Key takeaways
- Copilot is Microsoft's brand for AI assistants: the consumer app, Microsoft 365 Copilot for work, and GitHub Copilot for code are separate products.
- It is generative AI built mainly on OpenAI's GPT models, with Microsoft's own models and other providers used in some features.
- Pick an assistant by where you already work: Copilot in Windows, Edge and Office, Gemini in Google Workspace, Claude or ChatGPT for long writing and coding sessions.
- For coding, GitHub Copilot fits into your existing editor while Cursor is a whole editor built around AI; try both on the same real task.
- Usage limits and AI credits change often, so check Microsoft's current plan page before relying on a number.
Copilot AI is Microsoft's generative AI assistant: a chatbot that answers questions, writes, summarises, creates images and helps with tasks across Windows, Edge, Bing, Microsoft 365 and, as GitHub Copilot, code editors. It runs mainly on OpenAI's GPT models with Microsoft's own systems around them. This page covers what it is, who makes it, what it is good for, how agentic it really is, how it compares with ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, and how GitHub Copilot compares with Cursor for coding.
What is Copilot AI?
Copilot AI is Microsoft's AI assistant. You type or speak a request, and it answers in natural language, drawing on a large language model and, where useful, live web results from Bing.
Microsoft launched it as Bing Chat in 2023 and renamed it Copilot later that year. Today the name covers a family: the consumer Copilot app and website, Copilot in Windows and Edge, Microsoft 365 Copilot inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams, GitHub Copilot for programmers, and Copilot Studio for building agents. They share a brand, not a single product, so the answer to "can Copilot do X" depends on which one you mean. For most students, "Copilot" means the free consumer assistant at copilot.microsoft.com or in Windows.
Is Copilot an AI tool?
Yes. Copilot is an AI tool in the plain sense: software whose core feature is a machine learning model that generates answers, text, images and code in response to your prompts.
Also asked as: is copilot ai tool
What separates it from a plain chatbot is integration. In Edge it can summarise the page you are reading, in Windows it can work with what is on your screen when you allow it, and in Microsoft 365 it can read the document you have open. That integration is the reason to choose it. If you spend your day in Word, Outlook and Teams, an assistant that already sees those files saves more time than a smarter model in a separate tab.
Is Copilot generative AI?
Yes. Copilot is generative AI: it produces new text, code and images rather than only classifying or retrieving existing content. Its answers are generated token by token by a large language model.
That has consequences you should design around. Generated answers are plausible by construction, not guaranteed correct, so a confident wrong date or invented reference is possible. Copilot reduces this by grounding answers in Bing search results or your files and showing citations, which you should open before relying on a claim. For images it uses image generation models through features such as the image creator. For code, GitHub Copilot generates suggestions that compile more often than not but still need review and tests.
Who owns Copilot AI?
Microsoft owns and makes Copilot. GitHub Copilot is made by GitHub, which Microsoft owns. The underlying GPT models come mainly from OpenAI, a separate company in which Microsoft is a major investor and partner.
So the split is: OpenAI trains the core models, Microsoft builds the product, the grounding in Bing and Microsoft Graph, the safety systems, the apps and the enterprise controls. Microsoft has also built its own models for some features and has added models from other providers in parts of Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio. For a user the practical point is that Microsoft's privacy terms and admin controls govern your data in Copilot, not OpenAI's consumer terms.
What does Copilot use for AI?
Copilot uses large language models, mainly OpenAI's GPT family, combined with Bing search for web grounding, Microsoft Graph for work data in Microsoft 365, and Microsoft's own safety and orchestration layers.
A request typically flows like this: the orchestrator decides whether to search the web or your files, retrieves relevant content, builds a prompt with it, sends that to the model, then filters and cites the result. That retrieval step is what lets it answer about yesterday's news or last week's meeting, which a model cannot know from training alone. It is the same design behind any production RAG system, including the one I shipped in RAG.NextUpgrad. Which exact model serves a request changes as Microsoft updates the service, and Microsoft does not always show it.
What is Copilot AI used for?
People use Copilot to search and summarise the web, draft and rewrite text, summarise documents and meetings, analyse spreadsheets, generate images, and write or explain code with GitHub Copilot.
Uses that work well for students and early-career engineers:
- Summarising a long PDF or web page before reading it properly.
- Turning rough notes into a structured report, email or slide outline.
- Explaining an error message or a piece of code line by line.
- Drafting a cover letter, then rewriting it in your own voice.
- Comparing two tools or concepts, with citations you can check.
Uses to avoid: anything where a wrong fact is costly and you cannot verify it, and pasting confidential college or company data into a personal account.
Is Copilot agentic AI?
Partly. Copilot is mainly an assistant that answers when asked, but Microsoft has added agentic features that plan and carry out multi-step tasks, such as research agents, actions in the browser and GitHub Copilot's agent mode.
Agentic means the system chooses steps and tools on its own towards a goal: it might search, open pages, edit files and check its work before reporting back. GitHub Copilot's agent mode does this in a code editor, and its coding agent can work on a GitHub issue and open a pull request. Copilot Studio lets organisations build their own agents with actions. These features usually ask for permission before acting and log what they did. Treat them like a junior colleague: give narrow tasks and review the result.
How does Copilot compare to other AI?
Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are all capable general assistants. The real difference is where each one is integrated, not raw intelligence: Copilot in Windows and Microsoft 365, Gemini in Google Workspace and Android, ChatGPT and Claude as standalone apps.
A sensible way to choose:
- Copilot: you live in Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams, or your college or employer provides it.
- Gemini: you live in Gmail, Docs and Android.
- ChatGPT: you want one broad assistant with voice, image generation and many integrations.
- Claude: you work with long documents and code and want careful writing.
Models leapfrog each other every few months, so test the same real task in two of them rather than trusting a ranking.
Copilot vs Cursor AI: which is better for coding?
They are different shapes of tool. GitHub Copilot is an assistant that plugs into the editor you already use; Cursor is a full code editor, built from VS Code, designed around AI. Both now offer chat, multi-file edits and agent modes.
Choose GitHub Copilot if your team already uses VS Code, Visual Studio or JetBrains IDEs, needs GitHub's enterprise controls, or wants the coding agent that works on issues. Choose Cursor if you want AI woven into every part of the editor, with whole-codebase context and quick multi-file changes. Both let you pick from several frontier models. The fair test is one real task in your own repository, such as adding an endpoint with tests, done in each tool. Whichever you use, read every diff and run the tests.
What are Copilot AI credits?
AI credits are a monthly allowance that some consumer Microsoft plans use to meter Copilot features inside the Microsoft 365 apps and Designer. Each AI action draws from the allowance until it resets.
Also asked as: what is copilot ai credits
The idea is simple: everyday chat in the free Copilot app is broadly available, while heavier features inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Designer on consumer plans are counted. Work and school accounts with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence are licensed per user instead of by credits. How many credits a plan includes, and which actions use them, has changed more than once, so check Microsoft's current plan and support pages instead of a number quoted in an older article. If you hit the limit often, that is a sign to move heavy work, such as long document drafting, to a tool where you are not metered.
Sources
GenAI engineer and AI product builder with 2+ years shipping production-grade AI systems: RAG pipelines, fine-tuned LLMs, hybrid retrieval and multi-modal apps across vision, speech and OCR, architected end to end from ingestion to deployment. Leads engineering for SCULT INDIA's 14-member team, founded the 500+ member TechVerse Enclave community and has mentored 200+ students. Three hackathon first prizes: Changethon 2025 (IIT Roorkee), Product Genesis at Vividhotsava 2025 (CSJMU) and BYTEBATTLE (MeetKats).
Open to GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks at colleges. For campus sessions the inviting institution covers the visit end to end: travel (a First AC train ticket for journeys up to five hours, a flight for anything longer), accommodation, meals, and pickup and drop; the honorarium and workshop fees are negotiable on WhatsApp or on the call, and requests are welcome from institutions that can cover the visit this way. Email pranjulrathour41@gmail.com.
