M365 Copilot and Copilot Chat for Word

M365 Copilot for Word may offer organizations the most opportunities for enhancing productivity because it is frequently used, and the upgrade to use Copilot Chat in Word (Sept. 2025) makes many of these benefits available to all M365 subscribers without a license. 

Copilot Chat

Copilot Chat (unlicensed) in a side pane lets users summarize and ask questions and create documents using natural language. Attaching files adds context and improves accuracy. However, since Copilot Chat does not edit documents directly, users must select “Copy” or “Add to doc” to apply changes. Copilot Chat can only use Web content for grounding, and users require PAYG billing to access agents. Copilot Chat also enables sharing conversations across the Office and M365 Copilot apps for collaboration, but some previous features may no longer be available.

M365 Copilot

M365 Copilot licensed users receive additional capabilities. Copilot Chat, with an M365 Copilot license, leverages both Web and work content and provides access to agents, including the Researcher Agent, without PAYG. In the application pane, users can read autogenerated summaries of existing documents and choose prompts or use plain language to create new ones. The in-app Copilot context menu helps users draft and revise text directly in the document.