Every desk.
Or one job, done.
Microsoft 365 Copilot vs LeanLoop: is Copilot worth it for a small business?
If your business runs on Outlook, Word and Excel, Copilot is already at the door. Microsoft includes Copilot Chat with eligible Microsoft 365 plans, and sells a fuller version for small businesses. Is it worth paying for, and is there any reason to bring in someone else? It depends on what you're after: everyone a bit quicker at their own work, or one job taken off the team.
Is Copilot worth it for a small business? The short answer
- Yes, if your team lives in Microsoft 365 and you want each person to write, summarise and find things faster.
- Taking one whole job off the team needs more than a licence. For a job like answering enquiries or typing up orders, someone has to build it and look after it. That's the part LeanLoop does.
- You can use both. They do different things.
What Microsoft 365 Copilot Business offers UK businesses
Copilot Business is an add-on for businesses with up to 300 people on an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan. Microsoft is in the middle of renaming it Microsoft Copilot. In Outlook it drafts emails and sums up long threads, and you edit the draft and press send yourself. It also works in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams, using the files and messages each person already has access to.
The free Copilot Chat comes with eligible Microsoft 365 plans at no extra cost, and includes Copilot in Outlook.
Newer features go further. Copilot Cowork can run a task on a schedule or when an email arrives, and by default it drafts the work for you to approve. Copilot Studio is Microsoft's tool for building your own assistants that act when something happens. Someone has to build and look after those, and some of that work is charged on usage, on top of the licence.
In the UK you pay per person, per month, on top of your Microsoft 365 plan, yearly or monthly, before VAT. The prices are on Microsoft's Copilot for business page. Microsoft says your business data isn't used to train the AI behind it.
Help at every desk, or a job off the team
Copilot is licensed person by person, and it works with what that person can see. It's at its best making each of them quicker: a reply drafted in seconds, a meeting summed up, a spreadsheet explained. That's useful for nearly everyone who sits at a desk.
Taking a whole job off the team is a different kind of work. Say you want every new enquiry answered, or every emailed order typed up. Someone has to set up the automatic tasks or build an assistant in Copilot Studio, decide what it can see, test it, and keep it right when something changes. Microsoft's set-up guidance is written for IT admins. If you have an IT person or a Microsoft partner with the time, that may be fine.
Copilot vs hiring help with the job
If you don't have that person, you're really asking a different question: who could take this job off us? LeanLoop does that, for one job at a time. We look at how the job runs today in a time audit, a fixed price agreed before we start. Then we set an assistant up for it, test it on 20 real examples from your business and keep it running every month. Its drafts wait in your to-approve list. See how repeat jobs work.
Microsoft 365 Copilot vs LeanLoop, side by side
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | LeanLoop | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An AI helper inside Microsoft 365, licensed per person | An assistant set up for one job you repeat, run by us |
| Best at | Making each person quicker at their own writing, reading and meetings | Taking one repeat job off the team |
| Where it works | Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams, with what each person can see | The inbox or system the job lives in |
| Doing a job on its own | Possible with Cowork or an assistant built in Copilot Studio, which someone has to set up | What it's set up to do from day one |
| Approval | In Outlook, you edit and send the draft yourself. Cowork's automatic tasks draft for you to approve by default | Every draft waits in your to-approve list |
| Who sets it up | You, your IT admin or a Microsoft partner | We do |
| How you pay | Per person per month, on top of Microsoft 365, with some features charged on usage | A fixed price for the time audit, a fixed price to set up each job, then a monthly service |
When Copilot is worth it
- Your team lives in Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams, and you want everyone quicker.
- The work is different every time: reports, proposals, meeting notes, a tricky reply.
- You have an IT person or a partner who can set it up and look after it.
- You want to try something today. Start with the free Copilot Chat if your plan includes it.
When to bring in LeanLoop
- One job eats hours every week: enquiries, orders and bookings, invoices and chasing, the weekly numbers.
- There's no one to build it and keep it right. No IT person, or one with no spare time.
- You want it tested on your own examples before it goes near a customer, and checked every month after that.
Keep Copilot for the everyday work at every desk either way. Not on Microsoft 365? See ChatGPT vs LeanLoop.
