Copilot for Sales vs Copilot for Service – What's the Difference?

The Copilot products just keep coming! Microsoft Copilot for Service and Copilot for Sales became generally available through the New Commerce Experience (NCE) as well as other buying programs on March 1st.

Both products are designed to streamline business processes, automate repetitive tasks, and unlock creativity. They provide the flexibility to integrate with a customer's existing contact center and CRM systems, such as Salesforce and ServiceNow, enabling more to be accomplished with less effort. 

Both products are available for purchase through all buying programs as of March 1st. The cost of each is $50 per user per month which seems expensive, but these SKUs include Copilot for Microsoft 365. We are hopeful that later this year, Microsoft will begin offering a $20 SKU for users who already have Copilot for Microsoft 365; however, at this time, it is unfortunately not available.

One point to note is that through a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), Microsoft is currently only offering Copilot for Service and Copilot for Sales on the NCE annual term and requires upfront annual payment. There has been no announcement about a monthly term offering; however, partners and customers have provided feedback to Microsoft expressing their interest in a monthly term option. We'll keep you posted if we hear any news about Microsoft adding this option. 

Copilot for Service 

What is it? In many organizations, information such as customer records, knowledge base articles, and files are distributed across multiple systems, making it challenging for customer service agents who need to navigate across various apps. With Copilot for Service, organizations can simply point to their data and unlock generative AI-powered conversations across their knowledge bases. Customer service agents can then access this knowledge with a copilot embedded directly in their preferred desktop software, such as Salesforce, as well as other tools like Outlook and Teams. 

What can it do? 

• Work across multiple systems - Enable generative AI-powered conversations across your organization’s data with simplified point-and-click access to public websites, SharePoint, knowledge base articles, and offline files. Copilot for Service can access knowledge sources with pre-built integrations for Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk.  
• Embedded into apps - Copilot is embedded directly in support agents’ desktop software of choice such as Salesforce and Zendesk, as well as the Microsoft applications like Outlook and Teams. 
• Accelerates case resolution - Using CRM data, users can ask questions about cases and contacts, as well as summarize cases. In Outlook, users can use Copilot to summarize and draft emails, access case summaries, browse and update CRM records, and schedule meetings informed by case summaries and other relevant information from CRM records. 

License prerequisites are: 

• Copilot for Microsoft 365 (included in the $50/month SKU) 
• M365 E3/E5, O365 E3/E5, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, or Microsoft 365 Business Standard 
• It integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) applications such as Dynamics 365 and Salesforce, and contact or call center applications, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk. 

Copilot for Sales 

What is it? It's an AI-powered seller experience application that integrates with Microsoft 365 applications. It's designed to automatically capture, access, and register data into Dynamics 365 or Salesforce.  

According to a recent Gartner article, "How AI Can Scale Sales Impact," sellers must allow AI-powered technology—generative AI, emotion AI, and digital humans—more responsibility in executing core selling activities, letting salespeople focus on engaging buyers on a human level to understand their needs, motivations, and objections, and ultimately validate that a purchase is right for them. 

Organizations that have users licensed for Dynamics 365 Sales Premium plan will be happy to hear that the full capabilities of Copilot for Sales are included in this plan. 

What can it help salespeople with? 

• Prepares sales meeting briefs 
• Helps create PowerPoint content for meetings 

• Generates tips in real-time during Teams meetings 
• Provides insights and AI-generated analytics and tasks during Teams meetings 
• Generates follow-up emails in Outlook 
• Adds leads and updates CRM records 

License prerequisites are: 

• For Microsoft customers – any Dynamics 365 Sales plan 
• For Salesforce customers – Salesforce Sales Cloud plan 
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 (included in the $50/month SKU) 
• M365 E3/E5, O365 E3/E5, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, or Microsoft 365 Business Standard 

With Microsoft releasing new Copilot products constantly and changing the licensing rules related to these products, it’s hard for organizations to keep up. CloudServus wants to keep you informed about new product releases as well as changes that may affect your organization. We are a top 1% Microsoft Partner with expert licensing support.  

Contact CloudServus today to discuss your licensing needs and goals for your Microsoft partnership. We can give you a complete Microsoft Licensing Assessment to help your organization get the most out of its Microsoft licensing in every stage.