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AI Agents & Assistants

Microsoft 365 Copilot

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Microsoft Corporation · learn.microsoft.com

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Microsoft 365 Copilot: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Microsoft 365 Copilot: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Microsoft 365 Copilot at a glance

Vendor
Microsoft Corporation
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 26 Oct 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 26 Oct 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 26 Oct 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Microsoft 365 Copilot 3/5, the mean of 6 judges. Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI assistant add-on on top of Microsoft 365, and the bench scored it strongest on data use and training and on integrations and knowledge, both at 6-8: judges cited documented commitments that prompts, responses and Graph-accessed data are not used to train foundation models, a downloadable data protection addendum, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 certifications, and a connectors API whose grounded answers store citations to their sources. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 26 Oct 2026; evaluated by the panel 28 Oct 2026. all sources

Microsoft 365 Copilot alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Skeptic

Weighted verdict

Has read "European AI" on a wrapper that sends every prompt to a US model, "agents" that are saved prompts, and "we never train on your data" with no word on the model provider behind it. Asks which model answers, where it runs, what it may do unsupervised, and what a thousand seats cost.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Skeptic

Panel median The Skeptic This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Skeptic
Data use, training & retention 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Models & processing location 3 of 5 2.5 of 5
Admin, identity & access controls 3.5 of 5 3 of 5
Integrations, connectors & knowledge 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Agent capabilities & guardrails 2.5 of 5 2.5 of 5
European sovereignty 2.5 of 5 2 of 5

Data use, training & retention

How this is scored

What happens to prompts, uploaded files, connected data and outputs: whether any of it trains a model (the vendor's or a model provider's), how long it is kept and where logs live, whether zero-retention is available, and whether a data processing agreement covers it.

0 — No statement on training or retention; the privacy policy is a website policy that does not cover the product.

3 — A general statement that business data is "not used for training", with no word on retention, on the model providers behind the product or on logs.

5 — Business data excluded from training by contract, retention periods stated for chats and files, and a DPA offered to business customers.

8 — No-training commitments stated for the vendor and every model provider it routes to, retention configurable by the admin (including deletion of chat history), zero-data-retention terms with the model providers named, and abuse-monitoring retention described.

10 — Data use fully accounted for: training, retention, logging and abuse monitoring stated per model provider, customer-controlled retention and deletion with an audit trail, outputs and connected data treated as customer data in the DPA, and an independent audit (SOC 2, ISO 27001 or ISO 42001) covering the product.

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The Skeptic

The Copilot privacy documentation commits that prompts, responses and Graph-accessed data are not used to train foundation models, is backed by a downloadable data protection addendum, and describes abuse monitoring with its human review opted out, plus ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 coverage. The captured pages give different figures on training, though: the general privacy statement says Microsoft "may use your data to develop and train our AI models". Retention is described only as minimum-time policies per log type with user-initiated deletion of activity history; I found no public information on stated retention periods, admin-controlled deletion, or zero-retention terms with OpenAI or Anthropic. 3 4 5 6

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Models & processing location

How this is scored

Which models sit behind the product and who runs them, where inference and storage happen, whether the customer can pin processing to the EU, choose or exclude model providers, bring its own model or key, or run the product in its own cloud or on premises.

0 — The models behind the product and the processing location are not stated.

3 — The model family is named, but where inference runs and through which provider (the model maker, a hyperscaler, the vendor) is unstated.

5 — Models and their providers named, with an EU processing option stated for storage and at least the default model.

8 — Each available model listed with provider and inference region, EU-only processing selectable by the admin and enforced across models, model providers excludable, and bring-your-own-key or own-cloud deployment documented.

10 — Processing fully under the customer's control and documented: EU-only or on-premises inference for every feature including agents and connectors, open-weight or self-hosted models supported, data flows per feature published, and a residency commitment in the contract rather than on a marketing page.

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The Skeptic

OpenAI and Anthropic are named as the model providers, and EU tenants' Copilot traffic stays within the EU Data Boundary, a commitment written into the Product Terms since March 2024. But Anthropic's models are "currently excluded from the EU Data Boundary", so EU processing is not enforced across the model lineup. I found no public information on choosing or excluding a provider, bring-your-own-key, or on-premises deployment. 3 4

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Admin, identity & access controls

How this is scored

What the IT department controls: SSO and SCIM provisioning, roles and groups, which models, agents and connectors each group may use, retrieval that respects the permissions of the source system, audit logs, usage reporting, and policies such as data-loss prevention — and whether reporting on staff use is scoped and documented.

0 — No admin features documented; accounts are individual sign-ups.

3 — A team workspace with an owner and member invitations, but no SSO, no roles and no audit log.

5 — SSO, admin and member roles, user management, and an admin view of usage.

8 — SAML/OIDC SSO with SCIM provisioning, group-based permissions for models, agents and connectors, retrieval that inherits source-system permissions, exportable audit logs, and usage analytics with documented scope.

10 — Governance a regulated company can operate: fine-grained policies (DLP, content filters, prompt and output logging rules), audit logs streamed to a SIEM, per-agent ownership and approval, usage reporting that can be aggregated or pseudonymised for works-council agreements, and every admin action logged.

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The Skeptic

Grounding only surfaces content a user has view permissions for and the Semantic Index honors the identity-based access boundary — genuine, documented permission inheritance — and admins can decide which agents are allowed and switch Copilot off per app, with Purview and Content search to inspect stored prompts and responses. I found no public information on SSO or SCIM provisioning, group-level control over models and connectors, or exportable audit logs and usage analytics. 3 4 7

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Integrations, connectors & knowledge

How this is scored

How the product reaches company knowledge and systems: connectors to file stores, wikis, mail, CRM, ticketing and ERP, how fast and how completely they sync, the API, support for open protocols such as MCP, and how the assistant cites the sources it answers from.

0 — No integrations; users paste text or upload files one at a time.

3 — File upload and one or two connectors (for example a drive), with no API and no statement on sync or citations.

5 — A connector library covering the common file stores, wikis and collaboration tools, answers citing sources, and a documented API.

8 — Connectors to file stores, wikis, mail, CRM and ticketing with incremental sync, custom connectors or MCP support, an API and webhooks for embedding assistants and agents in other tools, and source citations on every grounded answer.

10 — The product sits in the company's systems: read and write connectors with documented scopes, MCP servers and clients, contact-centre or telephony integration where relevant, a knowledge layer that can be audited and corrected, and the data, agents and configuration exportable when the customer leaves.

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The Skeptic

There is a real connector story: a documented Copilot connectors API with build steps, semantic schema labels and external item ingestion, natural-language search over ingested content, plus Graph REST APIs, SDKs, a mail API, Teams bots and change notifications for embedding elsewhere. Grounded responses are stored with citations to their sources. I found no public information on connector sync frequency or support for open protocols such as MCP. 3 7 8 9

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Agent capabilities & guardrails

How this is scored

What an agent can actually do and where it stops: multi-step tasks, tool use and actions in other systems, scheduling and triggers, human approval before consequential actions, run logs, evaluation and testing before release, and the limits the vendor states rather than hides.

0 — No agents; the product is a chat window, whatever the marketing says.

3 — Saved prompts or custom assistants with instructions and files, but no actions in other systems and no run history.

5 — Agents that call tools or APIs and run multi-step tasks, built without code, with a log of each run.

8 — Agents that act in connected systems with scoped permissions, human approval configurable per action, triggers and schedules, test and evaluation tooling before release, and documented limits and failure handling.

10 — Agents a business can put in production and account for: versioning and staged rollout, evaluation against test sets, monitoring of quality and cost per agent, handover to a human with full context, every action attributable to the agent and the person who deployed it, and the vendor's own statement of what agents must not be trusted with.

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The Skeptic

Copilot Studio builds agents with pre-built tools on a visual canvas, the Agents Toolkit deploys them across Copilot, Teams, web and third-party channels, admins gate which agents are allowed, and jailbreak and cross-prompt-injection classifiers plus content harm filters are documented. Creating and testing agents is described, but I found no public information on run logs, human approval before consequential actions, triggers and schedules, or a stated limit on what agents should not be trusted with — I would not run these unsupervised on this evidence. 3 9

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where customer data is hosted, and who the subprocessors are — model providers above all, then hosting, search, telephony and email. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; for an AI product the model provider is a subprocessor, so a European interface over a non-European model counts as such.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors (including model providers) unnamed.

3 — A privacy policy exists, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the model providers behind the product are not named as subprocessors.

5 — EU hosting stated and an EU contracting entity, but prompts reach non-EU model providers or other subprocessors without a stated safeguard or EU region.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, every subprocessor listed with its location including model providers, EU inference available, and a DPA offered.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and model processing, every subprocessor European or optional, data export and deletion documented, and a security or certification statement published rather than implied.

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The Skeptic

The contracting vendor is Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, and the EU Data Boundary keeps EU tenants' Copilot traffic in the EU — yet Anthropic's models are excluded from that boundary and the privacy statement names the United States and other jurisdictions among storage locations. OpenAI and Anthropic are named as subprocessors and a downloadable DPA exists, but the stated cross-border safeguard is the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework rather than European processing. I found no public information on an EU contracting entity or on the locations of the subprocessors. 3 4 5 6

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether a company can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per seat, per agent, per conversation or per usage unit, what is included in each tier, usage limits and overage, which models, connectors or agents cost extra, minimum seats and term.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call.

3 — A starting price or "from" figure exists, but usage limits, included models and what scales the cost are unclear.

5 — Prices per tier are public with the main inclusions, but usage limits, overage, agent runs or enterprise features (SSO, audit logs, EU processing) are unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every tier priced publicly with seat or usage units, usage limits and overage rates, add-ons listed, minimum seats and term stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given number of seats, agents or conversations, with every usage rate, model surcharge, add-on and support tier and the cancellation and data-return terms published.

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The Skeptic

The licensing pages document which plans are eligible (Office 365 E1 through E5 and F3), that the SMB add-on requires an annual commitment and supports up to 300 users per tenant, and that education is bought through EES or CSP — but no price figure appears anywhere I read. I found no public information on a price per seat, usage limits, or enterprise terms; the cost of a thousand seats is not computable from these pages. 2 7

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Ownership Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data residency Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Subprocessors Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Microsoft 365 Copilot

Is Microsoft 365 Copilot European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Microsoft 365 Copilot as Rest of world.

Where does Microsoft 365 Copilot store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 26 Oct 2026.

Does Microsoft 365 Copilot have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 26 Oct 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Microsoft 365 Copilot?

As of 28 Oct 2026, the panel rates Langdock (4/5), Dust (3.5/5) and Unique AI (3.5/5) highest among the other 15 AI Agents & Assistants products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Langdock (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Microsoft 365 Copilot alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

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Sources (9)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Product documentation (overview) learn.microsoft.com Checked 26 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Licensing and pricing documentation learn.microsoft.com Checked 26 Oct 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Data, privacy and security documentation learn.microsoft.com Checked 26 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 EU Data Boundary documentation learn.microsoft.com Checked 26 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Data protection addendum www.microsoft.com Checked 26 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Privacy policy www.microsoft.com Checked 26 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Integrations, connectors & knowledge — found from sitemap developer.microsoft.com Checked 26 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Integrations, connectors & knowledge — found from sitemap developer.microsoft.com Checked 26 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Agent capabilities & guardrails — found from sitemap developer.microsoft.com Checked 26 Oct 2026 Details →