Microsoft Copilot vs. Google Duet: Which is the best AI?

Microsoft Copilot and Google Duet are two major artificial intelligence assistants that various tech giants have introduced since OpenAI debuted the ChatGPT chatbot in 2022. They are poised to bring powerful natural language support to the enterprise that can increase productivity, improve the digital flow of workers, and leverage existing data in new and exciting ways.

But which one is the best? Both offer comparable features at comparable prices, but they’re not interchangeable, and even getting access to either tool requires a bit of luck. Here’s how these two amazing AI tools compare.

Availability and price

At the time of writing, both Google Duet and Microsoft Copilot are considered preview features in their respective organizations. This means that to use it, you need to sign up. In Microsoft’s case, you need to be a Microsoft 365 Business subscriber and part of the Windows Insider program. You must be part of the Dev channel and have the latest release for Windows 11.

Then you can wait to see if Microsoft sends you a version of Windows 11 with Copilot, or you can take a few steps to download it yourself via Github.

Google Duet requires similar hoop jumping to try out the tool. You need to sign up to Google Cloud and then submit a request to preview Google Duet through the application page.

Both Google and Microsoft have priced their respective AI assistants at $30 per user, per month. You’ll get $300 in free Google Cloud Credits when you sign up, but it’s not entirely clear how long that will last you. However, in Microsoft’s case, that’s on top of an enterprise or business license for Microsoft 365, which itself can be ten dollars per user.

What apps do they work with?

Microsoft and Google’s AI assistants are currently completely proprietary, in that they only work with their own applications. Microsoft’s Copilot embeds itself into Windows 11 and can help you make adjustments to the operating system, answer questions about its operation, or learn new features. It is also embedded with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft’s Office tools. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams.

Google Duet works with Google Sheets, Docs, Slides, Gmail and Meet. There’s still no official Duet for Chrome, and no word on whether we’ll see an equivalent Google Duet feature in Chrome OS — though that would be a big selling point for some of the best Chromebooks.

What can they do?

Each AI assistant is designed to enhance its various apps and services with AI. As with text editors such as Word and Docs, Duet and Copilot can be used to generate text, proofread and edit existing documents, make suggestions about grammar and word usage, or suggest changes to document structure. In Sheets and Excel, AI can spot trends in data or extract information from it that might not be immediately apparent, as well as fill in incomplete cells or correct errors. They can also reformat or change the data and how it is visualized to make it easier to get useful information from it.

In Gmail and Outlook, AIs can help you write emails or check them to make sure they’re well-written or cover the information you want to convey. Microsoft Copilot can also pull information from other documents you’ve stored in the cloud, making it incredibly versatile. In Slides and PowerPoint, AIs can create slides for your presentations, or you can convert them into apps — turn a PowerPoint presentation into a Word Doc or Google Sheets to display its information in a Slides presentation that’s easy to digest.

In addition to basic app integration, Google Duet also offers code-writing assistance. It helps programmers start writing code based on text prompt input or analyze your existing code to complete it or make suggested changes to improve functionality. It can also make those recommendations in real-time, making it a bit more auto-complete for coding. It can also detect vulnerabilities in your code and suggest fixes. It currently supports Bash, C, C++, C#, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python and SQL.

It can also be used to develop completely new apps for use in Google’s AppSheet platform. Just input a text prompt for the app you want and Duet can help create it for you. You can also have Duet create custom templates for sheets and other services, making it really useful for organizing complex data.

Duet also offers chat support, so you can talk to it in natural language, ask questions, and request guidance on how to use Google applications with Google Cloud. You can also use it in Google Meet, although at the time of writing, there aren’t many integrated features. You can create a background for video calls based on prompts, but that’s about it for now.

In comparison, Microsoft Copilot can do many of the same things, but does a slightly better job of integrating data from different applications. So you can write an email for yourself that leverages data from your Excel spreadsheet, or make sure your emails are written the way you used to before.

It’s the Teams integration that really sets Copilot apart. Using natural language prompts, you can schedule meetings for yourself, create meeting agendas, launch tasks for various team members, and draft emails to clients based on what was discussed in Teams Chat. Copilot can create meeting summaries and extract data from external documents — whether it’s from a spreadsheet or an old email — all in real time.

Copilot can also be used to make changes to Windows 11 or help you learn how to use some of its features.

Duet vs Copilot, Which is Best?

Microsoft Copilot and Google Duet are both powerful natural language artificial intelligence that can help increase productivity in a range of proprietary applications. Access to both is not easy, and for large organizations, access to many employees can be very expensive. Their potential is huge, so when you’re choosing which one to use, it’s important to get it right.

The best smart AI assistant is likely to be one that enhances the tools you use. If you are a regular user of Google’s services and apps, Duet is better for you. If you use Teams and Microsoft Office applications, Copilot is the best choice.

If we have to pick a real winner, but it offers a good service, Microsoft Copilot has the edge right now. Pulling data from different apps is great to enhance the app you’re using, and the way it enhances Teams goes beyond what Duet can do. Enough for now.

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