amberAI vs Microsoft Copilot: A comparison

Many companies ask themselves how they can combine in-house data with generative AI. With amberAI, we offer a strong solution for German SMEs. Nevertheless, we are often compared to the Microsoft Copilot. The Microsoft Copilot – as the price shows, for example – is more suitable for a very select user group in larger companies.

AI is the efficiency driver of the next few years

As Dr Holger Schmidt writes, according to a study of 3,000 companies by IBM, almost all stakeholders have quite a lot of pressure to become active in the field of generative AI.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, productivity can increase by 14% across all departments, and even by up to 400% in certain, knowledge-intensive departments. Therefore, it is high time, also for the German economy, to gain experience with generative AI and to use it in the company.

amberAI – The Best of Corporate Knowledge and AI

amberAI combines the internal knowledge of companies – independent of the data source – with generative AI, taking into account access rights. This allows the employee a kind of sub-company ChatGPT – without using ChatGPT.

Various functions are integrated in amberAI:

• Chat with your company’s know-how.
• Have the results that amberSearch finds quickly summarised and prepared for you
• Ask questions about specific content from your documents
• Generate texts, email responses and more

With amberAI, we make generative AI accessible to every employee and help companies ensure that every employee can realise the added value of modern technologies. In addition, amberAI is equipped with a modern design and is very easy to use. The following things distinguish amberAI:

1. German/European provider, open communication: As a German provider, we know how important the GDPR is for us and our customers. That is why amberAI was developed with a focus on the GDPR. Furthermore, we are very open about how data is processed with us, as we are convinced that this is how a partnership with our customers works on an equal footing. When we host the solution, it is hosted exclusively with German providers in Germany.
2. Cross-vendor support: The biggest advantage of amberAI is that amberSearch is an independent provider and has no interest in continuously disadvantaging certain systems. We are committed to ensuring that whether you are in M365, Atlassian, D.velop or Gitlab & Co, the results are treated equally. In this way, we also ensure that all solutions benefit from generative AI and not just individual systems are made “intelligent”.
3. Support for users: At amberSearch, every customer always has a direct contact person from whom they can get support quickly. We are available at all times and also offer the opportunity to incorporate our customers’ feedback into the further development of our solution. As a young, German company, the contact and partnership basis with our customers is extremely important to us!
4. Support for administrators: In addition to the users, the administrators of our customers also receive direct access to our support. This means they always have a direct line to us and potential feedback reaches the right people.
5. Accessibility of the solution: Another plus point for amberAI is accessibility. Whether as a TeamsApp, web or desktop app, Iframe, Chrome or Outlook plug-in, amberSearch is available to employees in the places where they need amberAI!
6. Out-of-the-box solution: amberSearch can be implemented independently with little effort and does not require a large implementation partner for integration. We are also open about the implementation efforts. This way, an implementation does not turn into a project that is larger than necessary.

Here you get a short insight into amberAI:

The Microsoft Copilot – Limited Integration and the Price Question

Microsoft’s Copilot is a ChatGPT integration that enables large enterprises to intelligently generate information. While Microsoft is undoubtedly a heavyweight in the technology industry, there are some important differences between Copilot and amberAI that should play a role in a company’s decision making. This blog article provides further insight into Copilot. Mary Jo Foley has also written a very good blog article that shows the very high hurdles to the use of Copilot.

1. Focus on Microsoft ecosystem: Copilot is strongly integrated with Microsoft systems. But unfortunately, companies also use various other systems, e.g. drives, Atlassian, DMS or ERP systems. All these systems are ignored by Copilot, but included by amberAI as an overarching solution from an independent vendor.
2. Vendor lock-in/dependence on Microsoft & compliance: While it would be unthinkable for many companies in the hardware sector to become singularly dependent on one provider, this is unfortunately the standard in the software sector. Diversification of software providers thus also helps to minimise business risk. This article shows that this practice of IT decision-makers is already being shamelessly exploited by providers with a monopoly and that dependencies thus already have to be paid for dearly:
   • ITAMChannel: EU Cloud Competitors Accuse Microsoft of Blackmail through Price Increases
3. Price point: Microsoft currently charges a fee of $30 per person per month for Copilot (Bing Chat is not comparable to Copilot). This can quickly lead to significant costs for extensive use, whereas amberAI comes up with much more competitive prices. The goal of amberAI is to reach the masses and make the added values of generative AI accessible to all users. Office package requirements: The use of the Microsoft Copilot requires the use of an expensive Microsoft Office licence, which not every medium-sized company has and can cause further unbudgeted costs. Microsoft’s Copilot is therefore often not financially sustainable for SMEs, while large corporations can more easily integrate such expenses into their budgets.
4. American provider: Microsoft likes to communicate its own high standards to its customers. This article shows that these statements are subsequently only partially adhered to, in that it is about a data leak: Microsoft Security Breach: A Wake-Up Call For Board Of Directors. OpenAI, the company that supplies the technology behind the Copilot, is also not open about this, unlike us, and partly uses customer data to train further models (see blog article). As a European/German provider, amberSearch would have responded with transparent communication at eye level with the customers here.
5. Support for users: As one of the largest software companies in the world, Microsoft now focuses almost exclusively on the very large customers and leaves many other customers behind in self-service or with project partners. As a medium-sized company you will usually never come into direct contact with someone from the Microsoft support team. amberSearch provides a comprehensive support team that is available to users and customers for requests and support.
6. Support for administrators: Microsoft offers practically no support for medium to small accounts. The focus is mainly on large customers, which means that medium-sized companies only receive indirect support via several intermediate stations and have hardly any opportunities to influence product development. This situation means that support for medium-sized accounts is practically non-existent and the needs of this customer group are neglected and instead mapped via implementation partners.
7. Project burden for SMEs: due to the complexity of a Microsoft implementation, most SMEs have expensive consultants at their side who set up such systems for them. Thus, the implementation of an actually simple solution quickly becomes much more complex and expensive than it should actually be for an SME target group. In contrast, the introduction of amberAI is designed to be much more streamlined for medium-sized companies.

Conclusion: The areas in which amberAI is convincing

One point that is likely to cause conflict for many SME customers is the exclusivity of use that Microsoft ensures through its pricing. Precisely because of the topicality of the subject, many employees would like to work with generative solutions in the company. In times of a shortage of skilled workers and demographic change, a knowledge exchange optimised by generative AI could lead to false motivation at companies due to false incentives and leave potential at the customer’s disposal.

The comparison as well as the argumentation clearly show that amberAI offers clear advantages over Microsoft Copilot in several crucial areas.

1. Price: With a competitive price point, amberAI enables broad accessibility to generative AI, while Copilot is burdened with higher costs.
2. European provider: The increased data protection and clear compliance with the GDPR by amberAI underlines its responsibility and commitment to protecting customer data, in contrast to Microsoft’s less transparent approach.
3. Reduction lock-in effect: amberAI’s cross-vendor feature allows results to be treated equally regardless of systems, while the copilot is limited to Microsoft platforms.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions.