Copilot for Intune: AI for Managing Devices and Mobile Apps

As organizations face increasing complexity in managing diverse devices, policies, and security threats, Copilot in Intune provides AI-powered assistance to streamline and optimize operations.

Microsoft Copilot in Intune leverages Copilot’s capabilities to enhance your experience. These features enable you to manage policies, adjust settings, assess your security posture, and troubleshoot device-related issues within the Intune environment.

In this article, we will take a deeper look at the functionalities offered by Microsoft's AI-powered digital assistant within the platform and explore how they can help businesses strengthen their security posture.

Copilot for Intune: a brief introduction

In today's rapidly evolving digital world, keeping employees' corporate devices secure and under control is essential. Microsoft, with its Intune solution, has become a key player in mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM), providing businesses with powerful tools to manage corporate devices and apps.

However, with the introduction of Microsoft Copilot, things are changing for the better. The integration between the platform and Redmond’s AI-powered digital assistant combines Intune’s well-established strengths with Copilot’s advanced artificial intelligence, revolutionizing the way we think about device management.

We can now envision a future where AI not only enhances security but also simplifies management tasks, creating a seamless and secure experience for everyone using corporate devices. This, at least, is the promise of this integration.

With this step forward, Microsoft is raising the standards of device management, offering IT professionals smarter and more efficient tools to tackle today’s complex mobile challenges. Let’s take a closer look at this integration in the following sections.

What are Microsoft Copilot and Intune?

Before diving in, let’s take a moment to introduce the two main subjects of this article and catch up those who might have missed a few updates or are unfamiliar with these technologies.

Microsoft Copilot

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

Powered by the advanced GPT-4 language model, Microsoft Copilot boasts impressive capabilities such as automatic code completion, documentation search, and collaborative writing. Microsoft continues to enhance Copilot with regular updates, showcasing its strong investment in generative AI as a key component of its future business-focused products.

The AI assistant’s functionalities cater to a wide range of users, including developers, content creators, and professionals who seek AI-powered assistance in their daily workflows.

The main ways to leverage Microsoft Copilot include:

• Adopting Copilot: Microsoft offers various Copilot assistants to enhance productivity and creativity. Integrated into numerous Microsoft products and platforms, Copilot transforms the digital workspace into a more interactive and efficient environment.
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• Extending Copilot: Developers can incorporate external data, simplifying user operations and reducing the need to switch contexts. This not only improves productivity but also fosters better collaboration. Through Copilot, it’s easy to integrate external data into commonly used Microsoft products.
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• Building a custom Copilot: Beyond adoption and extension, users can create a personalized 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 via APIs, and seamlessly integrate into enterprise applications.

Microsoft Copilot is available in various formats, with specific pricing packages tailored to different use cases, such as:

• Copilot (Free): The free version of Copilot provides access to generative AI features for computer management (in Windows), online search (in Edge), and general chatbot conversations on the web.
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• Copilot Pro: Designed for individual users who want to maximize generative AI capabilities. For approximately $20 per month per user, this plan grants access to Copilot within multiple tools, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
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• Copilot for Microsoft 365: Intended for individuals and teams working with Microsoft apps, this version includes access to Copilot Studio, enterprise-grade security, privacy, compliance, and advanced capabilities.

Additionally, various Copilot versions are designed for specific Microsoft tools. For instance, there are Copilot solutions embedded within Microsoft Dynamics for sales and customer service teams, as well as security-focused Copilot solutions integrated into Microsoft Purview.

Recently, Microsoft has also started rolling out and updating a series of industry-specific "Agents", tailored for areas such as finance, customer service, and marketing, with specialized training and features for these particular domains.

Although many Windows 11 users were initially skeptical when Microsoft first introduced Copilot, the service has grown significantly since its initial preview. Today, it is considered one of the most powerful productivity tools in the era of artificial intelligence.

Microsoft Intune

Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution, part of Microsoft 365, that enables organizations to manage mobile devices and apps used by company-owned and employee devices to access corporate data. With Intune, you can ensure that the devices and apps used by employees comply with your company’s security requirements.

One of the key features of Intune is the Intune portal, a centralized platform that allows IT administrators to manage and monitor devices, enforce policies, and configure settings.

The platform implements security measures based on the zero-trust principle, enabling businesses to comply with industry regulations. It supports multiple operating systems, including Android Open-Source Project (AOSP), iOS/iPadOS, Linux Ubuntu Desktop, macOS, and Windows client devices, making it an ideal solution to meet diverse needs in an ever-evolving technology environment.

Thanks to this flexibility, organizations can efficiently manage their resources while protecting all stakeholders from risks or damage.

Here are some features and benefits of Microsoft Intune:

• User and device management, including both corporate and personal devices.
• Support for multiple operating systems, including Android, Android Open Source Project (AOSP), iOS/iPadOS, macOS, and Windows client devices.
• Simplified app management, with built-in features for app deployment, updates, and removal.
• Automated policy enforcement for apps, security, device configuration, compliance, conditional access, and more.
• Self-service capabilities through the Company Portal app for employees and students.
• Integration with mobile threat defense services, such as Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and third-party solutions.
• Web-based admin center for endpoint management and data-driven reporting.

Copilot for Intune: How to access its features

Intune offers functionalities supported by Copilot. These capabilities access Intune data to help you manage policies and settings, understand your security status, and troubleshoot device issues.

There are two ways to access Intune data using Copilot:

• Microsoft Copilot in Intune: Copilot is integrated into Intune and available within the Microsoft Intune admin center. Copilot’s suggestions and results are contextualized based on Intune data and its environment. This approach is tailored for IT administrators and IT professionals.
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• Microsoft Security Copilot: This option is a standalone Copilot available in the Microsoft Security Copilot portal. You can use this portal to gain insights from Security Copilot across all enabled services, such as Intune, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Purview, and others. This experience is primarily designed for Security Operations Center (SOC) teams but can also be used by IT administrators.

This article will focus on Copilot in Intune and provide a detailed overview of the Intune functionalities that can be used with Copilot.

To use Copilot in Intune, you need to be aware of the following information:

• Licensing requirements for Copilot in Intune: Copilot in Intune is included with Copilot for Security. No additional licensing requirements or specific Intune licenses are needed to use Copilot within the Intune environment.
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• Copilot configuration: Before using Copilot features in Intune, Microsoft Copilot for Security must be properly configured.
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• Copilot roles: Access to Copilot in Intune is managed through Copilot for Security or Microsoft Entra ID. To use Copilot in the Intune environment, an administrative team must be assigned the relevant role within Copilot for Security or Microsoft Entra ID. There is no built-in role within Intune that grants direct access to Copilot.
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• Your Intune data: Copilot utilizes Intune data. When an Intune administrator submits a prompt, Copilot can only access the data for which the administrator has permissions, including RBAC permissions and assigned scope tags.

Copilot for Intune: key integration features

In this section, we finally get to the core of the article and explore what can be done by leveraging the integration between Microsoft Copilot and Intune for managing company devices.

Currently, there are two main areas where Copilot can be used in Intune:

• Policy and settings management
• Device details and troubleshooting

Let’s take a closer look at each of these areas to understand how Copilot can assist us.

Policy and settings management

Copilot assists in managing policies and settings within the Intune environment. Whether configuring security policies, compliance rules, or customizing device settings, Copilot simplifies the process.

When creating a policy in Intune, various settings need to be configured to meet organizational requirements. Copilot can provide suggestions on selected settings and recommend the best configuration. By selecting a Copilot suggestion, the Copilot prompt window opens, automatically providing more details about that specific setting.

In the Copilot window, additional prompts are available, and users can also access the prompt guide to choose from a list of existing prompts. Copilot’s prompts help understand the impact of a setting, detect potential conflicts, and suggest an optimal value.

Copilot’s recommendations can be used in the following types of policies in Intune:

• Compliance policies
• Device configuration policies, including the settings catalog
• Most endpoint security policies

Additionally, Copilot offers a useful feature to summarize existing policies in Intune. The summary provides insights into the policy’s purpose, the specific users and groups assigned to it, and the configuration settings within the policy. This feature helps clarify how a policy and its settings impact users and devices.

To use this feature in Intune, select an existing policy and then click Summarize with Copilot.

Device details and troubleshooting

You can use Copilot to obtain specific information about a device, such as installed apps, group membership, and more.

To use this feature in Intune, select a device and then choose Explore with Copilot. When the Copilot window opens, select a prompt and enter any required or optional input if needed. You can also open the prompt guide for follow-up questions.

With Copilot in Intune, you can:

• Get more details about a specific device, including installed apps, group membership, and other relevant information.
• Compare devices to identify similarities and differences, such as compliance policies, hardware, and assigned device configurations.
• Use the error analysis prompt to enter an error code, retrieve more details about the issue, and get a potential solution.

To troubleshoot device issues, you can use Copilot along with a set of predefined prompts to gather more detailed information about the device.

Guided prompts include:

• Summarize this device.
• Analyze an error code.
• Compare this device with another device.
• Show the apps on this device.
• Show the policies on this device.
• Show group membership.
• Show the primary user of this device.

Copilot for Intune: custom prompts and useful examples

Of course, you don’t have to rely solely on the guided prompts provided by Copilot—you can give it your own instructions to retrieve information and suggestions for managing your Intune environment. In this section, we’ll provide a list of useful prompt examples to help you start experimenting with Copilot and fully leverage its potential within the platform.

Before getting started, remember that when experimenting with prompting, it’s important to be as clear and specific as possible in your requests. You may get better results by specifying device IDs or names, app names, or policy names you want information about in your prompts.

It might also help to add "Intune" to your prompt, such as:

• "According to Intune, how many devices were enrolled this week?"
• "Tell me about Intune devices for (user name)."

If you want general information about your Intune data, such as the number of devices, deployed apps, device platform versions, and more, you can use prompts like:

• Which apps have been added to Intune?
• Which Intune apps are the most assigned?
• How many devices were enrolled in Intune in the last 24 hours?
• Tell me about Intune devices for Jon Smith.

If you need details about policy targets, such as the groups assigned to a specific app or the number of users assigned to an app, you could ask:

• How many users have this app assigned?
• Which groups is this app assigned to?
• How many apps are assigned to this device ID? Enter the device ID in Intune.
• Why does the policy "Allow automatic updates for Microsoft Store apps" apply to DeviceA?
• Tell me about Intune devices for UserA.
• Why does PolicyA apply to DeviceB?

If you want details about a specific device, such as its group memberships and assigned apps, you might use prompts like:

• Which devices are used by UserA@domain.com?
• Which groups is DeviceA in?
• Tell me about DeviceA.
• Who is the primary user of DeviceA?
• Is the app installed on DeviceA?
• Show me the discovered apps on DeviceA.

If you need to identify similarities and differences between two devices—such as compliance policies, hardware configurations, or assigned settings—you can use queries like:

• What are the hardware configuration differences between DeviceA and DeviceB?
• What are the similarities in compliance policies between DeviceA and DeviceB?
• What is the difference in device configuration profiles between DeviceA and DeviceB?
• Compare the installed applications on DeviceA and DeviceB.

Conclusions

From its earliest iterations, Microsoft Copilot has proven to be an incredibly useful tool for all users and professionals who work daily with the enterprise software from Redmond. Copilot in Intune represents a significant step toward addressing the daily challenges faced by IT and security professionals in managing mobile devices and apps, which are increasingly difficult to monitor and secure.

By accelerating problem resolution, simplifying policy management, and integrating with key security tools, Copilot can help reduce complexity and enhance operational efficiency.

And this may just be the beginning. Microsoft has announced that its capabilities will continue to expand, allowing organizations to rely on even more powerful tools to manage their devices and digital environments.

If the early signs are anything to go by, the future of Copilot and Intune integration looks particularly promising, potentially becoming one of those solutions no organization looking to leverage the latest AI-powered functionalities should overlook.

FAQ on Microsoft Copilot for Intune

What is Copilot for Intune?

Copilot for Intune is an AI assistant integrated into Microsoft Intune that helps IT administrators manage corporate devices, configure policies, monitor security, and troubleshoot issues more quickly and efficiently.

What are the main benefits of Copilot for Intune?

Copilot for Intune simplifies policy management, provides detailed insights into corporate devices, assists in diagnosing and resolving errors, and optimizes security configurations.

Is Copilot for Intune available to all Intune users?

No, to use Copilot for Intune, a Copilot for Security license is required.

How can I access Copilot for Intune?

Copilot for Intune is accessible from the Microsoft Intune admin center. It provides contextual suggestions based on data within the Intune environment and is primarily aimed at IT administrators.

What is the difference between Copilot in Intune and Microsoft Security Copilot?

Copilot in Intune is specifically designed to assist with device and policy management within the Intune platform. Microsoft Security Copilot, on the other hand, is a broader service that provides security analysis by integrating data from various Microsoft tools, including Intune, Defender, Entra ID, and Purview.

What policies can be managed with Copilot for Intune?

Copilot assists in managing compliance policies, device configuration policies, and endpoint security policies.

Can Copilot automatically create security policies in Intune?

No, Copilot does not automatically create policies but suggests the best settings based on the organization's requirements.

Can Copilot for Intune be used to troubleshoot device issues?

Yes, Copilot helps diagnose and resolve issues by analyzing errors, providing solutions, and comparing configurations between different devices.

Can Copilot for Intune be used to monitor device compliance status?

Yes, Copilot can summarize existing policies and provide details on how they affect users and devices.

What are some useful prompts for interacting with Copilot in Intune?

Some example prompts include: "Which devices have been enrolled in Intune in the last 24 hours?", "Show me the policies assigned to this device", "What apps are installed on DeviceA?", and "Compare the configuration between DeviceA and DeviceB".

Can Copilot be used to analyze specific errors?

Yes, you can enter an error code and ask Copilot to provide more information and a possible solution.

Does Copilot for Intune integrate with other Microsoft solutions?

Yes, Copilot integrates with Microsoft Defender, Entra ID, Purview, and other security tools to provide a more comprehensive device management and protection experience.

Is Copilot for Intune available for all operating systems supported by Intune?

Yes, Copilot supports devices running Windows, macOS, iOS/iPadOS, Android, and Linux Ubuntu Desktop.

Can Copilot prompts in Intune be customized?

Yes, in addition to predefined prompts, administrators can create custom prompts to obtain specific information tailored to business needs.

Will Microsoft continue to develop new features for Copilot in Intune?

Yes, Microsoft has confirmed that it will continue expanding Copilot in Intune's capabilities to offer increasingly advanced tools for IT management and enterprise security.