The major AI assistants, compared for the boardroom.

Capabilities

• — Works inside Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and PowerPoint
• — Grounded on your tenant data via Microsoft Graph
• — Agents built in Copilot Studio; model choice now includes Claude in Researcher

Pricing model

Per-user add-on to eligible Microsoft 365 licences; agent usage can add consumption costs.

Data & residency

Inherits Microsoft 365 commitments, including EU Data Boundary options.

Governance implications

• — Surfaces anything users can already access, so permission hygiene comes first
• — Enabling third-party models (e.g. Anthropic) adds a subprocessor decision
• — Purview labels and audit logs apply

Capabilities

• — Frontier models including GPT-6 Astra with computer use
• — Connectors to common business apps and custom GPTs
• — Deep research and data analysis

Pricing model

Per-seat Business plan; Enterprise priced by negotiation. API billed per token.

Data & residency

Business data excluded from training by default; regional residency options on Enterprise.

Governance implications

• — Shadow use on personal accounts is the main risk; provide a sanctioned route
• — Agents acting in apps need clear approval boundaries
• — SSO, admin console and retention controls on paid tiers

Capabilities

• — Very long context for contracts, reports and codebases
• — Cowork merged into chat for unattended tasks; Docs and Slides in beta
• — Available directly and inside Microsoft 365 Copilot Researcher

Pricing model

Per-seat Team plan; Enterprise by negotiation. API billed per token.

Data & residency

No training on business data by default; available via major cloud providers for residency needs.

Governance implications

• — Unattended tasks require named human reviewers
• — Decide whether access is direct, via Copilot, or both
• — Admin controls, SSO and audit on paid tiers

Capabilities

• — Built into Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet and Drive
• — Multimodal: text, images, audio and video
• — Agent building through Google Cloud

Pricing model

Included in or added to Workspace business plans; API billed per token.

Data & residency

Workspace data-region controls apply on eligible editions.

Governance implications

• — Same permission-hygiene issue as Copilot on shared Drives
• — Check which Workspace edition includes which protections
• — Vault retention and admin controls apply

Capabilities

• — Personal context across mail, messages and calendar
• — Onscreen awareness and actions in apps
• — On-device processing with Private Cloud Compute

Pricing model

Included with supported Apple devices; no per-seat fee.

Data & residency

Primarily on-device; cloud requests via Apple Private Cloud Compute.

Governance implications

• — Arrives on devices whether or not you plan for it (BYOD)
• — Needs an acceptable-use position and MDM settings
• — Hand-offs to third-party models should be reviewed