What is Copilot? 2024 Ultimate Guides to AI Assistant

What is copilot? AI assistants are here to automate tasks, answer questions, and offer personalized recommendations to make your digital life easier.

AI-power functionalities have revolutionized and leveraged to another level, with a new feature named Copilot, and are already available with Microsoft and Github products! 

Check out a beginner guide today with AppAlloy!

What is copilot?

In short, Copilot is a virtual function which assists users (can be programmers or non-programmers) to use a SaaS product better!

As at the moment, term ‘copilot’ refers to two services:

• Microsoft Copilot: a additional service to enhance user experience and usability in all Microsoft 365 products
• GitHub Copilot: a service which allows programmers to code effectively in faster speed in various coding environments.

The key differences

The benefits

1. The copilot feature is optimized based on requests, best choice to use in different scenarios with mission critical.
2. The copilot feature makes use of data to maximum benefits, to make sure that your data is well-organized with most detailed analysis, with ready reports and powerful insights.. 
3. The Copilot feature frees up valuable time for users by automating routine tasks and suggesting solutions, allowing them to focus on more strategic initiatives, powered by an AI assistant. 

For example:

• Microsoft Copilot could automatically write your meeting notes, convert your Word file into Powerpoint, analyze your excel data into charts for quarterly reports, and so much more…
• GitHub Copilot assists developers by suggesting code fixes, explanations, reviews, code commit messages, and pull requests; all while aiding in code comprehension and documentation exploration. 

Copilot logics in 3 steps

Below are the three steps to connect your works with copilot, which applies for both Microsoft Copilot and Github copilot

• Connect or choose a data source:
  • For Microsoft Copilot, the data is normally crawled from an organization's websites or internal knowledge smart applications.
  • For Github Copilot: the data is normally queried from an existing programming language knowledge, widely used in public repositories. 
• Design for specific scenario: It’s time to define logic! When using code (like on GitHub) or natural English (Microsoft products), you can create formulas to represent specific processes. These formulas can then be applied to various situations or case studies, for example: automating tasks to make your work more efficient.
• Extend and integrate wisely for different products by improving communication better with your AI copilot assistant.

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is a virtual assistant designed to enhance user experience and usability within Microsoft 365 applications, for example: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Powerapps and other business development programs. 

This additional product supports both programmers and non-programmers. Some of the Microsoft applications are for low-code developers, with various features like smart search, content creation suggestions, and communication assistance.

Microsoft Copilot Overview

Origin

Microsoft Copilot is developed by Microsoft to assist non-programmers or low-code developers to use Microsoft products better!

How it works

Microsoft Copilot, powered by AI, streamlines tasks within Microsoft 365 applications, freeing up the valuable time to focus on what matters most, the core business goals.

At the moment, Microsoft Copilot is focused on optimize user experience and usability in 5 Microsoft products, including: Microsoft Teams, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel

Pricing

From $30 per user per month, with annual subscription, or pay yearly at $360 per user.

More information on: Microsoft copilot Pricing

Github Copilot

GitHub Copilot is an AI-assistant helping developers complete their code. Github Copilot could integrate with various coding environments, is able to suggest relevant code snippets, functions, or to produce entire code blocks to streamline the development process. Essentially, Github Copilot is distinguishably designed for hard-code programmers!

Github Copilot Overview

Origins

Github Copilot is an AI-assistant specifically designed for hard-code programmers, which offers autocomplete-style suggestions while coding. GitHub Copilot is powered by a generative AI model co-developed by GitHub, OpenAI, and Microsoft.

How it works

GitHub Copilot is trained on all languages (which are public). The quality of suggestions normally depends on the volume and diversity of the  training data. For example, JavaScript is widely known, therefore it is the best supported language in Github copilots.

Pricing

• Copilot Individual: $10 per month, $100 per year
• Copilot Business: $19 per user per month
• Copilot Enterprise: $39 per user per month

Check out the Github pricing here!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is copilot?

Copilot is a virtual assistant which helps users to complete their tasks faster!

Where can I use copilot features?

If you’re a non-programmer, the copilot feature is enabled for Microsoft 365 products, with applications like Word, Teams or Powerpoint! If you’re a programmer, the Github Copilot is available for you to write and review code smarter and faster!

How much is a copilot?

It starts with $10 per user for programmers with Github copilot, and from $30 per user per month, with Microsoft annual subscription.