Microsoft AI advisory

Which Microsoft AI Solution Is Right For Your Business?

Compare Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry to discover the right AI platform for your organisation.

Microsoft 365 Copilot logo

Microsoft 365 Copilot

OVERVIEW

Your everyday AI assistant inside Microsoft 365. It helps people work with Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, PowerPoint and SharePoint using the information they already have access to across Microsoft 365.

BEST FOR

✓

Everyday productivity

✓

Office workers

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Managers

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Sales teams

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HR and Finance

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Organisations starting their AI journey

REAL WORLD EXAMPLES

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Summarise long email conversations

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Catch up on Teams meetings

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Draft proposals, reports and documents

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Create PowerPoint presentations

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Analyse Excel data

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Find and summarise information across Microsoft 365

THINGS TO KNOW

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Works within Microsoft 365 permissions and security

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No coding required for everyday use

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Requires appropriate Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing

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Usually the quickest Microsoft AI capability for an organisation to adopt

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The quality of results depends heavily on the quality and permissions of the organisation's Microsoft 365 data

COMPLEXITY

Low complexity

Designed for everyday business users.

SECUREIT RECOMMENDS

Start here if your organisation is beginning its AI journey. Microsoft 365 Copilot is usually the fastest way to introduce practical AI into everyday work with minimal disruption.

Copilot Studio logo

Copilot Studio

OVERVIEW

A low-code platform for creating AI agents that can answer questions, use business data and carry out actions. Agents can extend Microsoft 365 Copilot or be deployed as standalone experiences.

BEST FOR

✓

Customer service

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HR helpdesks

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IT support

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Internal business processes

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Workflow automation

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Organisations ready to move from AI assistance to AI agents

REAL WORLD EXAMPLES

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Employee onboarding assistant

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IT support agent

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Customer service assistant

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Company policy and knowledge assistant

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Holiday or leave request assistant

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Agent that retrieves information and performs business actions

THINGS TO KNOW

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Low-code rather than traditional full-code development

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Can connect to Microsoft and third-party business systems

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Can extend Microsoft 365 Copilot

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More advanced scenarios require Power Platform knowledge

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Complex integrations may still require Azure or custom development

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Governance, testing and lifecycle management become important as agents grow

COMPLEXITY

Moderate complexity

Best suited to Power Platform users, business analysts and IT teams.

SECUREIT RECOMMENDS

Choose Copilot Studio when you know the business process you want AI to improve or automate. It is the natural next step when users need more than general-purpose Copilot assistance.

Azure AI Foundry logo

Azure AI Foundry

OVERVIEW

Microsoft's Azure platform for building custom AI applications and agents with greater control over models, data, integrations, security and deployment.

BEST FOR

✓

Software development teams

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AI engineers

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Enterprise applications

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Bespoke AI solutions

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Complex integrations

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Organisations requiring greater technical control

REAL WORLD EXAMPLES

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Insurance claims processing

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Large-scale document analysis

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AI-powered customer portals

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Manufacturing or operational AI solutions

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Custom enterprise applications

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Domain-specific agents connected to APIs and internal systems

THINGS TO KNOW

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Provides much greater control over architecture and deployment

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Supports multiple AI models and model providers

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Designed for enterprise-scale AI development

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Requires Azure and software development skills

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Requires more engineering, testing and operational management

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Costs and architecture require careful planning at scale

COMPLEXITY

High complexity

Designed primarily for developers, AI engineers and enterprise architecture teams.

SECUREIT RECOMMENDS

Choose Azure AI Foundry when standard Microsoft AI tools are not sufficient and your organisation needs a bespoke AI solution deeply integrated with applications, APIs, data or enterprise infrastructure.

Which One Should You Choose?

Start with the business outcome you are trying to achieve.

Need AI to help people with everyday work?

→ Microsoft 365 Copilot

Need AI to automate or manage a business process?

→ Copilot Studio

Need a completely bespoke AI application?

→ Azure AI Foundry

Still Not Sure Where to Start?

Choosing the right Microsoft AI platform depends on your existing Microsoft environment, your data, the business process you want to improve and the level of customisation required.

SecureIT can help you identify the right starting point and build a practical AI roadmap for your organisation.

Book an AI Discovery Session