The 60-second answer
Microsoft 365 Copilot carries 100+ prebuilt connectors: Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Confluence, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Dynamics 365, SAP, Workday, Zendesk, Jira, SQL/Oracle databases, and network shares. It sits on top of a Microsoft 365 licence, not beside it.
The structural fact that sets this platform apart from the other three: the end user cannot simply flip a switch. An admin configures connectors at tenant level, or an admin enables the connector and users self-authenticate. For a 12-person office on Vancouver Island, the admin is often the bookkeeper or an outside IT contractor. That changes what the reader has to do on Monday morning.
The second distinction: synced versus federated. A synced connector copies content into Microsoft Graph’s search index; answers come back fast. A federated connector fetches content live and stores nothing. For a law office or a clinic, that distinction is the decision.
What it connects to today
The map below shows what Copilot reaches across the software an Island operation actually runs on. Green means a first-party connector exists today; a dash means the claim has not been verified and will not be stated as fact.
100+
Prebuilt connectors. Microsoft Learn, Aug 2026.
Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Confluence, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Dynamics 365, SAP, Workday, Zendesk, Jira, SQL/Oracle, network shares.
What it does well
Reaches across Microsoft 365 and every connected system in a single question. A query about a client can pull from Outlook email, a SharePoint folder, a Teams thread, and a Salesforce record in one answer, because the synced connector has already indexed the content into Microsoft Graph.
Respects sensitivity labels. If a document in SharePoint is marked Confidential through Microsoft Purview, Copilot will not surface it in responses. The classification that already exists in the tenant carries forward into the AI layer without a second system.
Handles the federated case for sensitive or live data. A federated connector fetches content at the moment of the question and stores nothing. For a clinic that needs real-time patient scheduling data but cannot have that data sitting in a search index, this is the option that exists on this platform and does not exist, in those terms, on the other three.
What needs an admin, and what needs building
The 100+ prebuilt connectors are weighted toward enterprise systems. Salesforce, ServiceNow, SAP, Workday, Dynamics 365. That list was built for a 5,000-seat organization, and it shows.
The operational software that runs a working Island business is a different list:
- Jobber (trades): check pending
- ServiceTitan (trades): check pending
- Jane App (clinics): no connector, no public API
- Clio (legal): check pending
- QuickBooks (accounting): check pending
- Xero (accounting): check pending
- Sage (accounting): check pending
- Square (food and beverage, retail): check pending
The gap on Copilot runs the opposite direction from Claude and ChatGPT. Where those platforms carry consumer-life connectors (restaurant bookings, concert tickets, ride hailing) and are thin on enterprise, Copilot carries enterprise connectors (Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow) and is thin on the small-business operational layer. Both miss the same middle: the 15-to-50-seat operation that runs on vertical software.
Your data, and who sees it
Enterprise deployments do not use input for model training by default. Data stays within the organization. Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels are respected, and admins can enforce regional compliance.
The synced-versus-federated distinction matters here. A synced connector means a copy of the content sits in Microsoft Graph’s index. A federated connector means it does not. For regulated industries (legal, clinical, financial), the federated option is the one that changes the conversation with the regulator, because the question becomes “the content was fetched and discarded” rather than “the content is indexed somewhere.”
The admin decides which connectors are active and which mode each one uses. That decision is tenant-level, not per-user.
What it costs
| Component | Price |
|---|---|
| Copilot Business | CA$28.50/user/mo list (CA$24.43 promo through Sep 2026) |
| Copilot Enterprise | US$30/user/mo |
| Base licence required | Business Standard US$14/mo, Premium US$22/mo, E3 US$39/mo, E5 US$60/mo |
| Copilot Business seat cap | 300 seats per tenant |
Copilot is not a standalone product. It sits on top of a Microsoft 365 licence, so the real cost is the Copilot line plus the base plan. For a 20-person office on Business Standard, the all-in per-seat cost is the base licence plus the Copilot add-on.
The connectors are included in the Copilot licence. The configuration is the admin’s job, not an extra purchase.
What AI connectors actually cost
Where it stops, and what sits past it
Copilot connects to the systems that have prebuilt connectors, which are predominantly enterprise-grade platforms. The operational software that runs a 15-to-50-seat Island business is largely absent from that list.
A custom connector can be built for systems without a prebuilt option. That is a different kind of work from enabling a prebuilt one: it requires configuration, authentication, and a decision about synced versus federated that depends on the data. That work is what solution design and workflow automation produce.
The reader who already pays for Microsoft 365, already has an IT admin or contractor, and wants to know whether Copilot covers their systems has the clearest next step of the four platforms: check the prebuilt list, check the admin, and check the data classification. Everything past that is a build.