The term “copilot” for AI assistants seems to be everywhere in today's enterprise software. Like many things in the generative AI industry, the way the word is used is changing. Sometimes it is capitalized and sometimes not. GitHub's branding of Copilot was the first major use, followed by Microsoft naming its flagship AI assistant Copilot. Then the term co-pilot quickly became generic. In common usage, an AI copilot is a generative AI assistant, typically a large language model trained for a specific task.
Confusion over a term could lead some customers to not know if what they are purchasing is a Microsoft product, for example. But Microsoft doesn't seem to be looking to co-opt the word copilot, as many other companies use it. The term copilot. originated with flight and implies a competent right hand for a highly qualified professional.
Here's what you need to know about some of the many varieties of AI copilot.
What is Microsoft copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is an umbrella term for a variety of generative AI and chatbot products that are now available across Microsoft productivity software. For business users, we have a guide to differentiate the various iterations of Microsoft Copilot and the new Copilot features and integrations.
Microsoft uses two constructions for Copilot product names: “in” or “for”
In TechRepublic's cheat sheet on Microsoft Copilot, note Copilot for security and Copilots for finance, sales, and services, which will likely be purchased separately for specific uses or departments. This is an interesting case of Microsoft using its own branding in two ways at once (even after the whole Copilot name change): Copilots offer very similar, but more industry-specific, capabilities compared to Copilots in, for example. For example, Copilot in Word can help with any writing task, while Copilot for Security integrates with specific security products.
SEE: Copilot on Bing used to be called Bing Chat before Microsoft unified their brands a bit. (Technological Republic)
What is GitHub Copilot?
GitHub launched its Copilot product in 2021 (GitHub had already been acquired by Microsoft at that time). GitHub Copilot generates code based on a developer's existing code; It is intended as an AI version of pair programming. The original GitHub Copilot was built on top of OpenAI Codex, a variant of the then-current GPT-3. GitHub came full circle on generative AI with the addition of a chatbot to its most recent version. GitHub Copilot X.
Microsoft Copilot vs. GitHub Copilot
Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot have different main use cases. GitHub Copilot is specifically for coding, while Microsoft Copilot integrates with a lot of different enterprise software. GitHub Copilot reads code, not natural language, and integrates it into a code editor; Microsoft Copilot uses natural language and integrates with a variety of Microsoft products. On the other hand, Microsoft Copilot can be used to write code in some cases, such as in Power Pages when integrated with visual studio code.
Microsoft Copilot for business starts at $30.00 per user per month with a Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Microsoft 365 Business Premium license.
GitHub Copilot starts at $10 per user per month.
What are other Copilot products?
Salesforce is not a Microsoft advocate for Copilot as a brand. Einstein Copilot, launched in February 2024, runs on Salesforce's customer relationship management, artificial intelligence, and data cloud software-as-a-service offerings.
Business process automation software company Appian calls its generative AI companion Copilot. One sales prospecting software company called Copilot AI, but it doesn't sell a generative AI robot; instead, it offers predictive responses to LinkedIn conversations and campaigns.
There are many more companies using Copilot to signal a generative AI push for their services.
SEE: There are several reasons why companies or individual users might want to disable the Microsoft Copilot features that come with Windows 11. (TechRepublic)
Can copilot be used as a generic term?
For now, “copilot” is a flexible word for generic and brand-specific AI chatbot products for specific business uses. For example, Microsoft Copilot is a co-pilot. What “copilot” refers to or what an AI chatbot is called may be different depending on the organization. Common uses of the term indicate the Wild West period of AI we find ourselves in, and show that practitioners are still working on ways to use generative AI for business and that generative AI is settling into a role “assistant” in the form of personalized chatbots. to specific products and applications.
You will probably see the word copilot written in lowercase to indicate the generic version of AI assistants. The people who create the Copilot infrastructure in capital letters have also adopted the generic version of the term: CEO of NVIDIA Jensen Huang used copilot as a generic term at NVIDIA GTC, as did many companies on the conference exhibit floor.
Other companies seem to stay away from the term: IBM calls its AI companion watsonx Assistant, as does Databricks with its Databricks Assistant.
