2.4. Copilot Feature Differences Across M365 Apps
💡 First Principle: Each app's Copilot is optimized for that app's purpose. Copilot in Word is a writing assistant, Copilot in Excel is a data analyst, and Copilot in Teams is a meeting assistant. The brand is consistent, but the feature set is not, and neither is what each license tier unlocks.
This is one of the most straightforward but heavily tested topics on AB-730: knowing what Copilot can and can't do in each specific application.
Microsoft Copilot (formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot) — App Feature Matrix:
| App | What Copilot Can Do | Signature Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Word | Draft documents, rewrite/refine existing text, summarize long documents, generate from a brief, generate images | Draft with Copilot from a prompt |
| Excel | Analyze data, generate formulas, create charts and PivotTables, summarize data patterns, answer questions about your data | Natural language data analysis |
| PowerPoint | Create presentations from a prompt or existing document, add slides, generate speaker notes and images, summarize slides | Create from document |
| Outlook | Draft email replies, summarize email threads, coach on email tone, prepare for meetings | Thread summarization |
| Teams | Recap meetings, generate action items, answer questions during live meetings, summarize channels; the Facilitator agent runs scheduled meetings | Live meeting assistance |
| Loop | Real-time co-creation with Copilot in collaborative workspaces | AI content in shared canvases |
Copilot in Teams is worth special attention because it has capabilities no other app has:
- Ask questions about a meeting while it is happening ("What has been decided so far?")
- Generate a meeting recap with action items after the meeting ends
- Summarize a Teams channel's discussion
Experiences and tiers: a quick refresher. The same app can show different Copilot capabilities depending on the user's license. Microsoft labels the tiers like this:
| Label you may see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Copilot Chat (Basic) | No add-on license. Copilot Chat is available at no extra cost with a qualifying work or school plan, but there's no Copilot chat inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (Basic) | No add-on license, but standard Copilot access in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) | The add-on license: Work IQ, the prebuilt agents such as Researcher and Analyst, scheduled prompts, and access to Copilot Cowork through usage-based billing |
Cowork is the one experience that needs both the license and usage-based billing, as 2.3.2 explains.
⚠️ Exam Trap: Copilot features aren't interchangeable across apps or tiers. You can't ask Copilot in Word to generate a meeting recap, and you can't ask Copilot in Teams to create a formula from your data. And a user who sees "Copilot Chat (Basic)" won't find the licensed capabilities (Work IQ, Researcher, scheduled prompts) no matter which app they open. The exam presents scenarios and asks which app or tier is the right fit.
Reflection Question: An executive wants to quickly understand the key decisions made in a two-hour strategy meeting they missed. Which Microsoft 365 app and which specific Copilot capability should they use?
