Microsoft Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot are both AI-powered tools made available to the campus and designed to enhance productivity. However, they serve different purposes and offer distinct features, including Microsoft 365 Copilot's enhanced security measures.
Read on for a summary of each tool's strengths and an opportunity to register for an upcoming training session presented by Microsoft and hosted by the Office of Information Technology. Registration is limited, so don't delay!
Feature Comparison
Microsoft Copilot Chat is a web-based chat tool available at no cost to CU Boulder students, faculty and staff to help improve productivity and efficiency. Copilot Chat uses the GPT-4o and DALL-E 3 AI models to answer questions, generate content, or help you with tasks using public online data.
Copilot Chat can help you:
- Summarize documents and websites
- Create lesson plans, quizzes or instructional material
- Conduct research for papers and assignments
- Generate images using DALL-E 3
- Assist in writing code in several programming languages
- Extract text from images
Microsoft 365 Copilot is currently only available as a subscription service for faculty and staff. Microsoft 365 Copilot is integrated into the Microsoft 365 suite and can be used with Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Forms, Excel, Word and other apps. It utilizes any data that you have permission to access and that is stored within the CU Boulder Microsoft 365 platform. It helps users quickly generate content, analyze data, summarize documents, summarize meetings, learn new skills, find information and write code.
Microsoft 365 Copilot can help you:
- Summarize documents and websites, including documents stored in Microsoft 365 to which the user has access
- Perform tasks and create content in Microsoft 365 applications, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
- Summarize content of Teams chats, Word files, emails and transcribed/recorded meetings
- Create lesson plans, quizzes or instructional material
- Conduct research for papers and assignments
- Generate images using DALL-E 3
- Assist in writing code in several programming languages
- Extract text from images
Learn more about Microsoft Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Upcoming Training Events
Sessions for Faculty & Staff
Microsoft Copilot at CU Boulder (Virtual)
Friday, Feb. 21, 1–2:30 p.m.
Location: Virtual
Audience: Faculty & staff; registration is limited to 50 people
Prerequisites: A computer for crafting prompts in Copilot Chat
Register for this webinar
In this session, you'll learn Copilot foundations, prompt-crafting tips and tricks, and what Copilot offers compared to other Gen AI tools.
Microsoft Copilot at CU Boulder (In Person)
Thursday, Feb. 27, 1:15–2:30 p.m.
Location: CASE E390
Audience: Faculty & staff; registration is limited 50 people
Prerequisites: A laptop computer for crafting prompts in Copilot Chat
Register for this session
In this session, you'll learn about Copilot foundations and what Copilot offers compared to other Gen AI tools, and participate in a hands-on prompt-crafting session tailored to faculty and staff.
Session for Students
Microsoft Copilot Prompt-a-Thon for Students (In Person)
Thursday, Feb. 27, 2:45–4 p.m.
Location: CASE E390
Audience: Undergraduate and graduate students; registration is limited to 50 people
Prerequisites: A laptop computer for crafting prompts in Copilot Chat
Register for this session
In this session, you'll learn about Copilot foundations and what Copilot offers compared to other Gen AI tools, and participate in a hands-on prompt-crafting session tailored to students.
