Microsoft is creating and deploying virtual assistants similar to ChatGPT in its applications. Although the goal is always to improve productivity, well-being and our quality of work, it is good not to confuse the advantages and functionality offered by each 'copilot'. In this article, we then dive into the differences between Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot.
Microsoft Copilot is the revolutionary solution that comes from the combination of OpenAI's Large Language Models (LLM) with Microsoft Graph data with the aim of increasing daily productivity.
This technology, accessible in the main Microsoft applications, has been designed to guide users in the use of Microsoft 365, Microsoft Viva, Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Azure.
Within Microsoft 365, Copilot allows you to draft your documents in a few seconds in Word, to analyze the data in Excel, to create presentations already illustrated in PowerPoint, to manage communication through Outlook and to collaborate better with colleagues on Teams.
The integration with Azure Instead, it allows you to consolidate the information coming from the services used in the company, optimizing the design, management and scalability of the IT infrastructure. For example, Copilot can suggest how to optimize the deployment of virtual machines in the corporate Azure environment or how to improve the protection of storage accounts.
In the Power Platform, Copilot offers its help to automate tasks through Power Automate, the development of applications with Power Apps and the drafting of dynamic reports in Power BI, starting from a simple prompt and integrating the necessary data directly from the Microsoft corporate environment.
Microsoft Copilot is therefore a tool capable of revolutionizing our productivity thanks to the integration with our work tools and the proactive collaboration it can offer.
Let's delve into the five characteristics that differentiate Microsoft Copilot as a generative AI solution for daily productivity support.
Microsoft Copilot leverages AI to lighten repetitive tasks in the main Microsoft suite applications, such as Microsoft 365 (including Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, and PowerPoint) and Microsoft Power Platform (including Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Apps). Integrating with Microsoft apps, Copilot significantly speeds up our work and performs a good part of it semi-automatically.
Manual intervention is still required for writing prompts. However, with a single prompt, you can ask Copilot to fill an Excel table, draft a new document in Word based on a company template, or build an automation flow within Power Automate.
During personal use of Microsoft 365 applications, Copilot provides intelligent suggestions based on context. For example, it can suggest appropriate phrases for drafting a business email in Outlook or formulas to analyze a particular data set in Excel.
Copilot integrates with platforms like Microsoft Teams to improve internal collaboration and provide users with important project management features. For example, automatic meeting summaries with to-do lists of agreed activities. It can also suggest responses in conversation threads, contributing to smoother and more coordinated communication within teams.
Microsoft Copilot is deeply integrated with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, ensuring a seamless experience across the various applications it comprises. This integration allows for complete synergy between tools like Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint, optimizing corporate productivity through interconnected use of corporate resources.
As of January 15, 2024, Microsoft Copilot became available to everyone: individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, as well as large organizations that were the only ones able to take advantage of the new AI features of Microsoft until that date. Now that everyone can access it, the question is "how?"
Here’s how Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing works:
For companies, the Microsoft 365 Copilot license costs around €28/user/month. While this might seem expensive, a quick calculation of productivity-related costs reveals a different picture. A modest time saving, estimated between 74 and 30 minutes per month for each user using Copilot, is enough to justify the investment. Is this achievable? The answer is yes. Microsoft has conducted an analysis on Copilot’s impact on organizations, focusing on changes in productivity, work quality, and time savings.
In collaboration with intranet.ai and Copilot Circle, Dev4Side offers a comprehensive adoption program to maximize your investment in Microsoft 365 Copilot with the continuous support of our experts.
We handle the configuration of your company's digital workplace and provide comprehensive training on Copilot features in Microsoft 365 applications. You can tailor the plan to your specific needs by selecting from the following services:
GitHub Copilot is the virtual assistant that Microsoft has developed in collaboration with OpenAI and GitHub to simplify programming and development activities. It therefore constitutes the first intelligent support for writing code, capable of generating lines or entire functions starting from the context of the comments and the source code.
These functionalities are possible thanks to OpenAI Codex, the artificial intelligence system that OpenAI has trained on a vast body of public source code to refine the ability to write code already present in GPT-3. In addition, knowledge of OpenAI Codex allows GitHub Copilot to operate on all major programming languages and thus adapt to any project.
Finally, it is useful to emphasize that GitHub Copilot is not only present in the GitHub development environment, but is also available as an extension to support Pair programming within:
Let’s now look at the features that distinguish GitHub's copilot. Despite having a similar focus to Microsoft Copilot, which is to allow users to increase their daily productivity, we will see how GitHub Copilot is particularly useful in supporting technical users like developers.
GitHub Copilot provides real-time code-writing suggestions based on the context and activities of the individual user. These personalized suggestions include automatic completion of code lines, generation of entire functions, and assistance in writing complex algorithms.
GitHub Copilot supports a wide range of programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Ruby. This ensures a level of flexibility for developers who need to manage different types of projects, switching from one language to another without difficulty.
A common characteristic with Microsoft Copilot, though it is important to remember that GitHub Copilot particularly increases developers' productivity, reducing the time needed to write and debug code. With relevant suggestions and immediate solutions to common problems, developers can focus on more creative and complex aspects of their work, improving the overall quality of the software produced.
By integrating with GitHub and Visual Studio Code, GitHub Copilot offers one of the most comprehensive development experiences. This integration allows easy access to repositories, versioning tools, and interconnected development environments, facilitating code management and collaboration with other team members.
To access GitHub Copilot, you need to open a GitHub account (available also in the free version). Once registered, follow these steps to enable integrated AI support:
It's obvious that Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot have more than one feature that sets them apart. From the scope of use to the functionalities offered, you will find all the main ones below.
GitHub Copilot is based on a different artificial intelligence system, always created and trained by OpenAI. This is Codex, which makes it possible to provide more flexible support when writing code.
Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about what differentiates Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot, based on the content of our article.
Microsoft Copilot integrates OpenAI's Large Language Models with Microsoft Graph data to boost productivity across Microsoft 365, Viva, Power Platform, and Azure applications. It helps draft documents, analyze data, create presentations, and automate tasks.
GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered coding assistant developed by Microsoft and OpenAI, designed to help developers write code by generating lines or entire functions based on comments and existing code.
Key differences include:
It automates tasks in Microsoft applications, helps manage communications, creates presentations, and optimizes IT infrastructure on Azure.
It generates code suggestions, reduces repetitive coding tasks, and integrates with multiple IDEs to support collaborative coding efforts.
The Modern Work team effectively and swiftly addresses IT needs, primarily focusing on software development. The technical staff is well-trained in implementing software projects using Microsoft technology stacks and is skilled in managing both agile and long-term projects.
