Bing Chat Enterprise vs Copilot: What changed beyond the name

The rebranding of Bing Chat Enterprise, which over a year ago adopted the name Microsoft Copilot, reflects the company's intent to unify, expand, and simplify the identity of its AI-powered tools, integrating them seamlessly into the Microsoft suite.

Microsoft Copilot has continued (and still continues) to offer the advanced chat and enterprise collaboration features already familiar to users, but with a renewed focus on integration with other services and applications within the Microsoft ecosystem. This change marked a significant step in the company’s strategy to position itself as a leader in AI innovation for the workplace.

In this article, we will take a closer look at what has changed beyond the name and gain an understanding of the evolution of Microsoft Copilot from its earliest form.

Bing Chat Enterprise vs Copilot: a brief introduction

If you use a computer, it’s almost impossible not to have heard of Microsoft Copilot, the AI-powered digital assistant designed to bring revolutionary artificial intelligence capabilities to every home and office software product offered by the tech giant from Redmond.

In its relatively short existence, Copilot has managed to establish itself as one of the best productivity tools in recent years. In 2024 alone, the number of improvements and integrations it supports has grown to the point where it has become almost inseparable from Microsoft’s major software offerings.

And this is just the beginning. With 2025 on the horizon, Copilot is set to become even more expansive, well-supported, and adaptable to the specific needs of industries and professionals. This will firmly establish it as one of the most significant tools Microsoft has ever added to its suite of software solutions.

A brilliant present and an even brighter future—but many may not remember its more “humble” beginnings. Back when the first iteration of Copilot was known as Bing Chat, Microsoft’s AI digital assistant was taking its first steps into the world of generative artificial intelligence.

So why not give curious minds and those who might have missed the most important technological changes of the past year a chance to see what has evolved since its early days? Let’s explore the development of this product and its offerings in the sections ahead.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered digital assistant designed to simplify daily tasks, enhance productivity, and spark creativity. Its primary focus is on code generation, writing assistance, and collaboration. Seamlessly integrated with popular Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, Copilot provides contextual suggestions and helps users effectively understand information.

Powered by the state-of-the-art GPT-4 language model, Microsoft Copilot boasts impressive capabilities such as code autocomplete, documentation search, and collaborative writing. Microsoft continues to update Copilot with new features, highlighting Redmond's heavy investment in generative AI as the future of its business-oriented products.

The capabilities of Microsoft's AI digital assistant cater to a wide range of users and professionals, including developers, content creators, and workers seeking AI-powered assistance for their tasks. Here are the key ways to leverage Microsoft Copilot:

1. ‍Adopting Copilot: Microsoft offers various Copilot assistants to boost productivity and creativity. Integrated across numerous Microsoft products and platforms, Copilot transforms the digital workspace into a more interactive and efficient environment.
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2. ‍Extending Copilot: Developers can incorporate external data, simplifying user operations and reducing context-switching. This not only enhances productivity but also fosters greater collaboration. Through Copilot, integrating such data into everyday Microsoft products is straightforward.
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3. ‍Building your own Copilot: Beyond adoption and extension, you can create a custom Copilot for a unique conversational experience using Azure OpenAI, Cognitive Search, Microsoft Copilot Studio, and other Microsoft Cloud technologies. A custom Copilot can integrate business data, access real-time external data through APIs, and seamlessly integrate into enterprise applications.

Microsoft Copilot availability

Microsoft Copilot is available in various forms, with specific pricing packages for different use cases:

• Copilot (Free): The free version provides access to generative AI features for managing your computer (in Windows), online searches (in Edge), and general conversations with the chatbot on the web.
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• Copilot Pro: Designed for individual users seeking to make the most of generative AI. For around $20 per user per month, you get access to Copilot in tools like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
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• Copilot for Microsoft 365: Tailored for individuals and teams working with Microsoft apps. It provides access to Copilot Studio, enterprise-grade security, privacy, and compliance, as well as advanced capabilities.

Additionally, there are specific versions of Copilot tailored to individual Microsoft tools. For instance, Copilot solutions are integrated into Microsoft Dynamics for sales and customer service teams and into Microsoft Purview for security solutions.

Recently, Microsoft has also begun launching and updating a range of “Agents” tailored to specific business sectors such as finance, customer service, and marketing, with training and features designed for these unique fields.

While many Windows 11 users were initially skeptical when Microsoft began emphasizing Copilot, the service has grown significantly since its preview launch. Today, it is considered one of the best productivity tools in the era of artificial intelligence.

Bing Chat Enterprise vs Copilot: origins and rebranding

Bing Chat is a conversational AI service developed by Microsoft. It was officially launched in February 2023 as an enhanced feature of Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, leveraging OpenAI’s GPT-4 technology. This integration allowed Bing to offer more complex responses and dynamic conversations, surpassing simple text-based searches.

Initially, Bing Chat was accessible through an interface that integrated both the search engine and a conversational assistant. Users could request information, receive creative suggestions, generate text, or simply engage in conversation with the AI. The main goal was to make Bing more competitive with Google and its related services.

Bing Chat, like many other Gen AI tools of the time, was characterized by its ability to:

• Generate creative content, such as poems, stories, or code.
• Answer complex questions through natural language understanding.
• Interact contextually, remembering details shared during the conversation.

After Bing Chat’s initial success, Microsoft identified an opportunity in the business market. Many organizations were interested in leveraging conversational AI’s potential but were concerned about data security and regulatory compliance. This led Microsoft to develop a version of Bing Chat tailored to these needs.

Bing Chat Enterprise was officially announced in July 2023 at the Microsoft Inspire conference, alongside other enterprise AI tools. The goal was to provide a conversational assistant designed for work, combining GPT-4’s advanced linguistic capabilities with robust security and privacy infrastructure. It quickly gained popularity among businesses already using the Microsoft ecosystem, showcasing the product’s early potential.

Toward the end of 2023, Microsoft introduced the concept of "Copilot" as an AI-based assistant for its Office suite applications, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The term "Copilot" reflected the intention to offer users a collaborative tool to enhance productivity.

With the success of Bing Chat and growing interest in AI assistants, Microsoft decided to expand the "Copilot" ecosystem. In November 2023, more than a year ago, Bing Chat was incorporated under the Microsoft Copilot brand, solidifying its position as a central element of all Microsoft’s enterprise AI experiences.

The motivations behind this rebranding included more than just distancing Microsoft’s new Gen AI innovation from the somewhat controversial search engine, which has long been overshadowed by the dominant Google. Other reasons included:

• Brand uniformity: The name "Copilot" was already familiar in Office applications, and expanding the term clarified Microsoft’s AI offerings.
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• Emphasis on assistance: The new name suggested a collaborative approach, where AI is not just a search tool but a personal assistant capable of supporting users in a variety of tasks.
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• Market strategy: Microsoft aimed to further differentiate itself from competitors (such as Google Bard, now rebranded as Gemini) by consolidating all its AI solutions under a single brand.

Bing Chat Enterprise vs Copilot: What has changed?

On November 15th, Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise were officially rebranded as Copilot. Microsoft announced this change on its blog, providing a dedicated link to host the new iteration of its AI digital assistant. The updated version became available on December 1st.

Since its introduction, Bing Chat had processed over 1 billion prompts and queries. Copilot marked a significant step forward in the adoption of generative AI for many organizations, serving as an early signal of its potential for further development in the months to come.

But what has changed beyond the name? Quite a few things, in fact.

Microsoft’s rebranding efforts are never just cosmetic. They reflect the company's commitment to investing significantly in its projects, expanding their features, scope, and overall integration into its suite of products.

Let’s take a look at some of the most significant changes below to understand how things have evolved with this simple rebrand.

Expanded integrated features

Microsoft has enhanced Copilot's integration with its ecosystem of applications and services, making it a more comprehensive assistant for productivity and enterprise use. Copilot is now tightly connected to Microsoft 365 apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, etc.), enabling users to interact with documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and calendars directly within the chat interface. Context-based search capabilities have also been improved, offering more relevant responses based on the user's documents and data (when authorized).

Greater personalization and context

With the Copilot name, the service now positions itself as a more context-aware assistant capable of interacting seamlessly with user data and applications to provide more relevant answers. Copilot leverages organizational data (such as files and emails) to deliver tailored responses without compromising security. Additionally, new language modulation features enable it to offer responses that are more natural and suited to the recipient's tone and style, whether in user-Copilot interactions or drafting communications and emails.

Enhanced security for the Enterprise version

In enterprise-focused versions, such as Copilot for Microsoft 365, significant improvements have been made to security and privacy. Business data is handled with even greater protection, ensuring compliance with high security standards. User data is not used to train AI models, and Copilot adheres to advanced standards like GDPR, ISO 27001, and SOC 2.

Improved user experience

The user interface and interaction flow have been optimized to make them more intuitive and better integrated with other Microsoft 365 functionalities. The free version now has its own dedicated portal, eliminating the need to access it via Bing. For enterprise users, Copilot offers a clearer and more intuitive interface with simplified navigation options. It provides intelligent prompts to streamline interactions, such as suggesting queries or actions based on recent activity. Additionally, it allows users to generate visual content (charts, images) and more structured responses.

The future of Microsoft Copilot

What lies ahead for Microsoft Copilot? Microsoft expressed great excitement when announcing updates to its AI-powered digital assistant during the latest Ignite event, and there seem to be substantial projects in the pipeline for the coming year. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting and significant updates.

To start, the new Copilot Actions automate daily tasks with simple "fill-in-the-blanks" prompts that you can set and forget. For instance, you can automatically receive a summary of key tasks at the end of each workday, set up an action to gather input from your team for a weekly newsletter sent every Thursday, or automate meeting preparation with a recurring action that summarizes recent interactions before the next client meeting (private preview).

Microsoft is also introducing additional agents in Microsoft 365, designed to amplify individual impact and transform business processes. These new agents complement the autonomous agents announced in October 2024 for sales, service, finance, and supply chain professionals, some of which are already in preview.

Speaking of agents, every SharePoint site now comes with an agent, enabling every employee to quickly access the extensive knowledge base that organizations using SharePoint inevitably build. SharePoint agents can extract project details from a schedule, summarize recent product memos, or locate documents in seconds. You can ask agents questions about data in your files and even create and share custom agents for specific content with a single click (generally available).

The Interpreter agent in Teams will provide real-time voice interpretation during meetings, with the ability to simulate your own voice for a more personal and engaging experience (public preview arriving in early 2025).

The Employee Self-Service agent in Business Chat can quickly answer common questions about company policies and simplify key tasks, starting with HR and IT. Like many other agents, it can also be customized in Copilot Studio to meet your organization’s unique needs (private preview).

Other agents include:

• Facilitator, which takes real-time notes during Teams meetings and chats.
• Project Manager, which automates plan creation and completes tasks in Microsoft Planner (public preview).

Finally, to enable IT teams to scale effectively, Microsoft is introducing the Copilot Control System, designed to help IT securely adopt Copilot and agents while accelerating business value:

• Data protection: Ensures intelligent use of business data while respecting organizational controls. SharePoint Advanced Management will be included at no extra cost for Copilot customers to accelerate adoption and tackle oversharing with integrated governance reports (generally available in early 2025).
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• Management controls: Allow IT to govern Copilot and agent access and usage, with visibility into the agents' status and lifecycle. Copilot in Microsoft 365 admin centers will be available to all Copilot customers to automate IT tasks, provide personalized insights to improve management, and answer administrator questions (private preview; generally available in early 2025).
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• Measurement and reporting: IT and business leaders can monitor Copilot and agent adoption and ROI. Microsoft Viva Insights will be included with Copilot at no extra cost as part of the new Copilot Analytics. These offer ready-to-use experiences for measuring Copilot impact, customizable reports, and the new Copilot Business Impact Report, which analyzes Copilot usage against business performance metrics in areas such as sales, finance, and marketing (Copilot Business Impact Report in public preview; Copilot Analytics generally available in early 2025).

Conclusion

Much has changed since the initial introduction of Bing Chat and its Enterprise version. Today, the early days of this chatbot—set to become one of the most significant productivity tools in the digital landscape—seem almost unrecognizable.

Microsoft customers' trust in this new creation from Redmond has allowed Copilot to take off in the months following its rebranding and become a leading player among AI-based assistants.

And 2025 already looks full of surprises for its users and for those considering adopting a "co-pilot" for their organization. Reflecting on the past, it’s clear there’s no better time than the coming months to give Copilot a chance and discover for yourself the potential of Microsoft’s Gen AI.

FAQ on Bing Chat Enterprise vs Copilot

What is the difference between Bing Chat Enterprise and Microsoft Copilot?

‍Bing Chat Enterprise has been rebranded as Microsoft Copilot to reflect its deeper integration with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. While Bing Chat Enterprise focused primarily on secure enterprise chat, Microsoft Copilot provides a broader experience, combining these capabilities with advanced productivity tools integrated into Microsoft apps such as Word, Excel, and Teams.

Why did Microsoft rename Bing Chat to Copilot?

‍The renaming is a strategic move to unify all of Microsoft’s AI tools under the "Copilot" brand. This helps position the product not just as a chatbot but as an intelligent assistant designed to enhance productivity and collaboration across various business contexts.

Does Microsoft Copilot include all the features of Bing Chat?

‍Yes, Microsoft Copilot retains all the features of Bing Chat Enterprise, including secure conversation management and data protection. However, it goes further by adding features that improve productivity, such as the ability to understand and process data directly within Microsoft 365 applications.

What are the advantages of Microsoft Copilot compared to Bing Chat Enterprise?

‍Microsoft Copilot stands out because it’s not just a chat-based tool but an intelligent assistant that directly interacts with business data and applications. For instance, it can analyze complex data sets in Excel, generate reports in Word, or prepare presentations in PowerPoint with a high level of customization using organization-specific contextual information.

Is Microsoft Copilot as secure as Bing Chat Enterprise?

‍Absolutely. Microsoft Copilot offers the same level of security as Bing Chat Enterprise, ensuring that business data remains protected and that sensitive information is not used to train AI models. Additionally, Copilot is designed to comply with privacy regulations and enterprise standards, making it ideal for professional use.

Is Copilot just an evolution of Bing Chat Enterprise, or is it something entirely new?

‍Microsoft Copilot can be considered an evolution of Bing Chat Enterprise. While it maintains the same foundational features, it provides a much more comprehensive experience by integrating AI technology deeply into Microsoft’s core applications. This makes it a tool not only for communication but also for creating, analyzing, and collaborating more effectively.