We now have a multitude of fragmented Microsoft Copilots, which data source used by which Copilot? how it all coming together? How we can unify them?

I assume that you or someone from your team raised those valid questions, as I also get them every day from my clients and as we still don’t have an official answer from Microsoft today, I decided to start something and share it with all of you and have a conversation and I am confident that together we will help each other to achieve a successful rollout of all Microsoft Copilots.

🔥Microsoft Copilot (All Copilots) – Unified Architecture

So with a focus on Modern Workplace Copilots I created this unified architecture to answers all the above questions.

📢Call to Action: I would like you to review this and tell me if there is anything that is missing or that needs to be changed. I will try to incorporate all the valuable feedbacks that I receive to update this and make it a live unified architecture for all of us.

📢 Version History

v1.4 – 12.03.2024:

• Copilot for Finance: Microsoft Copilot for Finance, the newest Copilot offering designed for business functions that extends Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 and revolutionizes how finance teams approach their daily work. Copilot for Finance joins Copilot for Sales and Copilot for Service, now generally available, to provide AI-powered, role-based workflow automation, recommendations and guided actions in the flow of work. ✨Copilot for Finance has currently OOB integration with Dynamics 365 Finance through Copilot for Finance in Outlook & Microsoft Excel files through Copilot for Finance in Excel. For more information please check my post Microsoft Copilot for Finance – First Look Demo [Added]
• Copilot for Service: Copilot for Service has a new OOB integration with Dynamics 365 Customer Service or Salesforce using the new Copilot for Service in Outlook and Teams App (preview) [Updated]
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 now includes Copilot in Forms. Rolling out March 2024 [Added]
• Soon Copilot in PowerPoint will join Copilot in Word to have access to Semantic Index for Copilot in the Copilot side panel (Side Car) to answer questions not only from “This document” but also “Your organization’s data”[Updated]

v1.3 – 12.02.2024:

• Microsoft 365 Chat & Copilot for Service Integration: Microsoft announced coming soon integration [Added]
• Copilot for Service: Logo updated. For more information, please check my posts series 1) Microsoft Copilot for Service Preview – Architecture Point of View, 2) Microsoft Copilot for Service Preview – Overview and First Look End User (Agent) Experience Demo, 3) Microsoft Copilot for Service Preview – First Look Admin (Copilot Maker) Experience Demo. And the GA blog post Microsoft Copilot for Sales and Copilot for Service are now generally available
• Microsoft 365 Chat & Power Platform Apps: You can integrate Microsoft 365 Chat with your Power Platform Apps by creating custom AI plugins for Microsoft Copilot [Added]
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 & Copilot for Sales Integration: The following will be enriched by Copilot for Sales (Copilot in Outlook [Summary & Draft], Copilot in Teams [Meeting Recap & Meeting], Microsoft 365 Chat with Copilot for Sales plugin, Copilot in Office Apps [Word]) [Updated]
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 now includes Copilot in Microsoft Stream. Rolling out February 2024

v1.2 – 23.01.2024:

• Microsoft 365 Chat & Microsoft Viva Integration: Topics in Viva Integration [Added]. For more information, please check my post Topics in Viva & Copilot for Microsoft 365 (M365 Chat) Integration
• Copilot for Sales: Logo updated. For more information, please check my post Microsoft Copilot for Sales Overview
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 & Copilot for Sales Integration: Teams Intelligent meeting recap & Content Generation by Copilot in Word soon will be enriched by sales data powered by Copilot for Sales [Added]

v1.1 – 04.01.2024:

• Microsoft 365 Chat & Dynamics 365 Integration: Dynamics 365 Field Service Plugin [Added]
• Converted to dark theme

v1.0 – 16.12.2023:

• Initial Release

🚀 Copilot for Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Chat, Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, and Semantic Index for Copilot

Despite Microsoft did not document this (Perhaps because they planned to change it soon!) for those who use Copilot for Microsoft 365, it was obvious that only Microsoft 365 Chat had access to Semantic Index for Copilot, which allowed access to your enterprise knowledge/data. However, a few days ago, Microsoft began to make Semantic Index for Copilot available to other Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise as well, starting with Microsoft Word for now, but I expect that other Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise will be enabled soon. I will make sure to update this architecture when I see more updates coming to the product in this area.

While this is amazing feature that will bring more power to the product, but it also pose some challenges for us, especially in the early stages of deployment. Please read on to learn more.

❓Why & How to control/govern the Semantic Index for Copilot? and Feedback to the Microsoft Copilot Product Group

Semantic Index for Copilot is one of the most valuable powerful technologies I ever used, but as we all know “With great power comes great responsibility”.

For instance, occasionally with my enterprise clients I face a situation where we have to deploy Copilot for Microsoft 365 quickly even though we are still working on the data assessments and data risk mitigations. My approach for this was to have a controlled rollout for the parts that utilize the Semantic Index for Copilot (M365 Chat) so that we can minimize the risk of data leaks/oversharing.

As Semantic Index for Copilot will be available in more endpoints/experiences, I hope the Microsoft Copilot Product Group give us controls to manage this. Below are the endpoints/experiences that use Semantic Index for Copilot, with instructions on how to control it or a request for Microsoft to offer something.

• Microsoft 365 Chat: You can control this today using the Copilot for Microsoft 365 license assignment.
• Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise (Microsoft Word): At the moment, I am not aware of any method to control this, perhaps Microsoft may offer a control with a new specific policy for the Connected experiences in Office, or through a policy in the Microsoft 365 Apps Admin Center like the newly released “Turn off Draft with Copilot in Outlook” policy.
• Microsoft Search: While this is not available yet, but we will need a control for this when it comes. Perhaps through a new setting in the Search & intelligence central admin

Summary

Navigating the multitude of the fragmented Microsoft Copilots, I’ve drafted a unified architecture, with a focus on the Modern Workplace Copilots. While Semantic Index for Copilot is coming into Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, starting with Word, it will pose some challenges for us, especially in the early stages of deployment. Now, the real deal—how do we govern the Semantic Index for Copilot? It’s a game-changer, but we need controls. Check out my unified architecture proposal, share your thoughts, and let’s ace this Microsoft Copilots rollout together!

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This blog is part of Microsoft Copilot Week! Find more similar blogs on our Microsoft Copilot Landing page here.

About the author:

Mahmoud Hassan

A “Modern Workplace Evangelist, Business Leader” with experience in architecting, designing, implementing and deploying modern workplace solutions.
A passionate evangelist who helps enterprises speed up with Modern Workplace, GenAI & Microsoft Copilot, Employee Experience Platform, Frontline workers, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure.
MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer) and holding many Microsoft certifications.

Hassan, H. (2024) Microsoft Copilot (All Copilots) – Unified Architecture. Available at: 🎯Microsoft Copilot (All Copilots) – Unified Architecture | LinkedIn [Accessed on 23/04/2024]