Sells banks a per-user Copilot licence layered on the Microsoft 365 contracts they already hold, with Copilot Studio agents billed by usage; the pitch is reach into existing email, documents and Teams data under Microsoft's enterprise data terms.
What is Microsoft Copilot, and which banks use it?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant for Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams, generally available since November 2023 and at more than 30 million paid seats by July 2026. Among our 100 banks, Bank of America says it is out to 200,000 employees, Wells Fargo reports 30,000-plus users, BNY has licensed about half its workforce, and M&T, Northern Trust, BMO, UBS and SouthState also use it. The list price is $30 per user per month, paid yearly, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan.
Category
Founded
2023
Headquarters
Redmond, Washington, US
Ownership
Product of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT); Microsoft reported $90.0 billion of revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 and also holds roughly 27% of OpenAI Group, whose models power Copilot alongside Anthropic's.[5][6][7]
Deployment
SaaS add-on to a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan (Microsoft commercial cloud and select sovereign clouds)
Pricing
Per-user monthly licence added to a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan, paid yearly or monthly; agents in Copilot Studio billed through prepaid Copilot Credit packs or pay-as-you-go
Banks among the 100
13
- Microsoft said Microsoft 365 Copilot passed 30 million paid seats as it reported its fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30, 2026.
- Microsoft's enterprise pricing page lists Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30.00 per user per month, paid yearly, and requires a separate qualifying Microsoft 365 licence; Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost for eligible users, with agents billed on a metered basis.
- Copilot uses OpenAI's latest models and, since September 2025, Anthropic's models; Microsoft enables Anthropic models by default for most commercial-cloud customers outside the EU/EFTA and UK, and says those models are currently excluded from the EU Data Boundary and in-country processing commitments.
- Microsoft first promised in-country processing of Copilot interactions in 15 countries; an April 2026 update pushed local inferencing for the United States to the end of 2026.
- Bank users reported on our pages range from Bank of America (200,000 teammates) and Wells Fargo (more than 30,000 users, 92% active) to regional banks such as SouthState, Bank of Hawai'i, United Community, First Merchants and TowneBank, where a June 2026 university project found many bankers rarely used it.
- In June 2025 researchers disclosed EchoLeak, a zero-click flaw that could have let an attacker extract data through Microsoft 365 Copilot via an email; Microsoft told Fortune it had fixed the issue and that customers were unaffected.
- Several 'Copilot' tools named on bank pages are other vendors' products (NICE CXone Copilot at Fulton, Talkdesk Copilot at TowneBank, a 'Contact Center Copilot' at Frost) and are not counted here.
What does Microsoft Copilot sell to banks?
| Product | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot[1][4] | Per-user assistant in Microsoft 365 apps and Teams, grounded in the organisation's data via Work IQ, with Researcher and Analyst agents and adoption analytics; requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan. | Generally available |
| Microsoft Copilot Chat[1] | Web-grounded AI chat with enterprise data protection, included at no additional cost for Microsoft Entra users with an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription; custom agents are billed on a metered basis. | Generally available |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business[2] | Copilot add-on for Microsoft 365 business plans, and bundles such as Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot, aimed at smaller organisations. | Generally available |
| Microsoft Copilot Studio[3] | Tool for building agents, including autonomous agents and agents for external channels, sold as tenant-wide Copilot Credit packs or pay-as-you-go. | Generally available |
| Anthropic models in Microsoft Online Services[8][7] | Claude models available in Copilot, Researcher, Copilot Studio and Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps, with Anthropic acting as a Microsoft subprocessor; on by default for most commercial customers outside the EU/EFTA and UK. | Generally available |
| Local data inferencing for Copilot (United States)[10] | In-country processing of Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions, which Microsoft expects to offer in the United States by the end of 2026 after revising its original timeline in April 2026. | Announced |
How much does Microsoft Copilot cost?
How it is charged: Per-user monthly licence added to a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan, paid yearly or monthly; agents in Copilot Studio billed through prepaid Copilot Credit packs or pay-as-you-go.
| Product | Plan | List price | Unit | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft 365 Copilot (enterprise)[1] | $30.00 | per user per month, paid yearly (annual subscription); a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan is required separately | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat | Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat[1] | Included | at no additional cost for Microsoft Entra users with an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription; agents metered | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (add-on for Microsoft 365 business plans)[2] | $21.00 (promotional $18.00 for the first year on offers taken July 1 to December 31, 2026) | per user per month, paid yearly; $25.20 per user per month on a monthly subscription | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Microsoft Copilot Studio | Copilot Credit capacity pack[3] | $200.00 | per pack of 25,000 Copilot Credits per month (tenant-wide), or pay-as-you-go | Sep 24, 2026 |
List prices are published on Microsoft's own pricing pages, which state that prices shown are for marketing purposes and may vary by currency, country and region. Large banks buy through Microsoft enterprise agreements whose terms are not published.
Which banks use Microsoft Copilot?
| Bank | What | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Bank of America | Microsoft 365 Copilot rolled out to a total of 200,000 teammates, per the CEO on the Q4 2025 earnings call.[12] | In production |
| Wells Fargo | Microsoft 365 Copilot since June 2025; more than 30,000 employees using it and a 92% active usage rate among enabled employees, per Microsoft.[13] | In production |
| BNY (Bank of New York Mellon) | Copilot made broadly available to employees in November 2023; roughly half the workforce is licensed for Microsoft 365 Copilot, per Microsoft WorkLab.[14] | In production |
| M&T Bank | Microsoft Copilot chosen as the bank's generative-AI tool; 16,000 of 22,000 employees use it for first drafts and call-centre summaries.[15] | In production |
| Northern Trust | Microsoft Copilot for Service deployed in client relations (2024); Copilot later rolled out firmwide, per the CFO.[16][17] | In production |
| BMO (U.S.) | Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Chat are BMO-approved AI tools, used under Microsoft Copilot acceptable-use guidance (BMO group Code of Conduct).[18] | In production |
| UBS (US) | M365 Copilot being rolled out to all UBS employees alongside the in-house assistant Red (group-wide).[19] | Rolling out |
| SouthState Bank | One of two approved generative-AI tools; premium licences grew from 300 to about 1,800 with a reported 95% active use.[20][21] | In production |
| First Citizens BancShares | Enterprise rollout of Microsoft Copilot for associate productivity, per the chief data and analytics officer.[22] | Rolling out |
| United Community Banks | Bankers, including in wealth management, use Microsoft Copilot for presentations, notes and communications.[23] | In production |
| Bank of Hawaii Corporation | Microsoft Copilot introduced to every employee (2025 annual report).[24] | In production |
| First Merchants Corporation | Microsoft Copilot rolled out through the entire organisation, per the specialty-lending president.[25] | In production |
| TowneBank | Microsoft Copilot is installed on bankers' computers, but many rarely use it; a 2026 MBA capstone produced adoption recommendations.[26] | In production |
Among the 100 largest US banks on this site, from sources that name the bank: the bank, Microsoft Copilot or the press. Status is the furthest stage a source confirms.
What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
An assistant in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams that answers from web data and the organisation's own files, with Copilot Chat included for eligible Microsoft 365 users and Copilot Studio for building agents; Microsoft says prompts and data accessed through Microsoft Graph are not used to train foundation models.[1][9]
What has Microsoft Copilot done, and when?
- Sep 3, 2026
First Citizens details enterprise rollout[22]
First Citizens' chief data and analytics officer described an enterprise rollout of Microsoft Copilot for associate productivity.
- Jul 29, 2026
30 million paid seats[5]
Microsoft said Microsoft 365 Copilot reached over 30 million paid seats as it reported fiscal-year 2026 fourth-quarter results.
- May 12, 2026
BNY named a 'Frontier Firm'[14]
Microsoft WorkLab profiled BNY, with roughly half its workforce licensed for Microsoft 365 Copilot and the bank an inaugural member of Microsoft's Frontier Firm AI Initiative.
- Apr 3, 2026
US in-country processing pushed to end of 2026[10]
Microsoft revised its in-country processing plan: local inferencing for Microsoft 365 Copilot in the United States is expected by the end of 2026.
- Jan 15, 2026
Bank of America: 200,000 teammates[12]
Bank of America's CEO said the 365 Copilot rollout was out across a total of 200,000 teammates.
- Nov 20, 2025
Wells Fargo passes 30,000 users[13]
Microsoft reported more than 30,000 Wells Fargo employees using Microsoft 365 Copilot since its June 2025 rollout, with 92% active usage among enabled employees.
- Oct 16, 2025
UBS rolls out M365 Copilot to all employees[19]
Announcing a Chief AI Officer, UBS said AI tools including M365 Copilot and its in-house assistant Red are being rolled out to all employees.
- Sep 24, 2025
Anthropic models added to Copilot[7]
Microsoft added Anthropic models to Microsoft 365 Copilot, starting in Researcher and Copilot Studio, alongside OpenAI's models.
- Sep 18, 2025
M&T: 16,000 employees on Copilot[15]
M&T's chief data officer said the bank chose Microsoft Copilot after vetting LLM providers, and 16,000 of 22,000 employees use it.
- Jun 11, 2025
EchoLeak zero-click flaw disclosed[11]
Aim Security disclosed EchoLeak, a zero-click attack path through Microsoft 365 Copilot; Microsoft told Fortune the issue was fixed and customers were unaffected.
- Mar 6, 2024
Northern Trust deploys Copilot for Service[16]
Microsoft named Northern Trust among early users and quoted the bank calling Copilot for Service a milestone in its digital-workplace transformation.
- Nov 1, 2023
BNY makes Copilot broadly available to staff[14]
Microsoft says BNY became the first major global bank to make Copilot available to employees broadly in November 2023.
- Sep 21, 2023
General availability set for November 1 at $30[4]
Microsoft announced that Copilot for Microsoft 365 would be generally available to enterprise customers on November 1, 2023 at $30 per user per month.
What do banks use Microsoft Copilot for?
| Use | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drafting, summarising and research for employees[15][13] | First drafts of emails and reports and call-centre summaries at M&T; content creation, summarisation and research at Wells Fargo. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| Client-service agents for staff[16] | Northern Trust deployed Copilot for Service in its client relations organisation. | In production | Customer-facing chatbots |
| Approved-tool lists and pre-approval testing[18][20] | BMO lists Copilot among approved AI tools under acceptable-use guidance; SouthState approved Copilot only after vendor due diligence and expert-written accuracy tests. | In production | AI governance (general) |
| Multi-model access through a subprocessor[8] | Anthropic models run inside Copilot as a Microsoft subprocessor, on by default outside the EU/EFTA and UK, adding a fourth party to the bank's vendor chain. | In production | Third-party & vendor AI |
| Permission-trimmed grounding in bank data[9] | Copilot only surfaces organisational data a user can already view, and prompts and Graph data are not used to train foundation models, per Microsoft. | In production | Data & privacy |
What has Microsoft Copilot disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot paid seats (vendor-reported) | More than 30 million[5] | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Microsoft revenue, quarter ended June 30, 2026 | $90.0 billion, up 18%; Microsoft Cloud revenue $59.3 billion, up 27%[5] | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Bank of America employees with Copilot (bank-reported) | 200,000 teammates[12] | Jan 15, 2026 |
| Wells Fargo Copilot users (as reported by Microsoft) | More than 30,000 employees; 92% active usage among enabled employees[13] | Nov 20, 2025 |
| M&T employees using Copilot (bank-reported) | 16,000 of 22,000[15] | Sep 18, 2025 |
| SouthState premium Copilot licences (bank-reported) | About 1,800, up from 300 earlier in 2026, with 95% active use[21] | Aug 3, 2026 |
“This year, Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time, and Microsoft 365 Copilot reached over 30 million paid seats, reflecting the confidence customers are placing in us to power their AI transformation.”[5]
Satya Nadella · Chairman and CEO, Microsoft · Jul 29, 2026
“You're not deferring your own judgment to the machine through the adoption of Copilot. It's giving you more tools to be effective, but the human being retains that accountability.”[15]
Andrew Foster · Chief Data Officer, M&T Bank · Sep 18, 2025
“AI is changing how work gets done. We're investing in our people to do more with AI—not merely less of the mundane, but more of everything”[14]
Michael Demissie · Head of Applied AI, BNY · May 12, 2026
Who runs Microsoft Copilot?
Which rules apply to a bank using Microsoft Copilot?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| OCC | Copilot processes a bank's email, documents and Teams data in Microsoft's cloud, and Microsoft uses OpenAI and Anthropic as subprocessors for Copilot models; the 2023 interagency third-party guidance expects due diligence and ongoing monitoring that reaches this subcontractor chain. | OCC Bulletin 2023-17 FDIC FIL-29-2023 |
| Federal Reserve | SR 26-2 leaves general-purpose generative AI such as Copilot outside model-risk scope, so banks govern it through enterprise risk management and acceptable-use rules of the kind BMO and SouthState describe. | SR 26-2 |
| NY DFS | Copilot's access to mailboxes and files makes prompt-injection and data-exposure paths such as EchoLeak relevant to the AI-related cybersecurity risks NY DFS told covered banks to address under Part 500. | 23 NYCRR Part 500 DFS AI Cybersecurity Industry Letter (Oct 2024) |
| NIST | NIST's Generative AI Profile lists information-security, data-privacy and value-chain risks, including third-party models, that map to Copilot's grounding in internal data and its use of OpenAI and Anthropic models. | NIST AI 600-1 (Generative AI Profile) |
Linked authorities have a page in the AI Regulation Tracker; the others are named for completeness.
What should a bank note before buying Microsoft Copilot?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice or a recommendation.
01
The list price is an add-on, not the total
The $30 per user per month Copilot price sits on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 licence, and agent usage beyond included features is metered through Copilot Credits.
02
Anthropic models are on by default in the US
Microsoft enables Anthropic models by default for most commercial customers outside the EU/EFTA and UK, and excludes them from EU Data Boundary and in-country processing commitments; the tenant setting determines whether they are used.
03
US in-country processing is not yet live
Microsoft's April 2026 update puts local inferencing for Copilot interactions in the United States at the end of 2026.
04
Adoption varies widely between banks
Reported figures range from 95% active use of premium licences at SouthState to TowneBank, where a June 2026 project found many bankers rarely used Copilot.
05
Not every bank 'Copilot' is Microsoft's
Contact-centre copilots from NICE and Talkdesk, and a Frost 'Contact Center Copilot', appear on bank pages under the same word; they are separate products.
What are the alternatives to Microsoft Copilot?
ChatGPT Enterprise (OpenAI)
OpenAI's workplace ChatGPT with admin controls and no training on business data by default, plus API access to GPT models.
Claude (Anthropic)
Anthropic's Claude models and workplace plans (Team, Enterprise), sold direct and through AWS and Microsoft.
Gemini Enterprise (Google Cloud)
Google Cloud's workplace AI app and agent platform on Gemini models, connecting to Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and business data.
Amazon Bedrock (AWS)
AWS service giving one API to foundation models from Amazon, Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and others, plus AgentCore for running agents.
GitHub Copilot
AI coding assistant and coding agent in the IDE, CLI and GitHub.com, with Business and Enterprise plans billed per seat plus AI credits.
How much does Microsoft 365 Copilot cost a bank?
Microsoft's enterprise pricing page lists Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30.00 per user per month, paid yearly, on top of a separately licensed qualifying Microsoft 365 plan (checked September 24, 2026). Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost for eligible users, and Copilot Studio agents are sold in $200 monthly packs of 25,000 Copilot Credits or pay-as-you-go. Large banks negotiate enterprise agreements whose terms are not published.
Which banks use Microsoft Copilot?
Among the 100 banks we track, Bank of America (200,000 teammates), Wells Fargo (more than 30,000 users), BNY (about half the workforce licensed), M&T (16,000 employees), Northern Trust, BMO, UBS, SouthState, First Citizens, United Community, Bank of Hawai'i, First Merchants and TowneBank have said they use or are rolling out Microsoft Copilot, each with a cited source on this page.
Who owns Microsoft 365 Copilot?
It is a Microsoft product (NASDAQ: MSFT). Copilot runs on OpenAI's models, in which Microsoft holds roughly 27% of OpenAI Group, and, since September 2025, also on Anthropic's models, with Anthropic acting as a Microsoft subprocessor under Microsoft's product terms.
Does Microsoft train its models on a bank's Copilot data?
Microsoft's documentation says prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph are not used to train foundation models, and that Copilot only surfaces organisational data a user already has permission to view. Anthropic models inside Copilot are covered by Microsoft's product terms unless labelled as retaining data, but are excluded from the EU Data Boundary.
Where is Copilot data processed for US banks?
Microsoft announced in-country processing of Copilot interactions for 15 countries in November 2025, then revised the plan in April 2026: local inferencing for Microsoft 365 Copilot in the United States is expected by the end of 2026. Until then, US banks should check Microsoft's current data-residency terms for their tenant.
How does Microsoft 365 Copilot compare with ChatGPT Enterprise?
Copilot is sold as an add-on to Microsoft 365 and works inside Office apps and Teams with the bank's existing permissions, at a published $30 per user per month. ChatGPT Enterprise is a standalone workspace from OpenAI with custom, sales-led pricing. Several banks, including SouthState, approved both; Copilot itself runs partly on OpenAI models.
- Microsoft Copilot Plans and Pricing—AI for Enterprise (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Microsoft Copilot Plans and Pricing—AI for Business (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Microsoft Copilot Studio Plans and Pricing (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Announcing Copilot for Microsoft 365 general availability and Microsoft 365 Chat
- Microsoft Cloud and AI strength fuels fourth quarter results
- Our Structure (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Expanding model choice in Microsoft 365 Copilot
- Anthropic models in Microsoft Online Services (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Microsoft offers in-country data processing to 15 countries to strengthen sovereign controls for Microsoft 365 Copilot
- Microsoft Copilot zero-click attack raises alarms about AI agent security
- BofA (BAC) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
- From legacy to Frontier: How 100-year brands are leading AI innovation
- The making of a Frontier Firm: How AI is redesigning work at BNY
- How M&T Bank ensures data quality as it implements gen AI
- Introducing Microsoft Copilot for Finance – the newest Copilot offering in Microsoft 365 designed to transform modern finance
- Northern Trust Conference: NTRS Bets on ETFs, Alternatives, AI and Tokenization to Drive Growth
- BMO's Code of Conduct (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- UBS appoints Chief AI Officer to drive its AI strategy
- 6 things banks look for in gen AI models and companies
- The Playbook for Enterprise AI Adoption with Walt Wear (Community Bank Podcast)
- A Q&A With Scott Richardson: AI at First Citizens Bank
- Banks' wealth units pursue AI — carefully
- Bank of Hawai‘i Corporation 2025 Annual Report (Form ARS)
- Executive Insights: Experts weigh in on state of crypto, AI and what the business community needs most from banks right now
- Bryan School Students Shape TowneBank’s AI Strategy
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