not just talking about one Copilot, we are talking about a whole ecosystem. Even though there is a product called Microsoft Copilot it does not mean that is the one and only.

Let’s look at the definition. Definitions are always fun. During Microsoft Build in May last year, in the session The era of the AI Copilot “Copilot” was described as

“An application using modern AI to assist you with complex cognitive tasks.”

Is there only one such application at Microsoft? Still no.

From GitHub Copilot to an ecosystem of Copilots

Where did we hear about it first? Perhaps GitHub Copilot. Introduced back in 2021 (not that long ago but considering the past year’s Copilot explosion it feels like a decade). Introducing GitHub Copilot: your AI pair programmer.

Copilot was not only to be a developer’s second pilot. Fast-forwarding to today and we have Copilots assisting us in almost every little corner of the product and features we are utilizing. There are over 80 Copilots from Microsoft!

There is an icon, which can be seen for Microsoft Copilot (more about that later) and Copilot for Microsoft 365. It is what I used as part of the cover photo. I am not 100 % sure if it is THE Copilot logo or mostly for Microsoft Copilot and Copilot for Microsoft 365. I assume it is THE Copilot logo. Time will tell!

Different types of Copilots

Copilots, in Microsoft context, can be divided into Copilots that are included in other product or services for free “embedded”, such as Copilot features in Maker Portal when we create apps or flows and some Copilot features that are embedded in Dynamics 365 apps.

The second category is add-ons, Copilots that can be bought as an addition to a certain feature or product. Examples are the newly introduced Copilot for Sales, formerly known as Sales Copilot and even further back knows as Viva Sales. Sales Copilot is now Copilot for Sales. From Viva Sales to Sales Copilot.

The third category are Custom Copilots. We can create our own Copilots, using Microsoft Copilot Studio or Azure OpenAI.

These three categories are described in a video from Microsoft, Understanding Copilots at Microsoft. In the video the add-ons are called “Solution Accelerators”.

I like the below picture, so much that I used it in my previous post as well 😉 It gives a good overview of how it is divided into Copilots created by Microsoft and Custom Copilots. It’s from the Microsoft Ignite 2023 session Transform copilot development with Microsoft Copilot Studio.

The Copilot evolution

What a year 2023 was! I even don’t know where to begin and I will can’t mention it all then this post will never end. (Well, at some point, but it would be long). Just to mention a few, in March Microsoft 365 Copilot was introduced. Later rebranded to Copilot for Microsoft 365. It had the old Copilot logo at first (seen in this post from Microsoft Sweden). We could see Copilot in Word, Copilot in PowerPoint, Copilot in Excel etc. Many more Copilot related announcements were made.

At Microsoft Ignite in November, as already mentioned, Microsoft Copilot Studio was introduced. One of the main Power Platform building block was now a part of Microsoft Copilot Studio. Farewell Power Virtual Agents! Microsoft Copilot Studio already had a logo when it was launched. It is downloadable, shared by Jack Rowbotham.

Microsoft Copilot was introduced too. That sounds like THE copilot, but should not be mixed up with all the embedded Copilots and the solution accelerators. Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise was rebranded into Microsoft Copilot.

Copilot for Azure was announced. BizApps related Copilots have been sneaking its way into the different products and features. We have Copilot in Power Apps and Copilot in Power Automate etc…

It has exploded like a big bang and it has been hard to follow what’s what. As usual keep your eyes open at the major Microsoft events such as Microsoft Build and Microsoft Ignite. I’m sure we can expect a lot more to happen, products and features to be re-imagined.

Fun facts

By the way, have you seen that we can also have a Copilot keyboard button? Introducing a new Copilot key to kick off the year of AI-powered Windows PCs.

Now to a more of a personal (but job related) fun fact. Do you know what made me get Copilot(s) on my mind in the first place? A colleage who asked a simle (?) little question, what logo/icon to use for a webinar landing page if the webinar will be about Copilot 💙 Dynamics 365 Sales.

My spontaneous answer was the bright new and shiny Copilot logo. Then I remembered I had seen a Sales Copilot logo. Then I remembered Sales Copilot is now Copilot for Sales. So the correct answer would be: It depends. 😉

Are we taking about Copilot for Sales? Then use the one on AppSource. Are we talking about Copilot 💙 Dynamics 365 Sales in general, i.e. both Copilot in Sales (embedded Copilot functionality) and Copilot for Sales. Then perhaps a combination of the new and shiny and the Dynamics 365 Sales logo. You can find the Copilot for Sales logo on the AppSource page Copilot for Sales.

Conclusions

Back to the questions I asked in the beginning. When did we hear about this concept for the first time? For me it was GitHub Copilot. Have you followed how the concept has evolved? Well, I have a bit and for this post I delved into different sources to find out more.

Findings: There are several different Copilots and they can be categorized, some come with an extra cost some are embedded. Microsoft Copilot is the result of rebranding Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise.

Thoughts: The naming of the different Copilots are a bit confusing and not all consistent yet. Licensing and finding out what’s included in what – I’ll leave for someone else to dig into. With so many Copilots being introduced, how is this concept presented in the official documentation? That, I will think about in my next post!

Cover photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash combined with the Icon for Copilot.