Explore the key differences between CoPilot and ChatGPT, and discover how their distinct features and integrations can impact your workflow. Understand which AI tool aligns best with your professional needs and software environment.
Key Insights
- Choose CoPilot if you heavily utilize Microsoft apps, as its paid version integrates seamlessly with these applications, reducing friction from constantly switching between software.
- Select ChatGPT if you require rapid access to the latest AI models, including specialized models beneficial for coding tasks, or if you prefer customization through features like memory capabilities and personalized instructions.
- Consider your organizational context: companies deeply embedded in Microsoft products may find CoPilot licensing easier and more practical, whereas businesses relying on platforms like Zoom, Slack, or Gmail may achieve greater value using ChatGPT.
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So as far as CoPilot versus ChatGPT, I know CoPilot is based on that, but is there a time when you might want to use one versus the other? Would there be a reason to go back and use ChatGPT? The main reason to me is the paid version of CoPilot. Because you pay for it, you get the integration into the Microsoft apps. Because it can do things there, that to me is the biggest differentiator.
If you're using a lot of Microsoft apps and you want to use them in those apps, then it's clear CoPilot is going to be more useful for you. However, ChatGPT is the originator of all this technology. You're going to get access to things faster.
You're going to get access to different models. So for example, in CoPilot, we never chose what model of reasoning it was going to use. Everything in Microsoft CoPilot essentially uses ChatGPT's 4.0 model, not 4.0, 4.0 is an omni.
And that 4.0 model is good as an all-around model, but they kept it simple. They don't let you choose different models. They just say, this is how we work because they don't want to confuse people.
And so if you want all the different models, because maybe there's a differentiation between them, like for example, if you want the new O1 reasoning models that are part of ChatGPT, Microsoft said that they're coming to CoPilot, but they're not here yet. If you want the latest features, you want to be on the bleeding edge of AI, ChatGPT releases things faster. Microsoft at some point has to integrate them if they decide to integrate them, but there's no guarantee that they will implement everything that ChatGPT does because they have a different set of priorities.
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So they might not choose to implement certain things. If you're not in the Microsoft world, if you're more like Zoom and Slack and Gmail, you're not going to get as much out of CoPilot as other people in the Microsoft world would get. So maybe ChatGPT is fine, especially because it gives you different models.
It works, I would say, better with code because some of those other models are more useful for coders. Although if you're mainly a coder, GitHub CoPilot is actually what you want because you can integrate that into your coding environment. You can get that into Visual Studio Code.
Although ChatGPT is starting to get there because now finally with the desktop ChatGPT app, it can see into Visual Studio Code. It can't actually write into it yet, but at least it can see it and you can chat with it and it can look at your code, but it's just a matter of time, I think, until ChatGPT does get integrated. I think they do probably want to integrate into Visual Studio Code.
So it kind of depends. The nice thing about CoPilot is that integration and not having to switch back and forth. And the more you do that, that lack of friction, the not having to switch back and forth, if you're doing that all day long, that can't be underestimated.
That's going to make your life a whole lot easier. And so a lot of companies, it also might just be easier to get licensing for CoPilot because they already have a Microsoft account and they already have Microsoft administrators. So adding a new vendor with ChatGPT, it might be harder to get that implemented.
So it depends. One nice thing about ChatGPT is it does have memories and custom instructions where you can tell it how you want it to work. It can remember things about you.
So it kind of gets to know you. So that way, when you're creating new chats, you don't always have to remind it who you are, what you do, every single chat. It's one of the downsides about CoPilot is it doesn't have those memories.
It doesn't have those custom instructions. So you can't give it these kind of long-term memories that it's going to use across all your chats. You have to keep reminding it.
So like every time you create a new chat, you'd have to say, I'm a digital marketer or I'm a finance person or whatever it is. So it remembers that each time, whereas ChatGPT, you can set custom instructions that are always there or just as you're chatting with it, it'll start to remember things. CoPilot doesn't have memories.
Now, if you're in Excel, you might not need it to have those memories. If you're in Word, you might not need it to have those memories. But if your main interaction is the chat side in the website, then maybe ChatGPT might give you better results if you don't need access or if you can't get access to your emails and your stuff.
You know, because like here at Noble Desktop, actually we use more of, we use Zoom, we use Slack, we host our email with Gmail. So that makes it trickier to use. We can't get all that mileage out of CoPilot.
We'd have to move all of our stuff over. We can't take as much advantage of CoPilot in that sense. Luckily on the Career Center side, which is our sister school, they do do Microsoft stuff.
So I get to see it from both sides, but I can see the challenges of why some companies will go more of the ChatGPT route and some people will go more with the CoPilot route.