Microsoft has introduced a new way for small and medium-sized businesses to try Microsoft 365 Copilot before committing to paid licences.
The new Copilot in 30 programme gives eligible organisations access to a 30-day Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trial for up to 25 users.
For businesses that have been interested in Copilot but have struggled to work out whether the additional licence cost is justified, this creates a much better opportunity to test it properly — with real users, real Microsoft 365 data and real day-to-day workloads.
The trial became available through Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners from 1 August 2026 and is specifically designed for smaller organisations.
What is Microsoft's Copilot in 30 trial?
Copilot in 30 is a new Microsoft programme designed to help small and medium-sized businesses evaluate Microsoft 365 Copilot Business before moving to a paid deployment.
Microsoft describes it as a structured 30-day experience rather than simply handing businesses a collection of trial licences.
The programme includes:
- Up to 25 Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trial licences
- A 30-day trial period
- Guidance to help identify the right users for the trial
- Resources to help businesses identify useful Copilot scenarios
- Adoption guidance to help employees start using Copilot effectively
- A framework for assessing whether Copilot provides enough business value to justify a wider rollout
Microsoft says the programme is intended for organisations with fewer than 300 employees.
That makes it particularly relevant to SMEs that already use Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard or Business Premium and want to explore what the paid Copilot experience could add.
What does Microsoft 365 Copilot Business actually add?
Microsoft 365 Copilot brings Microsoft's AI capabilities into the Microsoft 365 applications and business information employees already work with.
Rather than using AI as a completely separate tool, Copilot can help users work with information across applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams.
Typical business uses can include:
- Drafting and rewriting documents
- Summarising long email conversations
- Preparing meeting summaries and follow-up actions
- Analysing information and identifying trends
- Creating first drafts of presentations
- Finding and summarising information stored across Microsoft 365
- Helping users get started with repetitive or time-consuming tasks
The important point is that Microsoft 365 Copilot can work with organisational information that the individual user already has permission to access.
Don't confuse Copilot Business with Copilot Chat
There is an important distinction between the new trial and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
Many Microsoft 365 business users already have access to Copilot Chat without purchasing the full Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on.
Copilot Chat can be extremely useful, but a Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licence provides the deeper Microsoft 365 integration that businesses are normally considering when evaluating a paid Copilot rollout.
If you're not sure which version your business already has, read our guide to what's included with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat without paying for Copilot.
Who should you include in a 25-user Copilot trial?
Getting 25 trial licences does not mean the best approach is simply to allocate Copilot to the first 25 employees who ask for it.
A useful trial should include people who spend significant amounts of time working within Microsoft 365 and who have identifiable tasks where AI could potentially save time or improve productivity.
Suitable trial users might work in areas such as:
- Management
- Sales and account management
- Finance
- Administration
- Operations
- Marketing
- Project management
- HR
- Customer service
The objective is not necessarily to prove that every employee needs Copilot.
In fact, one of the most useful outcomes from the trial may be discovering which employees do not need a paid Copilot licence.
What should you measure during the 30 days?
Before starting the trial, decide what success actually looks like.
Simply asking employees whether they like Copilot at the end of the month will tell you very little about whether the investment makes commercial sense.
Time saved
Can Copilot reduce the time required to prepare proposals, summarise meetings, create reports, analyse information or work through lengthy email conversations?
Useful business scenarios
Which tasks consistently benefit from Copilot rather than simply producing an impressive one-off demonstration?
User adoption
Are employees continuing to use Copilot once the initial novelty has worn off?
Quality of output
Does Copilot help employees produce better work more quickly, or does the output require so much checking and rewriting that the time saving disappears?
Licence requirement
Which employees get enough value from Copilot to justify keeping a paid licence after the trial?
For example, a 50-user company may discover that 12 people gain significant productivity benefits from Copilot while the remaining employees have little need for the full product.
That is a much better basis for a licensing decision than simply purchasing Copilot for everybody.
Before starting a Copilot trial, check your Microsoft 365 permissions
There is another part of Copilot readiness that businesses should not overlook: permissions and information access.
Microsoft 365 Copilot works within the access rights already assigned to the user. It does not give somebody permission to information they could not already access.
However, AI can make information a user already has access to much easier to find, summarise and work with.
That means historic or overly broad permissions can become much more noticeable once Copilot is introduced.
Before a wider Copilot rollout, it is worth reviewing areas including:
- SharePoint site permissions
- OneDrive sharing
- External sharing links
- Microsoft Teams membership
- Guest accounts
- Access inherited from old roles or projects
- Sensitive company information
- Administrator privileges
We explain the issue in more detail in our guide on how to prepare Microsoft 365 permissions for a safe Copilot rollout.
It's also worth checking exactly who can currently access company information. Our guide to checking who has access to your Microsoft 365 files explains where to start.
For businesses using SharePoint and OneDrive extensively, we also have a separate guide showing how to check external sharing in SharePoint and OneDrive.
Is Your Microsoft 365 Environment Ready for Copilot?
Before introducing AI to your business data, make sure your Microsoft 365 permissions, sharing, security and configuration are where they should be.
- Review Microsoft 365 security settings
- Identify excessive or historic permissions
- Check SharePoint, OneDrive and external sharing
- Review licensing and user access
Copilot works with the access users already have. A security review can highlight issues before AI makes that information easier to discover.
What Microsoft 365 licences do users need?
The Copilot Business trial sits on top of the user's underlying Microsoft 365 subscription — it does not replace it.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is designed for organisations using:
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft says Copilot Business provides the same Copilot capabilities as its wider Microsoft 365 Copilot offering, but with licensing designed specifically for smaller organisations using Microsoft 365 Business plans.
If you're unsure which underlying Microsoft 365 licence your users should have, see our comparison of Microsoft 365 Business Basic vs Standard vs Premium.
It's also worth reviewing your existing licences before introducing another paid add-on. Businesses often accumulate licences over time as employees change roles, requirements change and services are added.
Our Microsoft 365 Licensing for Business guide explains some of the common licensing mistakes SMEs make and where unnecessary costs can creep in.
Should your business try Microsoft 365 Copilot?
If your organisation already relies heavily on Microsoft 365 and has been considering Copilot, the new 30-day trial provides a much more sensible way to evaluate it than purchasing licences across the business immediately.
But the purpose of the trial should not be to prove that AI is impressive.
It should help you answer three practical questions:
- Where does Copilot genuinely save us time?
- Which employees benefit enough to justify a paid licence?
- Is our Microsoft 365 environment configured appropriately for a wider Copilot rollout?
If you can answer those questions at the end of the 30 days, you'll be in a much stronger position to decide whether Copilot belongs in your business — and how widely it should be deployed.
The biggest mistake would be treating Copilot as just another licence to add to every Microsoft 365 user.
For most SMEs, a targeted rollout to the people and roles where Copilot delivers measurable value is likely to make far more sense.
Interested in the Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trial?
KES can help you assess whether Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is appropriate for your organisation, identify suitable trial users and review the Microsoft 365 environment before Copilot is introduced more widely.
That includes reviewing areas such as licensing, permissions, external sharing and Microsoft 365 security so that the trial starts from a known position rather than simply switching AI on and hoping for the best.
If you're considering Copilot, a sensible first step is making sure the Microsoft 365 environment underneath it is ready.
