Tag: AI in 2026

  • Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot Included? This new SKU makes integrating AI into your business more affordable and accessible

    Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot Included? This new SKU makes integrating AI into your business more affordable and accessible

    In 2026, AI has cemented its place in businesses in helping employees achieve more with their time. However, which tool employees choose to use is still a matter of debate for most businesses (and sometimes, even if an approved tool is in place employees will still choose to use something else).

     

    There are some risks involved with allowing employees to choose their own AI tools, AI models in general are trained not only on the data that engineers put in from the start, but also on the data they’re fed from users. This means if your employee shares private or proprietary data with AI, that data is for all intents and purposes now exposed to the internet at large.

     

    That’s where Microsoft’s Copilot 365 product originally came to be, to solve this problem by allowing businesses to set rules within their Microsoft tenant on how and when data is shared (including not sharing any data at all with learning models). However, there was a significant upfront cost for this service initially that may have been off putting to businesses only dipping their toes into the AI arena for the first time.

     

    At launch, Microsoft’s Copilot 365 was $360 a year per user, ensuring any business that chooses to use it would be fully locked into the product for a full year. Now, not only is there a month-to-month option ($31.50 per year) they have also released a SKU that combines Microsoft’s Copilot 365 with Microsoft Business Premium (which many businesses already have for the superior protection included that are not found under the Basic and Standard SKUs). This product is available for the discounted price of $45.15 (compared to $54.60 to purchase them separately). You still must sign up for an annual commitment but the month-to-month flexibility should help with businesses trying to get a handle of their technological costs.

     

    Microsoft’s Copilot is a superior product to other AI tools on the market (including those aimed specifically for business users) in the following ways:

     

      • Direct Integration: Embedded directly in Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and OneDrive, no separate tools, logins, or workflows.
      • Understands Your Organization’s Data: Uses your existing Microsoft 365 tenant data (emails, files, chats, calendars, meetings) with permissions fully respected.
      • Context-Aware Email & Communication Assistance: Drafts, summarizes, and replies to emails using real conversation history, attachments, and meeting context.
      • Document Creation & Refinement: Generates, rewrites, summarizes, and formats Word documents based on your internal files and past work, not generic templates.
      • Excel Analysis (Without Formulas): Analyzes data, explains trends, builds summaries, and generates formulas using plain English instructions
      • PowerPoint from Existing Content: Creates presentations from Word documents, notes, or OneDrive files, automatically structuring slides and speaker notes.
      • Smarter Meetings in Microsoft Teams: Summarizes meetings, highlights action items, tracks decisions, and answers questions about what was discussed—even if you joined late.
      • Real-Time Business Q&A: Ask questions like “What did we decide about Project X?” or “Summarize last quarter’s client issues” and get answers sourced from your tenant.
      • Security & Compliance Built In: Honors Microsoft 365 security controls, data boundaries, retention policies, and user permissions, no data used to train public models.
      • No Disruption to Existing IT Controls: Managed through Microsoft 365 admin tools, licensing, and policies you already use.

     

    In a nutshell, it’s not a good idea to allow your employees to select their own AI tools, by selecting Copilot you’re safeguarding your companies’ data while giving them a tool that integrates directly with their day-to-day activities.

     

    If rolling out AI in your business is still a priority in 2026, Valley Techlogic has strived to stay at the forefront of new and exciting changes in AI. We are able to craft an implementation plan that works with your business while addressing concerns like data safety and employee adoption. Learn more today through a consultation.