Ortelian vs Microsoft Copilot:
which fits your company?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant for work. It sits in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, works from your Microsoft 365 data, and comes with Copilot Studio for building your own agents. Ortelian is a platform for running AI agents on a maintained world model of your company, deployed by our team on site. We work on site not because our product needs it, but because your company does. AI has the most impact when the work itself changes, and that takes time with the people who do it.
Most companies on Microsoft 365 don’t have to choose. Copilot gives every employee AI help in the Microsoft apps they already use. Ortelian changes how specific, context-heavy work runs, and it plugs into Copilot as an MCP server through Copilot Studio, so people keep working in Copilot and Teams while it draws on your company’s world model and the scoped tools we set up with you. We set up that connection for your own tenant as part of an engagement. After launch, your team runs it or we keep running it for you.
At a glance
An assistant in every app, plus a team that changes the work.
Copilot is licensed per user on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan and rolled out across the company. Ortelian comes with a team that works on site to redesign the work and deploy the agents with you, and it connects to Copilot so the two work together. Access to the Ortelian platform is part of an engagement, and there is no self-serve product. What we say about Copilot here comes from Microsoft’s own product pages and Microsoft Learn.
When to choose Copilot
When the goal is AI help in the apps everyone already uses.
Choose Copilot when your company runs on Microsoft 365 and you want AI help for every employee in the apps they already use: drafting in Word, analysis in Excel, summaries in Outlook and Teams, and search across your work data. Copilot works from your Microsoft 365 data and inherits your existing Microsoft 365 security, privacy, identity and compliance policies.
It also fits when your own team wants to build agents. Copilot Studio lets them build agents with no code or with pro-code tooling, connect them to your data and systems, run evaluations and publish them to Teams, SharePoint, Copilot Chat or a website. If you have people with the time to design, build and maintain those agents, that is a good place to start.
When to choose Ortelian
When a specific piece of work has to change.
Choose Ortelian when you want AI to change how a specific piece of work runs, such as a planning round, a back-office check or a sales process with many people and sources, and that work depends on context no single system holds. A tool for building agents doesn’t decide what the work should look like. The process has to be redesigned, the standard agreed on real examples, and agents built that do the steps inside your systems. We work on site not because our product needs it, but because your company does. The detail is on how we work and on what an AI-native deployment partner does.
The platform is what stays with you. Agents work from a world model for knowledge work: your systems of record joined with outside sources, organised by an ontology we define with you, with every fact keeping its source. Workshops during the build prepare your team to own the work. After launch, they run it or we keep running it for you. Either way, we host and operate the platform, and the evaluations keep running on the work in use. Your own agents and AI tools, Copilot included, can work with the platform headless, through the scoped tools we set up with you. It is hosted in the EU, agents use models with zero data retention, and anything that leaves the company waits for a person’s approval.
01 · Software
The code holds everything the work needs.
That’s why AI took off in software first.
02 · Internal knowledge
A wiki holds what the company writes down.
That’s enough for questions about the company itself.
03 · Knowledge work
Your work also depends on the world outside.
Customers, competitors, regulations, people moving. We join it with what’s inside, in one model.
Inside the company The world around it
Can you use both?
Yes. Ortelian plugs into Copilot.
For most companies on Microsoft 365, the answer is both. Copilot stays the assistant your employees use in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams. Ortelian is where specific, redesigned work runs: agents work from the world model and act in your systems of record within agreed limits. They work inside the tools your team already uses, including Teams and email, so nobody has to move.
The two connect through MCP. Copilot Studio lets your team add an MCP server to an agent as a tool, as Microsoft explains in its guide to extending an agent with Model Context Protocol, and Microsoft says your Power Platform data policies also govern that access. As part of the engagement, we set up Ortelian as an MCP server for your tenant and connect it, with your team, to the Copilot Studio agents your people use in Copilot Chat or Teams. They keep working in Copilot, and it draws on the same world model the Ortelian agents use, through scoped tools that only give the access each job needs. We agree in the audit which systems and sources the Ortelian agents use and where the line between the two sits.
Other comparisons: Ortelian vs Glean, Ortelian vs building in-house, Ortelian vs AI consultancies, Ortelian vs ChatGPT Enterprise and Ortelian vs Sierra.
Questions
Questions buyers ask when comparing.
What is the main difference between Ortelian and Microsoft Copilot?
Copilot is an AI assistant built into Microsoft 365, licensed per user, with Copilot Studio for building your own agents. Ortelian is a platform for running agents on a world model of your company, deployed by our team on site, where we redesign specific work with your people. After launch, your team runs it or we keep running it for you. You don’t have to pick one: Ortelian plugs into Copilot as an MCP server through Copilot Studio, so people can use it from Copilot.
Does Ortelian replace Microsoft Copilot?
No. Ortelian complements it. Copilot stays the AI assistant every employee uses in Microsoft 365. Ortelian redesigns specific work with your team and runs agents on a world model of your company, and it connects to Copilot so people can draw on that context without leaving Copilot or Teams.
We already build agents in Copilot Studio. Do we need Ortelian?
Maybe not. If your team has the time and skills to map the work, build the agents, test them and maintain them, Copilot Studio gives them the tools. Ortelian fits when the work depends on context spread across many systems and outside sources, and you want a team on site to redesign it and stay responsible for the agents meeting a standard agreed on real examples. The two also work together: Ortelian can be added to your Copilot Studio agents as an MCP server, so the agents your team builds draw on the world model.
Does Ortelian work with Microsoft Copilot?
Yes. Ortelian plugs into Copilot as an MCP server, added as a tool to your Copilot Studio agents. We set it up for your own tenant as part of the engagement, and your Power Platform data policies apply to it. People keep working in Copilot while it draws on Ortelian’s world model of your company and the scoped tools we set up with you, and each tool only gets the access its job needs. The same goes for other AI tools, such as Claude or ChatGPT, and your own agents. There is no self-serve product.
Where is the data hosted?
Ortelian’s platform is hosted in the EU, and agents use models with zero data retention. Microsoft says Copilot is covered by the EU Data Boundary for storing and processing data in the EU, and that your data is not used to train foundation models. Check the details for your own deployment with each vendor.
How are they priced?
Microsoft lists Microsoft 365 Copilot as a per-user, per-month licence with an annual commitment, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan. Copilot Studio usage is billed in Copilot Credits, and use of agents published to Microsoft 365 Copilot is included for licensed users. Ortelian comes as an engagement: a fixed fee for the audit, credited against the first build if you go ahead, a fixed fee for each build and a monthly platform fee sized to your usage, with unlimited users and no annual commitment.
Let’s work out the fit.
Bring the work that is held up and the tools you already have. We’ll tell you where Ortelian fits alongside Copilot, or whether Copilot on its own is the better place to start.
