If your firm already runs on Microsoft 365, Copilot is the AI that meets consultants where they actually work — in Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams — and its best wins are synthesis, not creation.

What Microsoft 365 Copilot actually is

It is an AI layer across the Office apps: draft and summarize in Word, analyze and explain data in Excel, scaffold decks in PowerPoint, triage email in Outlook, and recap meetings in Teams. A work-grounded chat queries across your files, mail and chats via Microsoft Graph, and as of April 2026 it can take multi-step “agentic” actions inside the apps.

Pricing, in plain terms

For organizations, Copilot is $30 per user per month (Enterprise) or about $18 per user per month (Business, promotional) — but it is an add-on that requires a qualifying M365 license underneath, so the true all-in cost is higher. There’s also a $20/month consumer Copilot Pro.

Where it shines

The recurring praise is the native integration: no app-switching, strong summarization of long email threads and meeting transcripts, and solid first-draft reports. For consultants, the fastest payback is recapping client calls in Teams, condensing threads in Outlook, and turning research into a Word draft.

What to watch

Two honest weak spots: Excel (it can struggle with complex analysis and has been reported to claim a task is done while producing blank output) and PowerPoint (a structural draft only, lacking storytelling and brand polish). Independent analysis also flags a real gap between seats purchased and weekly active usage — buy against actual adoption, not hype.

My verdict

The default AI for Microsoft-stack firms. Lean on it for synthesis and drafting; keep a human on the modeling and the client-grade design.