ChatGPT-4 versus Copilot: 4 things you need to know

In a world of ... just kidding, of course. This blog was written without the help of an AI - well, so humane - but that doesn't mean the past few years haven't been entirely about AI. In particular, ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot have received a lot of attention. Want to know exactly what the differences are between these two? Then you have landed on the right page. Here you can read all about the differences between ChatGPT and Copilot, and we explain which tool is best for your business.

ChatGPT and Copilot: in brief

Copilot and ChatGPT are the same in one respect: they are both LLMs (large language models). This means they both work on written prompts and produce written results. But, that's where the similarity between the two tools ends. Although at first glance they are similar in many ways, the differences between these two AIs are huge - from data sets to use cases and more. 

In fact, Microsoft Copilot is integrated into your Microsoft 365 environment. The result is that you have a personal assistant at your disposal 24/7 that uses all company data - to which it has access - to answer questions or perform tasks. ChatGPT, on the other hand, is not integrated into an enterprise environment. So this AI tool does not have access to your organization's internal data. At least, it shouldn't have.

1. Large difference in use of datasets

That means ChatGPT provides answers based on the dataset you feed it, corporate data and metrics are not included. Copilot, on the other hand, is fully integrated into your Microsoft 365 environment. It works within the environment in which your internal data is processed and thus can provide context-sensitive answers that apply to your operations. This makes the tool convenient to use for different tasks and affects the security of sensitive company data. 

2. ChatGPT or Copilot, what can you use these tools for? 

Because Copilot is integrated into the business environment, the assistant's answers are more context sensitive. Think about summarizing an email, for example, or for extracting to do's from that same email. If your colleague sends an email about a meeting, referring to the minutes, email slingers or Teams conversations, Copilot can summarize everything for you. That way you know exactly what your colleague needs and you know what to do yourself. The same goes for writing an e-mail, for example, or summarizing a Teams call. Because ChatGPT does not have access to this data - and you should definitely keep it that way - the answers are a lot more "general. 

So what can you use ChatGPT for? Writing simple code, for example. Or to help your customer service colleagues generate customer-friendly answers, including translation into different languages.

3. Is Microsoft Copilot more reliable than ChatGPT?

Although Copilot provides answers or performs tasks based on business information available to it, hallucination may occur. Hallucination refers to the generation of new information, such as text, images or sounds, based on the existing knowledge the model has gained during training. In the case of text-based AI models such as Copilot and ChatGPT, hallucination can occur when the model generates responses that, while appearing coherent, do not appear to be accurate, relevant or logical upon closer reading. Especially when the model is challenged with complex or unusual input. Both Microsoft and Open AI confirm this. Tip from us: no matter which tool you use, always read the answer carefully before copying and pasting it into an email to your boss, for example, good sense 

4. Privacy and data protection 

Maybe at first it seems like a good idea to feed ChatGPT as much corporate data as possible to make the responses it generates more specific, but we really advise against this. In fact, the publicly available version of ChatGPT uses all the information in prompts to learn and generate future requests. If you feed the AI tool enterprise data, it will also be used in responses generated for the rest of the world. In other words, assume zero privacy.

This is where Copilot really stands out. This is because the security of your company data is built in. For example, Microsoft clearly: "User input and output from Copilot are not available to other customers, are not used to train or improve third-party products or services, such as OpenAI models, and are not used to train or improve Microsoft AI models."

ChatGPT vs. Copilot: which one should I choose?

At first glance, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot appear to be two sides of the same coin. Both tools are generative AI applications built with large language models and OpenAI technology. But if you're already a Microsoft user, the answer to the question of whether you shouldn't switch to Copilot is obvious. Copilot protects your business data while providing context-specific answers based on that same data, something ChatGPT, or OpenAI, can still work on. So if you're looking for an AI assistant that helps make work easier, we definitely recommend Microsoft Copilot.

Want to learn more about Copilot and the benefits for your business? Then take a contact up, and we'll get the coffee ready in advance.