Microsoft Copilot VS. GitHub Copilot: What's the difference?

Introduction to Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot are two distinct AI assistants from Microsoft. Microsoft 365 Copilot is embedded in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams — it draws on Microsoft Graph (emails, meetings, documents) to help knowledge workers draft content, summarise meetings, and automate tasks. GitHub Copilot is a code-completion assistant integrated into VS Code, Visual Studio, and JetBrains IDEs — it suggests code, writes tests, and explains functions as developers type.

The core difference: Microsoft 365 Copilot is for business productivity users; GitHub Copilot is for software developers. A company can subscribe to both independently, and many enterprise customers do.

Within Microsoft 365, Copilot allows you to draft documents in seconds in Word, analyse data in Excel, create illustrated presentations in PowerPoint, manage communication through Outlook, and collaborate better with colleagues on Teams.

In the Power Platform, Copilot offers its help to automate tasks through Power Automate, the development of applications with Power Apps and the drafting of dynamic reports in Power BI, starting from a simple prompt and integrating the necessary data directly from the Microsoft corporate environment.

Microsoft Copilot is therefore a tool capable of revolutionizing our productivity thanks to the integration with our work tools and the proactive collaboration it can offer.

Key features of Microsoft Copilot

Let’s delve into the five characteristics that differentiate Microsoft Copilot as a generative AI solution for daily productivity support.

Semi-automation

‍Microsoft Copilot leverages AI to lighten repetitive tasks in the main Microsoft suite applications, such as Microsoft 365 (including Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, and PowerPoint) and Microsoft Power Platform (including Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Apps). Integrating with Microsoft apps, Copilot significantly speeds up our work and performs a good part of it semi-automatically.

Manual intervention is still required for writing prompts. However, with a single prompt, you can ask Copilot to fill an Excel table, draft a new document in Word based on a company template, or build an automation flow within Power Automate.

Suggestions

‍During personal use of Microsoft 365 applications, Copilot provides intelligent suggestions based on context. For example, it can suggest appropriate phrases for drafting a business email in Outlook or formulas to analyze a particular data set in Excel.

Collaboration

‍Copilot integrates with platforms like Microsoft Teams to improve internal collaboration and provide users with important project management features. For example, automatic meeting summaries with to-do lists of agreed activities. It can also suggest responses in conversation threads, contributing to smoother and more coordinated communication within teams.

Ecosystem

‍Microsoft Copilot is deeply integrated with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, ensuring a seamless experience across the various applications it comprises. This integration allows for complete synergy between tools like Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint, optimizing corporate productivity through interconnected use of corporate resources.

How to access Microsoft Copilot

As of January 15, 2024, Microsoft Copilot became available to everyone: individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, as well as large organizations that were the only ones able to take advantage of the new AI features of Microsoft until that date. Now that everyone can access it, the question is “how?”

Here’s how Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing works:

• For individuals and families, it is now possible to purchase the new Copilot Pro license for €22/user/month, provided they have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Microsoft 365 Family license. This allows using Copilot in applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.‍
• Companies with a Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Office 365 E3/E5, or Microsoft 365 E3/E5 license can now purchase just one Copilot license. Microsoft has removed the requirement for a minimum purchase of 300 licenses to access Copilot features. This limit previously prevented small and medium-sized businesses from adopting the new AI.‍
• Copilot is also available for teaching and administrative staff in the education sector through Education plans.‍ For companies, the Microsoft 365 Copilot license costs around €28/user/month. While this might seem expensive, a quick calculation of productivity-related costs reveals a different picture. A modest time saving, estimated between 74 and 30 minutes per month for each user using Copilot, is enough to justify the investment. Is this achievable? The answer is yes. Microsoft has conducted an analysis on Copilot’s impact on organizations, focusing on changes in productivity, work quality, and time savings.

Introduction to GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is the virtual assistant that Microsoft has developed in collaboration with OpenAI and GitHub to simplify programming and development activities. It therefore constitutes the first intelligent support for writing code, capable of generating lines or entire functions starting from the context of the comments and the source code.

These functionalities are possible thanks to OpenAI Codex, the artificial intelligence system that OpenAI has trained on a vast body of public source code to refine the ability to write code already present in GPT-3. In addition, knowledge of OpenAI Codex allows GitHub Copilot to operate on all major programming languages and thus adapt to any project.

Finally, it is useful to emphasize that GitHub Copilot is not only present in the GitHub development environment, but is also available as an extension to support Pair programming within:

• Visual Studio
• Visual Studio Code
• Neovim
• JetBrains Suite

Key features of GitHub Copilot

Let’s now look at the features that distinguish GitHub’s copilot. Despite having a similar focus to Microsoft Copilot, which is to allow users to increase their daily productivity, we will see how GitHub Copilot is particularly useful in supporting technical users like developers.

Code Suggestions

‍GitHub Copilot provides real-time code-writing suggestions based on the context and activities of the individual user. These personalized suggestions include automatic completion of code lines, generation of entire functions, and assistance in writing complex algorithms.

Multi-language Support

‍GitHub Copilot supports a wide range of programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Ruby. This ensures a level of flexibility for developers who need to manage different types of projects, switching from one language to another without difficulty.

Productivity

‍A common characteristic with Microsoft Copilot, though it is important to remember that GitHub Copilot particularly increases developers’ productivity, reducing the time needed to write and debug code. With relevant suggestions and immediate solutions to common problems, developers can focus on more creative and complex aspects of their work, improving the overall quality of the software produced.

Ecosystem

‍By integrating with GitHub and Visual Studio Code, GitHub Copilot offers one of the most comprehensive development experiences. This integration allows easy access to repositories, versioning tools, and interconnected development environments, facilitating code management and collaboration with other team members.

How to access GitHub Copilot

To access GitHub Copilot, you need to open a GitHub account (available also in the free version). Once registered, follow these steps to enable integrated AI support:

• Install Visual Studio Code.
• Open Visual Studio Code and go to the “Extensions” section.
• Search for and install GitHub Copilot.
• Follow the instructions to enable the copilot.
• Configure GitHub Copilot settings.

The 5 main differences between Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot

It’s obvious that Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot have more than one feature that sets them apart. From the scope of use to the functionalities offered, you will find all the main ones below.

1. Scope of use: Microsoft Copilot is designed to increase the productivity of all users who use Microsoft products in their work. GitHub Copilot, on the other hand, is a tool dedicated to technical users, developers, who must carry out programming and development activities. ‍
2. Supported applications: GitHub Copilot is compatible with several programming platforms, including Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Neovim, and the JetBrains suite of integrated development environments (IDE).Microsoft Copilot integrates with Microsoft 365 products, Microsoft Viva, Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Azure. It therefore offers its support within tools such as Teams, Word, Excel, Power Automate, Power BI and in some Azure services to manage the corporate IT infrastructure.‍
3. Functionality: Microsoft Copilot offers a wide range of features to simplify user activities in the main Microsoft products, including the summary of meetings in Microsoft Teams, the summary of emails in Outlook, the creation of content in SharePoint, PowerPoint and Microsoft Viva. It also allows you to build automated workflows with Power Automate or create a customized chatbot in Microsoft Copilot Studio, in a few minutes and starting from a single prompt. GitHub Copilot, on the other hand, specializes in creating lines of source code and functions, based on the information shared by the user and drawing on the context of the comments and the software solution that the user is creating.‍
4. Approach to collaboration: Microsoft Copilot has a collaborative approach based on deep integration with all the applications of the Microsoft ecosystem. On the other hand, GitHub Copilot is designed to support pair programming, a methodology that involves collaboration between two or more developers within the same development environment.‍
5. Sdata set and training: The capabilities of Microsoft Copilot are made possible by the combination of OpenAI’s Large Language Models with data from Microsoft Graph, the core of Microsoft’s digital workplace. GitHub Copilot is based on a different artificial intelligence system, always created and trained by OpenAI. This is Codex, which makes it possible to provide more flexible support when writing code.

FAQ on Microsoft Copilot vs. GitHub Copilot

Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about what differentiates Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot, based on the content of our article.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot integrates OpenAI’s Large Language Models with Microsoft Graph data to boost productivity across Microsoft 365, Viva, Power Platform, and Azure applications. It helps draft documents, analyze data, create presentations, and automate tasks.

What is GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered coding assistant developed by Microsoft and OpenAI, designed to help developers write code by generating lines or entire functions based on comments and existing code.

What are the differences between Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot?

Key differences include:

• Scope of use: Microsoft Copilot is for general productivity; GitHub Copilot is for coding.
• Supported applications: Microsoft Copilot supports Microsoft 365 and Azure; GitHub Copilot supports Visual Studio, VS Code, Neovim, and JetBrains.
• Functionality: Microsoft Copilot aids in document creation, email summarization, and workflow automation; GitHub Copilot assists with coding.
• Collaboration: Microsoft Copilot integrates across Microsoft apps; GitHub Copilot supports pair programming.
• Data and training: Microsoft Copilot uses Microsoft Graph data; GitHub Copilot uses OpenAI Codex.

How does Microsoft Copilot enhance productivity?

It automates tasks in Microsoft applications, helps manage communications, creates presentations, and optimizes IT infrastructure on Azure.

How does GitHub Copilot assist developers?

It generates code suggestions, reduces repetitive coding tasks, and integrates with multiple IDEs to support collaborative coding efforts.