Licensed Copilot Chat: Working with All Your Data

Overview

Free Copilot Chat is a useful starting point, but it only knows what you tell it and what it can find on the web. With a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, Copilot Chat gains access to your entire organization’s data—emails, documents, Teams conversations, meeting transcripts, and more—all through Microsoft Graph.

This video shows you what your paid license unlocks, how to search across your organizational data, and how to combine work and web information for comprehensive answers in government cloud environments.

What You’ll Learn

• License Differences: What licensed Copilot Chat adds beyond the free experience
• Organizational Search: How to find information across emails, files, and meetings
• Files, Emails, and Meetings: Practical prompts for each data type
• Combined Search: How to blend organizational data with web information

Script

Hook: your license unlocks your organization’s data

Free Copilot Chat is useful, but it can’t see your emails, documents, or meeting notes. It only works with what you type into the conversation and what it can find on the web.

With a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, that changes completely. Copilot Chat can search across everything in your organization—emails in Outlook, files in SharePoint and OneDrive, Teams chats, meeting transcripts, calendar events, and more.

In the next seven minutes, you’ll learn what your license unlocks, how to search your organizational data, and how to combine work and web information for answers that actually reflect your work.

How licensed Chat differs from free

Let’s start with a quick comparison so you know exactly what you’re gaining.

Free Copilot Chat gives you web grounding, file upload, and general AI assistance. It’s helpful for brainstorming, drafting content, and answering general questions. But it has no visibility into your organization’s data.

Licensed Copilot Chat includes everything in the free experience plus full access to your organizational data through Microsoft Graph—Microsoft’s knowledge graph that connects all the data across your Microsoft 365 environment.

Here’s what that means in practice. You can search across emails in Outlook, finding specific messages and summarizing threads. You can search files in SharePoint and OneDrive, locating documents and extracting key information. You can search Teams messages and meeting transcripts, catching up on conversations you missed. And you can search calendar and meeting details, preparing for upcoming meetings with relevant context.

You also get priority processing and higher usage limits with your paid license.

Now, here’s what matters most for government professionals. All queries stay within your tenant boundary. Your data is not used to train AI models. Compliance controls remain fully in effect. And for GCC High and DoD environments, all processing maintains the elevated security posture required for those environments.

Copilot uses your existing security permissions to determine what it can access. If you don’t have permission to view a file, Copilot can’t see it either. Your organization’s information barriers and data loss prevention policies all apply.

Searching across your organizational data

Now let’s put this to work. The simplest way to use licensed Copilot Chat is to ask it to find information you know exists somewhere in your organization.

Try prompts like “Find the latest version of our project charter” or “What did Sarah say about the timeline in her last email?” or “Find the meeting where we discussed the budget for Q3.” Copilot searches across your accessible data and returns relevant results with links to the source documents.

But the real power is discovering information you didn’t know about. Ask “Who in my organization has worked on FedRAMP authorizations?” or “What documents exist about our zero trust implementation?” or “Are there any recent emails about the contract renewal?” Copilot surfaces content from across your organization that you might never have found through manual searches.

You can scope your searches to be more precise. Be specific about where to look—”In my emails from last week, find anything about the compliance review.” Specify the type of content—”In Teams messages, what has the project team discussed about the migration?” Include people—”Find files shared by our security team in the last month.”

Here are some government-specific examples. “Find all documents related to our ATO package in SharePoint.” “What decisions were made in last Tuesday’s program review meeting?” “Show me recent emails from our contracting officer about the procurement timeline.”

Remember, Copilot surfaces content based on your access permissions. If you can’t access a file through normal channels, Copilot won’t show it to you either. This is a feature, not a limitation—it ensures data governance stays intact.

Finding files, emails, and meetings

Let’s go deeper into each data type with practical prompts you can use right away.

For files, try “Summarize the quarterly report that was shared last Friday” or “Compare the current policy draft with the previous version” or “What are the key findings in the latest audit report on SharePoint?” Copilot can read documents you have access to and give you summaries, comparisons, and extracted insights without opening a single file.

For emails, try “Summarize my unread emails from today” or “What action items were assigned to me in emails this week?” or “Draft a reply to John’s email about the project deadline.” Copilot can process your email history, identify what needs your attention, and even draft responses.

For meetings, try “What was discussed in yesterday’s team standup?” or “Summarize the key decisions from the leadership meeting” or “What action items came out of the sprint review?” Note that meeting summaries require Teams transcription to be enabled—check with your admin if you’re not seeing meeting data.

For Teams chats, try “What has the project team been discussing this week?” or “Find the link that was shared in our security channel.”

Here’s a government workflow to adopt. Start your day with “Summarize what I missed yesterday—emails, chats, and meetings.” Before important meetings, ask “What context do I need for my 2 PM meeting with the program office?” These two prompts alone can save you thirty minutes every morning.

Combining web and work data

This is where licensed Copilot Chat truly shines. It can blend your organizational data with web information in a single response—giving you both internal context and external perspective.

Try prompts like “What’s our current approach to zero trust, and how does it compare to the latest CISA guidance?” or “Summarize our telework policy and compare it to current OPM guidelines” or “What are industry best practices for the challenge we discussed in last week’s meeting?”

Copilot’s responses indicate which information came from your organization and which came from the web. You can verify sources by clicking through to the original documents or web pages.

For government professionals, this capability is especially valuable. Compare internal policies against updated federal guidance without switching between multiple tools. Research best practices while referencing your organization’s current state. Prepare briefings that combine internal metrics with external benchmarks—all in one conversation.

One note for GCC High environments: web grounding may need to be explicitly enabled by your admin. If you’re not getting web results alongside your organizational data, check with your IT team about the web grounding policy.

Close: put your license to work

Let’s recap what your licensed Copilot Chat can do. It searches across your entire Microsoft 365 environment—emails, files, meetings, and chats. It respects your existing security permissions. And it combines organizational data with web information for comprehensive answers.

Here are three prompts to try right now. First, “Summarize my unread emails from today.” Second, “What meetings do I have this week and what should I prepare?” Third, “Find the latest version of” whatever document you’re currently working on.

Your Copilot license gives you a personal assistant that knows your organization. Start using it to its full potential.

Sources & References

• Microsoft 365 Copilot overview — Overview of Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities including licensed Chat features and Microsoft Graph integration
• Get started with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat — Official getting started guide for Copilot Chat including licensed features and organizational data access
• Microsoft 365 Copilot privacy — Privacy and security documentation for Microsoft 365 Copilot including data handling in government environments
• Microsoft Copilot adoption — Microsoft Copilot adoption resources and best practices for organizations