In a fast-evolving AI landscape, businesses across all industries—especially in Banking, Insurance, and Professional Services—are embracing intelligent automation to enhance productivity, reduce operational friction, and improve customer experience. But the real question is: which Microsoft AI tool should you use?

Microsoft has launched a range of AI-powered solutions tailored to different use cases, skills, and objectives. In this article, we break down the three most powerful tools in the Microsoft AI ecosystem:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Copilot Studio
• Azure AI Foundry

And we help you answer: Which one is right for your business and your teams?

This article was inspired in part by a LinkedIn post by Jens Böcking, highlighting use cases such as ITSM, Customer Support Channels, and Due Diligence as key entry points for AI adoption.

Microsoft 365 Copilot – Embedded Intelligence for Everyday Users

Overview: Microsoft 365 Copilot integrates directly into your familiar apps—Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Teams—and uses LLMs (Large Language Models) with Microsoft Graph to make your daily work smoother and smarter.

Key Features:

• Drafts emails, meeting summaries, and PowerPoint slides
• Generates Excel formulas and insights from raw data
• Integrates knowledge from emails, documents, chats, and calendars

Ideal For:

• Employees who live in Word, Excel, and Outlook
• Knowledge workers in finance, audit, compliance, HR, etc.
• Teams looking to boost productivity without technical skills

Common Use Cases:

• Summarize regulatory meetings
• Automate monthly business reviews
• Draft client proposals and financial commentary

Level of Customization: Limited (embedded functionality) Skills Required: None Time to Value: Immediate

Copilot Studio – Build Custom AI Agents for Real-World Workflows

Overview: Copilot Studio (formerly Power Virtual Agents) is Microsoft’s low-code platform to build, deploy, and manage custom AI agents that automate business processes, respond to users, and connect with enterprise data.

With recent updates, Copilot Studio supports intelligent agents that can:

• Use memory and context
• Search and reason across internal knowledge bases
• Integrate with over 1500+ systems via connectors
• Use Azure OpenAI, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), and plugin actions

Ideal For:

• Business analysts, innovation teams, citizen developers
• IT departments building internal service bots
• Project teams needing guided, repeatable flows

Common Use Cases:

• Client onboarding automation in banking
• Internal ITSM or HR support bots
• Product recommendation agents for insurance clients

Level of Customization: Medium to High Skills Required: Low-code/no-code Time to Value: Fast (days to weeks)

Azure AI Foundry – Enterprise AI for Custom and Scalable Innovation

Overview: Azure AI Foundry is Microsoft's advanced framework for building and orchestrating enterprise-grade AI solutions, from model training and fine-tuning to deployment and governance.

What it offers:

• Fine-tune models with your own data
• Use tools like Azure ML, Prompt Flow, OpenAI, and AI Search
• Build private, secure copilots with full control over logic and compliance
• Integrate with existing data lakes, APIs, and workflows

Ideal For:

• Data scientists, ML engineers, architects
• Organizations with high governance/security requirements
• Enterprises needing domain-specific copilots or agents

Common Use Cases:

• AI-driven regulatory research bots (e.g. PSD2, AML, MiFID)
• Document analysis and summarization at scale
• Tailored LLM copilots for internal advisors and relationship managers

Level of Customization: ? Full Skills Required: Advanced (AI/ML expertise) Time to Value: Medium to Long (project-based)

What About AI Agents?

One of the most exciting developments in Microsoft’s AI ecosystem is the shift from simple assistants to intelligent agents:

• Agents are capable of multi-step reasoning
• They can loop, adapt, and make decisions based on outcomes
• They use tools, plugins, and external data to accomplish tasks

Copilot Studio is now the frontline platform for designing these agents—without code. For more advanced use cases, Azure AI Foundry allows enterprises to go deeper by combining Copilot Studio with Azure ML, OpenAI, and their internal data.

Quick Comparison Table

Final Thoughts: Which Should You Choose?

• Start with M365 Copilot if your goal is to boost employee efficiency in Outlook, Excel, and Word
• Choose Copilot Studio if you want to deploy smart AI agents to automate workflows
• Use Azure AI Foundry if you need deep customization, AI governance, and full lifecycle control

In a country like Luxembourg, where multilingual regulations, compliance, and cross-border operations are part of daily life, the right AI tool can drive major efficiency gains and reduce operational complexity.

Microsoft is not offering one Copilot. It’s offering an AI ecosystem.

The power lies in how you combine them.