Comparison

Copilot works in Microsoft 365. Your knowledge lives everywhere.

Microsoft 365 Copilot grounds on your Microsoft Graph. TalkWithData builds one governed knowledge base and deploys it into Copilot and into ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini — with processing in the EU.

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[01] The core problem

What slows teams down.

Copilot is brilliant when your whole world sits in Microsoft 365. Three things to check before you lean on it.

Copilot lives inside Microsoft 365

Copilot grounds on Microsoft Graph — your emails, documents and chats in M365. Knowledge that lives outside Microsoft only enters through Graph or Copilot connectors, and the part of your team on ChatGPT or Claude gets nothing.

You need a Microsoft 365 licence

Copilot is an add-on on top of an existing Microsoft 365 plan. No M365, no Copilot — and the add-on price sits on top of what you already pay per seat.

Flex routing sends inference outside the EU by default

For new EU/EFTA tenants (created after 25 March 2026), flex routing is on by default: during peak load, LLM processing can go to the US, Canada or Australia. Data at rest stays in the EU; processing does not automatically. An admin can turn it off.

[02] Use cases

Where TalkWithData complements Copilot — or replaces it.

One knowledge base for every AI tool

Not everyone in your organisation is on Copilot. Deploy the same knowledge base into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, a chatbot widget and your API — without a separate solution per tool.

Knowledge that lives outside Microsoft

Is your knowledge in Notion, Google Drive, a website or a database instead of SharePoint? TalkWithData indexes those sources directly, with MCP connectors and hybrid retrieval.

AI without a Microsoft licence

Teams without M365 — or alongside it — get the same knowledge-driven AI through the browser extension and MCP. Start free, €49/month or custom.

[03] How TalkWithData solves it

What TalkWithData does differently from Copilot.

Tool-agnostic knowledge layer

Copilot brings AI to Microsoft 365. TalkWithData brings your knowledge to any AI tool — via extension, MCP server, widget and API. No ecosystem lock-in: switch AI vendors tomorrow and your knowledge base simply comes along.

Transparent retrieval with citations

Hybrid retrieval (BM25 + dense + RRF), cross-encoder reranking and evidence scoring decide what gets injected. Every answer shows its source and date, with a freshness warning on aged knowledge. You see not just the answer but what it is based on — no black box.

EU processing as the default

Retrieval and processing run on an EU backend — no flex routing that sends inference to another continent under load. No training on your data, and a data processing agreement ready to sign, so your compliance story carries no asterisk and footnote.

Comparison

TalkWithData next to Microsoft 365 Copilot.

TalkWithData next to Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Topic	TalkWithData	Microsoft 365 Copilot
EU processing (not just storage)	Retrieval and processing in the EU.	EU Data Boundary service, but flex routing is on by default for new EU/EFTA tenants (after 25 Mar 2026) and can send LLM inference to the US, Canada or Australia under peak load — an admin can disable it.
Works outside Microsoft 365	Works in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot; knowledge can live anywhere.	Copilot runs inside Microsoft 365 and grounds on Microsoft Graph (your M365 content); external sources via Graph/Copilot connectors.
Licence requirement	No Microsoft licence needed. Free / €49 / custom.	Copilot Business add-on $18/user/mo (promo through 30 Sep 2026, then $21) requires an existing Microsoft 365 plan.
Knowledge-base governance	Hybrid retrieval, reranking, evidence scoring, knowledge graph, staleness.	Grounds on the Microsoft Graph semantic index with tenant permissions; internal retrieval weighting not publicly documented.
Citations	Source and date on every answer; staleness warning.	Citations to Graph/connector content; no explicit staleness signalling documented.
Training on your data	Never.	Prompts, responses and Graph data are not used to train foundation LLMs.
Permission model	Scope isolation per organisation + department on every retrieval.	Grounds only on content the user has at least view permission for (Microsoft 365 permissions).
Models and subprocessors	RAG pipeline runs on our own EU backend; no organisation data goes to external evaluation.	Azure OpenAI (not OpenAI public); Anthropic models are out of scope for the EU Data Boundary.

Comparison based on the vendor's own publicly available documentation and pricing pages, checked on 9 July 2026. Features and pricing may change. Spotted an inaccuracy? Email info@talkwithdata.com and we will correct it.

[04] Frequently asked

Answers, not bullet points.

Can Copilot work with my own data?

Yes. Copilot grounds by default on your Microsoft Graph — emails, documents and chats in Microsoft 365 that the user has permission to see. You add external sources through Microsoft Graph or Copilot connectors. Anything outside that model, Copilot does not see.

Does Microsoft train on my Copilot data?

No. Per Microsoft's documentation, prompts, responses and data from Microsoft Graph are not used to train the foundation LLMs behind Copilot. The same holds for TalkWithData: we never train on your organisational data.

Does my Copilot data stay in the EU?

Storage at rest stays within the EU Data Boundary. Processing does not necessarily: flex routing is on by default for new EU/EFTA tenants and can send LLM inference to the US, Canada or Australia under peak load. An admin can disable flex routing so processing stays in the EU. With TalkWithData, processing runs in the EU by default.

Why a separate knowledge base next to Copilot?

Because your organisation is rarely 100% on Microsoft 365. If your team also uses ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, or your knowledge lives in Notion, Drive or a database, one TalkWithData knowledge base serves them all — Copilot included — instead of a silo per tool.

Is TalkWithData a replacement for Copilot?

For teams working entirely in Microsoft 365 who want AI buttons in Word, Excel and Teams, Copilot's native integration is hard to beat. TalkWithData is not a button in Excel — it is the knowledge layer you deploy on any AI tool, including scenarios outside Microsoft.