Get more done with AI built into the apps you already use. This Microsoft blog post introduces Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot and Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot. It shows how Copilot works in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, connects to more than 1,000 business apps, and respects your security controls. Read the post to see how these plans help small businesses automate workflows, and contact us to choose the right fit.
What is Microsoft 365 Business with Copilot?
Microsoft 365 Business with Copilot is a set of new Microsoft 365 plans that have AI built directly into the productivity tools many small businesses already use every day.
There are two main SKUs now generally available:
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot
Both plans combine:
- World-class productivity apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
- Copilot AI built for work, embedded directly into those apps so you can draft, summarize, analyze, and respond without leaving your workflow.
- Integrated security and compliance to help protect employees, data, and IP.
Instead of adding “one more tool” to learn, Copilot is woven into the tools your team already knows. That means it can help with everyday tasks such as:
- Getting proposals out the same day instead of several days later.
- Sending invoices before a job is forgotten.
- Answering customer and vendor emails with more complete, timely responses.
In short, Microsoft 365 Business with Copilot is designed to help small businesses rethink how work gets done without having to rebuild their existing processes from scratch.
How does Copilot connect to my existing business tools and data?
Copilot is designed to fit into the systems you already run your business on, not replace them.
Inside Microsoft 365, Work IQ helps Copilot understand what your team is working on across apps—projects, deadlines, and decisions—not just the single file you have open. That context makes its suggestions more relevant to your day-to-day work.
Beyond Microsoft 365, Copilot connects to your broader business stack:
- CRM and finance systems so it can reference customer and financial data.
- Marketing platforms so it can help you act on campaign and engagement data.
- More than 1,000 connectors to popular apps such as Shopify, PayPal, Xero, DocuSign, Asana, WordPress, monday.com, Jira, Canva, and BambooHR.
With these connectors, you can automate functional tasks and workflows directly within Copilot, for example:
- Check website traffic trends from WordPress.
- Follow up on project status in monday.com.
- Review unresolved tickets in Jira.
- Build follow-up materials in Canva.
- Update leave status in BambooHR.
All of this can happen without constantly switching apps, copying data, or manually moving information between systems. The goal is to help you reimagine end-to-end workflows so more work gets completed in one place.
How does Microsoft 365 with Copilot protect my business data?
Microsoft 365 with Copilot is built to keep your existing security and compliance guardrails in place while you adopt AI.
First, Microsoft 365 gives you controls to manage sensitive information:
- You can label sensitive files—such as financials, customer lists, contracts, and employee records—as confidential.
- Those labels are enforced everywhere the file goes: you can prevent forwarding outside the company, copying to personal accounts, or printing, based on your policies.
- If something is shared by mistake, you can revoke access even after a document has been downloaded (some capabilities may require additional products).
Second, Copilot operates inside the security boundary you already set in Microsoft 365:
- Copilot only sees what each user is allowed to see, based on your existing permissions.
- A salesperson asking about pipeline won’t suddenly see payroll data.
- Contractors can’t surface customer records they were never meant to access.
This is a key difference from many consumer-grade AI tools, which typically offer consumer-level protection. With Microsoft 365 Business with Copilot, turning on AI does not quietly open up all your data; your access controls, compliance settings, and IP protections remain in force while you reshape how your team works with AI.