Microsoft Copilot AI at UW-Madison
The information that follows provides a current snapshot (as of October 2025) of the various Copilot product offerings, what is available in our environment, and the capabilities they bring to our services.
Microsoft Copilot Versions and Features Available to UW-Madison Users
Applies to all UW-Madison Faculty, Staff, and Students
Copilot (Free/Consumer)
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General AI Assistant: Standalone chat experience powered by Microsoft’s AI.
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Public Knowledge Only: Pulls from web and public data, not your organization’s files, emails, or Teams.
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Capabilities:
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General Q&A, summarization, rewriting
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Creative content (lists, stories, ideas, images where enabled)
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Basic productivity help (limited to what the user pastes in)
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Licensing: Free with Microsoft account; not tied to licenses.
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Notes: No M365 tenant data exposure. Provides general-purpose AI, but not enterprise features. Does not provide enterprise data protection.
Copilot Chat
- Access chat interface directly via https://m365.cloud.microsoft/chat
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Access chat interface across Microsoft Apps: Appears as a sidebar or chat panel in Microsoft 365 apps (Word, Outlook, Excel, Teams).
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Data access depends on license:
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Without a Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription it behaves like free Copilot, limited to web/public knowledge.
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With a Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription it functions as a conversational front-end for tenant data (emails, files, calendars, Teams, SharePoint).
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Capabilities:
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Ask questions in natural language
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Generate or edit content in context of the app (if licensed for M365 Copilot)
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Summarize or explain content you provide
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Licensing: Limited features are included in Microsoft 365 applications without additional licensing. Full Copilot for M365 Applications (paid licenses) are not yet available to UW-Madison users.
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Notes: Copilot Chat without a Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscription license does not grant deeper tenant integration.
Copilot in Windows
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Built into Windows & Edge: Available on eligible Windows 11 versions.
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System Context: Can assist with system tasks (settings, opening apps), and summarize on-screen text in some apps.
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Capabilities:
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General chat and Q&A
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Adjust OS/system settings
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Summarize what’s open on screen (with user consent)
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Licensing: Bundled with Windows
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Notes: Lightweight AI support in the desktop environment. Like free Copilot, it does not integrate with Microsoft 365 data unless paired with a full Copilot for M365 license. Does not provide enterprise data protection.
Microsoft Copilot Versions and Capabilities
Version |
Use Case |
Integration |
Features |
Licensing |
Availability |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Microsoft Copilot (Free / Consumer) |
General consumers for everyday use |
Web search + public data (no deep enterprise data) |
Conversational Q&A, summarization, image generation, general-purpose help |
Free (with Microsoft account) |
Available for personal, non-work, use. |
Doesn’t access internal organizational data, limited context awareness |
Copilot Chat |
Chat-based experience for Copilot within Microsoft 365 apps and services |
Uses Microsoft Graph (if licensed for M365 Copilot) or public data only (if used without) |
Conversational interface: ask questions, generate drafts, get summaries, query data |
Included as part of Microsoft 365 Copilot; can also appear in consumer accounts with limited scope |
Currently available to all UW faculty, staff, and students via MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. |
Copilot Chat ≠ full M365 Copilot. Iit is a chat interface; functionality depends on license/data access |
Copilot Pro (Personal/Consumer version) |
Individual users needing enhanced AI in Microsoft 365 |
Integrates with Microsoft 365 apps + enhanced model access |
More advanced responses, priority access to better models, richer content generation in Word/Excel etc. |
Subscription (e.g. ~$20/month in some markets) |
Available for personal purchase only. No departmental versions. |
NOT recommended for use with University data or integration with UW-Madison systems due to security limitations |
Microsoft 365 Copilot |
Business / enterprise users across productivity apps |
Uses your organization’s data (emails, files, meetings) + Microsoft Graph + web |
Generate/edit documents, summarization, meeting recaps, data insights, “agents,” extensibility etc. |
Add-on to Microsoft 365 (often ~$30/user/month for business licenses) |
Not currently available to UW faculty, staff, and students. |
Requires business / enterprise license, governance and admin control are critical |
Copilot in Windows / System-level Copilot |
Users interacting via Windows OS or Edge browser |
Integrated with OS and Edge; limited to system context + web data |
Assist with system tasks, quick queries, summarization, context from open windows etc. |
Included as part of Windows / Copilot ecosystem (subject to eligibility) |
Currently available to all UW faculty, staff, and students via MS Windows OS or Edge browser |
Not as deep as business Copilot; limited by OS/security context |
Copilot Studio |
Building and deploying custom AI agents (internal or external) |
Can connect to multiple data sources (Graph, Dataverse, custom connectors) + web knowledge |
Low-code / declarative agent design, generative responses, topic/action modeling, multi-channel deployment |
Pricing info coming soon |
Various access methods depending on cost model. |
For full capabilities, standalone license is required. Agents published outside M365 Copilot may incur additional costs. Premium connects incur additional charges. |
Azure AI Foundry |
Developer / engineering platform for large-scale, enterprise-grade AI & agent backends |
Deep integration with Azure ecosystem: Azure OpenAI, AI Search, model catalog, pipelines, SDKs |
Full control over model orchestration, debugging, evaluation, observability, custom models, multi-modal, routing, versioning, grounded agents |
Pay-for-use / consumption – underlying Azure services (compute, model inference, storage) incur cost. No fixed “Foundry license” per se. |
High technical overhead; intended for teams needing control, governance, custom model logic. Can be used with Copilot Studio: e.g. Copilot Studio can call Foundry agents / models as the “brain” backend. |