Executive Focus: Valuing M365 Copilot  

• Assessing the ROI of M365 Copilot is difficult; but AI could soon be like e-mail—a basic cost of doing business.
• Data readiness and change management are critical but add costs.
• Outcome-based evaluations for common productivity tasks like drafting e-mails can help.
• Expect more changes to features and costs as Microsoft continues to enhance M365 Copilot.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI productivity add-on for M365 and Office apps, like Word and Outlook, that can also host agents for automating tasks. Although Microsoft publishes the cost, determining the value is hard. For typical users, it provides incremental productivity improvements. But productivity improvements are notoriously difficult to put a dollar value on, and vendors have often made productivity claims that failed to materialize in the customers’ bottom line. Agents can also automate some business processes for greater returns. In addition, successful implementation of M365 Copilot requires data cleanup and user training, which adds to overall cost and effort.