In short: For a company already using Microsoft 365, choosing an alternative to Copilot depends on what’s missing. If the need involves documents stored outside of Microsoft 365 (file servers, NAS, PST or ZIP archives, scanned documents) and verifiable answers from the source, Outmind covers this scope. Glean, Dust, Gemini for Google Workspace, and Slack AI address other priorities: searching within SaaS tools, custom agents, the Google Suite, and email. All five are presented below along with the criteria to help you make a decision.
Microsoft Copilot vs. Outmind: A Comparison
We conducted a detailed comparison between Microsoft Copilot and Outmind for complex document environments: SharePoint, file servers, project archives, and engineering documents.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is the AI assistant built into Microsoft 365 applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint). It writes, summarizes, and responds based on content stored in Microsoft 365 and sources connected via Microsoft Graph connectors. It is billed per user, in addition to Microsoft 365 licenses. For teams whose relevant documents are stored elsewhere (file servers, archives, scans) or who need to verify each response against the original documents, other tools are worth considering.
Intended for: Document-intensive businesses (engineering, construction, consulting, legal) whose documents are spread across Microsoft 365, file servers, and archives.
Outmind is an enterprise search engine integrated with AI assistants. It indexes file servers and NAS devices, SharePoint, emails, PST and ZIP archives, and scanned documents (text recognized by OCR), without migrating the files. Existing access rights are respected: each employee sees only what they are authorized to view. The assistants respond by citing the documents used, allowing each answer to be verified. Pricing is based on the volume of indexed data and AI usage, with no per-user licensing, making it possible to equip an entire workforce. At Setec Bâtiment, the CIO estimates the time savings at about one month of work per year for the project managers and engineers involved.
Detailed Comparison: Outmind vs. Microsoft Copilot · Setec Case Study
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Who it's for: Organizations whose knowledge is scattered across numerous SaaS tools (Slack, Confluence, Jira, Google Drive, Salesforce).
Glean is a platform for enterprise search and AI agents. It indexes several hundred SaaS sources through its connectors, enforces source permissions, and offers assistants and agents. It is billed per user. See our page on alternatives to Glean.
Who it's for: Teams that want to build their own AI agents using their own data and tools.
Dust is a French platform for creating custom AI agents. It connects to a company’s tools, lets users choose the language model, and offers an open API to integrate the agents into existing workflows.
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Intended for: companies using Google Workspace rather than Microsoft 365.
Gemini is the AI assistant built into Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail, and Meet. It serves the same purposes as Copilot within the Google ecosystem: writing, summarizing, analyzing data, and creating presentations—all based on content stored in Google Workspace.
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Who it's for: Teams that do most of their communication through Slack.
Slack AI adds channel and thread summaries, answers to questions based on conversation history, and daily recaps to messaging. Its scope is limited to Slack and the files shared there; it does not cover file servers or archives.
1. Where are your documents? List the locations you actually use: Microsoft 365, file servers, NAS, document management systems, emails, and archives. A tool that doesn’t index a location won’t be able to retrieve documents from it.
2. Verifying answers. An answer must cite the sources used. Otherwise, the teams cannot verify what the AI is claiming.
3. Access rights. The tool must preserve the existing permissions of the sources; otherwise, confidential documents will become visible through search results.
4. Pricing model. Per user or based on data volume: to provide service to an entire population, compare two quotes with equivalent scope.
For more information: A comparison of Outmind and Microsoft Copilot based on 6 criteria.
