Going beyond search with Chat GPT, Copilot and Copilot Agents

I’d like to explain the differences between these technologies through an example.

Imagine we’re planning a three-week holiday in the south of France, visiting Marseille, Nice, and Monte Carlo. Before the internet and Google existed, we would have needed to visit a travel agent to book flights, hotels, transport, and tours. The travel agent was the only person with access to flight schedules, hotel options, and many tour packages. For inspiration on places to visit and stay, we relied heavily on guidebooks.

Then the internet arrived, making vast amounts of information readily accessible. Suddenly, we could research and book tours, hotels, and transport directly. With online booking platforms, we could handle flights and accommodations ourselves, and email made communication across continents much easier. However, this process was still time-consuming, prone to errors, and often lacked up-to-date local knowledge, which could easily disrupt a well-laid holiday plan.

Now, with tools like ChatGPT, planning a holiday has become even simpler. By specifying our needs, ChatGPT can create a complete itinerary with recommendations for places to visit, hotels, and transport options. Since ChatGPT has access to a wealth of public information, it can handle the heavy lifting—researching, collating, and recommending a personalized plan. While we still need to verify the information and make our own bookings, the time-consuming tasks of reading, analysing, and summarizing are done for us, saving hours of effort.

Let’s also consider how a travel company might use a tool like CoPilot to organize a tour. Unlike the general public, a travel company has access to more detailed and reliable information, such as a curated list of trusted hotels, transport providers, and tour guides. It also follows established procedures and policies to ensure seamless, risk-free experiences for travellers. CoPilot can assist by accessing both the company’s internal supplier data and public information, ensuring proper procedures and policies are followed when planning a tour.

The next step beyond CoPilot is CoPilot Studio and CoPilot Agents. Once an itinerary is finalized, these tools can use automated agents to pre-book hotels, tours, and transport. After the client confirms their booking, CoPilot can automatically confirm all reservations and communicate with hotels and transport providers on behalf of the client. It can even use advanced agents to respond to client inquiries about personal needs or provide further details about points of interest.

Here’s a table summarizing the key differences between Google Search, ChatGPT, CoPilot, and CoPilot Agents based on the article:

This table highlights the technological distinctions and specific outcomes each tool delivers, making it easy for small business clients to understand the progression and potential of these technologies.