Microsoft365 for business without AI or Copilot.

Question

Is there a version of Microsoft365 for business (in Canada) that does not include AI or Copilot?

Answer 1

Hi B Baldo,

If that's the case, there are options available to disable or restrict Copilot-related features within your Microsoft 365 environment through administrative controls and policy settings once you purchased business licenses. Depending on your organization's requirements, you may be able to prevent users from accessing Copilot experiences in supported applications.

• Use your Global Admin or AI Admin credentials to log in at Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
• Go to Settings > Integrated apps.

• Use the Search box to search for Copilot under Available Apps
• Find the Copilot app in the list. Click it and choose Block. This blocks the app tenant‑wide across Outlook, web, desktop, mobile. When it is blocked here it means no user can access Copilot from anywhere in Microsoft 365.

If you want only certain users to keep access, select Specific users/groups instead of blocking entirely. Then assign access only to those in your Copilot‑licensed group.

Settings may take up to 24 hours to roll out fully across your tenant. In my experience, it did take almost the full 24 hours before it disappeared from Microsoft 365 for users.

Once you block Copilot through the Integrated Apps setting in the Microsoft 365 admin center, users will no longer be able to use Copilot in your tenant. Here is what to expect once the change has taken effect.

If a user tries to navigate to m365copilot.com or open Copilot in Outlook, Word, Teams or any other Microsoft 365 app, they will receive a message indicating they do not have access. For example, they may see a message like:

Looks like you do not have access to the Copilot. Contact your administrator to get access to Copilot.

With Copilot disabled, the AI-assisted capabilities such as text generation, summarization, suggested replies and similar features will not launch or function in Microsoft 365 apps. Users will simply not be able to invoke Copilot.

Config changes in Microsoft 365 may take time to fully propagate across all clients. In practice this means it can take several hours before the Copilot block fully applies everywhere in your organization.

Once disabled centrally, end users cannot turn Copilot back on for themselves. They will continue to see the access error until the setting is changed by an admin or exceptions (such as group-based access) are configured.

In some apps or cached sessions, Copilot buttons or icons might still appear temporarily. Those UI elements will not launch a working experience and typically disappear after the clients refresh settings.

Please note that disabling Copilot access does not automatically remove any Copilot licenses assigned to users. If you want to stop billing for Copilot seats or free up licenses, you will need to unassign them separately in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

I hope this information is helpful. Please review these steps and let me know if it works for your case.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. 

I'm looking forward to your reply

Answer 2

Hi B Baldo,

Microsoft is currently offering Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard and Premium as a standalone subscription that does not include a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Organizations can purchase and use these plans without buying or assigning any Copilot add-on licenses.

For reference: Microsoft 365 Business Plans and Pricing | Microsoft 365

However, even if you do not purchase Copilot, Microsoft still includes certain AI-powered features in its base Microsoft 365 plans. These may include capabilities such as Copilot Chat, intelligent assistance, and security-related AI enhancements, which are introduced as part of ongoing platform updates.

While these features are not the full Microsoft 365 Copilot product, they are still powered by AI technologies.

If your goal is to further limit or prevent Copilot-related experiences within your organization, you may need to configure settings in the Microsoft 365 admin center to disable or restrict these features where possible.

I hope this provides enough clarity and helps you stay inform with your current situation.

In the meantime, if you see my replies bring helpful information, please kindly accept it as an answer and vote it up by your original account, which raised this question. Once marked, it will automatically pin to top. As other users will also search information in this community, your valuable vote up will definitely also help other users who have similar queries easily to find the correct channel and useful information more quickly.   

 

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.   

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