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Starting Monday, Nov. 2, departments can order Microsoft Copilot Premium (formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot) through the Campus Software Library software order form. 

What you’re ordering. A per-user add-on license that brings Copilot into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. Its chat works with your own email, files and calendar and honors existing sharing permissions. Copilot Chat stays free for everyone with an eligible Microsoft 365 account, but it only works with web searches and user-submitted files. 

Who’s eligible? Departments buy licenses for current faculty and staff with department funds. To be eligible, employees must have a paid appointment as a UW–Madison faculty or staff member.

Cost and fulfillment. $201.36 per license per year ($16.78 per month), paid with department funds only — no non-UW purchases allowed. Allow about two weeks from order to license delivery. Licenses are a one-year commitment, prorated to November each year.

Group orders. The Campus Software Library can also handle group orders. Departmental contacts can order bulk quantities and assign them to individual members by NetID.

Before staff start. Complete the Data@UW training on data governance and responsible use before using the tool. It’s an honor-system prerequisite.

Data scope. Approved for public, internal and sensitive university data, including student data protected by FERPA (see Handling sensitive university data). Copilot Premium is not yet approved for health data protected by HIPAA or other restricted data types. Updates to Copilot’s configuration will arrive in January to allow for more restricted data types like HIPAA. Copilot has limited built-in checks to prevent use with restricted data, so staff should follow this guidance and check with their data steward and IT support team when unsure.

What’s not included. We’re not enabling third-party connectors or third-party agents at this time. Microsoft-built agents are available. Some Copilot Studio features and Copilot Cowork aren’t available.

Permissions and oversharing. Copilot surfaces content a user can already access and honors existing sharing settings. It doesn’t create new access, but it makes over-shared SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams content much easier to find. A data hygiene review may help alleviate oversharing concerns by confirming or updating site and file permissions. We will plan separate data hygiene campaign reminders for general awareness. 

Questions? Email DoIT’s Microsoft service team.