An assistant in Office, an employee for workflows. The facts side by side.
Microsoft Copilot, formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot, is first and foremost an AI assistant in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams that works with your company's Microsoft 365 data2,4. On top of that come prebuilt agents and, with Copilot Studio, a toolkit for building your own agents2,3. These remain tools that each person sets up, starts and checks themselves, or in-house builds that your company develops and maintains itself.
An AI employee from bee-hub.ai is not another tool for individuals. It takes over a defined workflow in your business, works in the background in your ERP and inbox and presents results for approval. bee-hub.ai is responsible for setup, operation and maintenance.
| Microsoft Copilot | bee-hub.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI assistant in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, grounded in your Microsoft 365 data; plus agent building with Copilot Studio2 | AI employees, trained on a defined workflow in your business |
| Who does the work | The person in the Office apps; with Copilot Studio also event-driven and scheduled agents that the company builds itself5 | The AI employee; a person reviews and approves |
| Pricing | Per user on top of the Microsoft 365 licence: regularly €18.20 up to 300 users (promotional €15.60 in the first year until 31.12.2026), €26.00 for enterprises, annual, excl. VAT1,2; certain internal agents at no extra cost, further scenarios billed by consumption3 | Per AI employee; AI chat for all staff at no extra cost |
| Where the data lives | US provider; EU traffic stays within the EU Data Boundary, models from Anthropic are currently excluded from it4 | Your server, private cloud or a German hosting provider; language model from a European provider6 |
| Training on your data | Prompts, responses and data from Microsoft Graph are not used to train foundation models4 | Excluded by contract6 |
| Work in the ERP | Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams natively; other systems via Graph connectors or custom agents in Copilot Studio with an Azure subscription3,4 | Works inside your existing ERP, DMS and email, like an additional employee |
| Who is in control | Each person in their own work context with their existing permissions; admins approve agents4 | An agreed workflow with rules, approvals and a log, set up by bee-hub.ai |
| Setup and operation | License per user, managed through your existing Microsoft administration; the company builds its own agents in Copilot Studio3,4 | Onboarding, operation and maintenance by bee-hub.ai |
Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost for accounts with an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription; agents within it are billed by usage and require an Azure subscription2. The full Copilot costs extra per user on top of the Microsoft 365 license1,2.
Copilot speeds up work in Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams. If your ERP sits outside the Microsoft world, you need connectors or custom agents in Copilot Studio, which means in-house development3,4.
The two are not mutually exclusive. Copilot remains your people's tool in Office. The AI employee from bee-hub.ai takes over a defined workflow and works inside your existing ERP, DMS and email, set up, operated and maintained by bee-hub.ai.
The real difference lies in who sets things up, who maintains them and who is responsible.
Set it up and maintain it yourself, or have it set up and maintained.
Who is the expert for that in your company?
At bee-hub.ai, every AI employee is limited to one purpose and works mostly by fixed rules. We only deploy fully autonomous agents when explicitly commissioned.
Copilot makes work in Office faster.
The AI employee takes over the workflow behind it.
Copilot helps individual staff in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams2. An AI employee from bee-hub.ai takes over a defined workflow, such as entering orders from the inbox into the ERP, and presents results for approval. The two are not mutually exclusive: Copilot remains a tool for individuals, while the AI employee works inside your existing ERP, DMS and email.
No. Copilot Studio is a toolkit your company uses to build its own agents; agents on external channels and autonomous agents require an Azure subscription and Copilot credits3. An AI employee from bee-hub.ai is set up, operated and maintained by bee-hub.ai.
According to Microsoft, prompts, responses and data from Microsoft Graph are not used to train foundation models4. At bee-hub.ai, training on your data is excluded by contract.
Copilot works natively in Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams4. It connects other systems via Graph connectors or custom agents in Copilot Studio, which require an Azure subscription3,4. An AI employee from bee-hub.ai works inside your existing ERP; bee-hub.ai handles the connection, and we clarify the technical requirements before you commission us.
30 minutes, one process from your business.