Many small businesses pay for a new AI subscription while an AI assistant sits unused inside the tools they already have. Before buying anything, check these two.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft offers two levels. Copilot Chat is an AI chat included free with eligible Microsoft 365 business plans, signed in with your work account. Microsoft 365 Copilot is a paid add-on that works inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, using your own emails, files and meetings.
Good first uses: drafting and summarising, catching up on a long email thread, and turning a Teams meeting into notes.
Google Workspace
Gemini is built into Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Chat and Meet. Google states that, in Workspace, your prompts and content are not used to train its models and are not reviewed by humans.
Good first uses: drafting replies in Gmail, summarising a long document in Docs, and asking questions across your Drive files from the side panel.
What to check
| Question | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Which AI features does our plan include? | Your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace admin console |
| Are they switched on for everyone? | The same admin console, under AI or Gemini settings |
| Does it train on our data? | The provider’s business privacy page |
Pick one person and one task, such as summarising the week’s client emails. Use the built-in AI for a month and note the time it saves. That tells you more than any demo.
When built-in AI is not enough
Built-in assistants are general. They do not know your processes, your standards or the order your work happens in. That is the point where a workflow built around how you work starts to pay back.
Plans and features change often, so check the details in your own admin console.