Polyant vs Microsoft Copilot Studio.
Polyant and Microsoft Copilot Studio are both solutions for building AI agents in the enterprise. Copilot Studio is the natural choice for those who already rely on Microsoft 365 and Azure as their primary operational platform. Polyant stands out for those who want agent fleets outside the Microsoft perimeter, with contractual EU data residency controlled by the customer, freedom of LLM model choice beyond Azure OpenAI, and a single-interlocutor bundle that includes software, professional services, and managed services.
Two different ecosystems, two adoption strategies.
Polyant and Microsoft Copilot Studio are both mature products for building AI agents in the enterprise, with comparable baseline capabilities on the conversational and operational side: integration with management systems, action execution, and multi-channel distribution. Both are used in production at mid-to-large European companies.
Polyant stands out on three axes relevant to EU companies that do not want to enter or remain within the Microsoft perimeter. The first is data sovereignty: the instance runs on the infrastructure the customer chooses in an EU region, either in their own cloud account or on the European Exelab infrastructure, with data residency declared in the contract. The second is stack freedom: full LLM provider choice (Anthropic, OpenAI directly, AWS Bedrock with its multiple-model range, and internally hosted open source models), with no Azure OpenAI lock-in. The third is the commercial bundle: product + professional services + managed services in a single Exelab contract, with no consumed-credits pricing.
Copilot Studio Microsoft Corp. · USA Copilot Studio is a Microsoft low-code/no-code platform for building and distributing AI agents inside the Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Teams ecosystem. The commercial model combines a Microsoft 365 Copilot per-user subscription, or Copilot Studio standalone with prepaid credits or pay-as-you-go. The agents are natively distributed inside Microsoft 365, across Teams, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365 apps; governance runs through the Power Platform admin center and Microsoft Purview, and the primary AI provider is Azure OpenAI.
Eight purchase dimensions compared.
| Polyant | Microsoft Copilot Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Data sovereignty and residency | Deploy in the customer's cloud account, Exelab infrastructure in EU, or on-premise. Data residency declared in the contract | Microsoft Azure infrastructure with EU regions available; Azure subscription required for standalone agents, agents' operational data inside the Microsoft perimeter |
| EU enterprise vendor | Exelab, EU-headquartered. ISO 27001. HubSpot Elite Solutions Partner, Twilio Gold Partner, vendor qualification on regulated-industry companies | Microsoft Corporation, United States. EU branches present, EU contracts available |
| Purchase model | Product + Exelab professional services + three managed service profiles in a single contract. Contractual SLA, pricing defined in qualification | Microsoft 365 Copilot per-user subscription, or Copilot Studio standalone with prepaid credits (25,000-credit packs) or pay-as-you-go |
| Multi-instance multi-tenant | Native architecture: isolated instances with AES-256-GCM secrets per instance, centralised admin panel | Multi-tenant on Microsoft infrastructure with Azure AD tenant isolation |
| Built-in security and control | Security controls compiled in the runtime, decision registry inspectable via standard SQL, article-by-article AI Act and GDPR mapping | Power Platform admin center governance, agent action audit, Microsoft Purview for data loss prevention on the Microsoft suite |
| Native customer-facing channels | Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, OpenAI-compatible API | Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft 365 apps, websites, voice/telephony via Copilot Studio voice agents |
| AI providers and stack freedom | OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock with access to the leading models (Amazon Nova, Anthropic, Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek, Mistral) under the customer's cloud account | Azure OpenAI as primary provider; integration with Model Context Protocol for additional models, but choices managed inside the Microsoft ecosystem |
| Technical stack and adoption path | TypeScript, NestJS, Next.js, PostgreSQL. Admin panel, channels, built-in controls, memory, and dashboard already ready | Configuration via Copilot Studio Designer (low-code/no-code) + Power Platform for advanced logic; Power Platform skills in the team or via Microsoft partner |
Six situations where Polyant is the most direct choice.
Polyant operates outside the Microsoft ecosystem: the instance runs on the customer's or Exelab's infrastructure, and the agents' operational data does not pass through Azure unless the customer explicitly chooses so. For those who use Microsoft 365 but want independent AI agents, this avoids concentrating another strategic dependency on the same vendor.
Polyant supports Anthropic, OpenAI directly, AWS Bedrock with access to Amazon Nova, Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek, and Mistral, and open source models hosted internally. A CIO assessing a three-year AI stack does not want to be locked into a single model ecosystem.
The instance runs wherever the customer chooses: the customer's cloud account in an EU region, Exelab infrastructure in the EU, or on-premise. LLM models accessed via Bedrock stay in the customer's cloud account. For those with formal sovereignty constraints, or who do not want to tie the agents' operational data to Microsoft, this is a meaningful difference.
EU-headquartered vendor with legal seat in Rome, ISO 27001 certified, with active vendor qualification on banking and insurance procurement, and recognised as a HubSpot Elite Solutions Partner and Twilio Gold Partner. For formal EU requirements (DORA, NIS2, sovereign cloud), the vendor's location is a formal assessment dimension.
Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp Business, OpenAI-compatible API. All native in the runtime core. For the customer service operations of a European bank, insurer, or utility that communicates with end customers on WhatsApp, channel coverage is a structural product capability; Copilot Studio is naturally oriented to Teams and Microsoft channels.
Polyant is open source under AGPLv3. No proprietary black box, no closed Power Platform dependency. The legal team reads the licence, the CIO reads the code, the head of compliance queries the audit registry with their standard SQL client.
Copilot Studio Microsoft Corp. · USA Copilot Studio remains the most direct choice in two scenarios.
For companies already deeply invested in the Microsoft 365 + Azure ecosystem, Copilot Studio offers native integration with Microsoft Graph, distribution across Teams, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365 apps, and access to Azure OpenAI as the primary AI provider. It is the most direct choice when the enterprise strategy aims to extend the Microsoft investment with AI agents inside the suite.
Six substantial differences in the purchase model.
What the vendor delivers to the customer.
Polyant delivers the product, Exelab professional services to build the agents for the customer, and three managed service profiles in a single contract. Microsoft delivers the Copilot Studio platform inside the Microsoft 365 subscription or standalone; the actual construction of the agents is handled by the customer's in-house team with Power Platform skills, or via separate certified Microsoft partners.
Who the typical buyer is.
Polyant is designed to address the needs of a broad mix of corporate functions, with alignment between C-level decision-makers and the CTO/Tech Lead/head of compliance. Copilot Studio primarily speaks to companies that have already chosen Microsoft 365 as their primary operational platform and want to extend that investment with AI agents integrated into the Microsoft work environment.
Where the software runs in the managed model.
Polyant runs in the customer's cloud account in an EU region, on the Exelab infrastructure in EU, or on-premise. Copilot Studio runs on Microsoft Azure infrastructure with EU regions available; Azure subscription is required for standalone scenarios, the agents' operational data stays in the Microsoft perimeter.
How costs are measured.
Polyant pricing is defined during qualification based on the actual use case, with software, professional services, and managed services all covered under contract. Copilot Studio combines the Microsoft 365 Copilot per-user subscription (for those already on M365) or prepaid credits or pay-as-you-go for standalone scenarios, leaving the CFO to assess multiple cost lines that scale with adoption and consumption.
How the product is managed after go-live.
Polyant offers continuous infrastructure management, software maintenance, and operational support under one of its three Exelab managed profiles. Day-to-day agent management either stays with the customer's team via the admin panel or code, or can be delegated to Exelab through dedicated professional services. With Copilot Studio, the infrastructure is managed by Microsoft; operational management of the agents stays with the customer's team — requiring Power Platform skills — or is handled by the Microsoft partner.
What goes into the legal and procurement assessment.
Polyant is delivered by Exelab, EU-headquartered with legal seat in Rome, with service management in an EU region. Copilot Studio is delivered by Microsoft Corporation, headquartered in the United States; EU contracts are available through Azure EU regions. For EU enterprise procurement, vendor location, service delivery region, and data perimeter are all formal assessment dimensions.
Five recurring questions on the comparison.
Yes. Polyant can coexist with Microsoft 365 and integrate Teams as one of its channels, or operate primarily on other channels (WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram) while leaving Teams as an internal operational channel. The key difference from Copilot Studio is that Polyant agents do not run inside the Microsoft ecosystem: the instance runs on the customer's chosen infrastructure, and operational data and audit logs stay within the customer's jurisdiction. Coexistence options are defined during discovery based on the specifics of the case.
The typical timeline for the first agent in production is 4–8 weeks, covering discovery, configuration, integration with the customer's systems, and hand-off to the operations team. For a coordinated squad of multiple agents, the estimate rises to 8–12 weeks. The main factor is the number of integrations with the customer's systems and the complexity of the operational rules. The actual duration is defined during discovery on the specific case.
They are different commercial models. Copilot Studio combines a Microsoft 365 subscription (if the company is already on M365) and consumed credits for the agents' messages, or pay-as-you-go for standalone scenarios. Polyant pricing is defined during qualification for professional services and the managed profile, and is contractually fixed for the agreed scope. A total-cost-of-ownership comparison is done case by case during discovery, depending on the projected volume of agents and actions.
For the customer's legal team, the two key dimensions are the software licence and the data processing location. Polyant is AGPLv3, with the code inspectable before signature; data processing takes place in the jurisdiction the customer chooses. Microsoft Copilot Studio is proprietary, with standard SaaS contracts and data processing on Microsoft Azure infrastructure (EU regions available). The two assessments address different legal and procurement requirements.
WhatsApp is not a native Copilot Studio channel, as it is naturally oriented to Microsoft Teams and other Microsoft suite channels. WhatsApp Business can be integrated via third-party connectors, with custom configuration. In Polyant, WhatsApp Business is a native runtime channel with HMAC verification included, configured by the Exelab team during delivery; the "multi-channel customer service with WhatsApp + internal Slack/Teams" scenario is covered out of the box.
Two steps forward.
Conversation with the Exelab team to reason about the customer's specific use case and the relationship with the current Microsoft ecosystem, or deeper dive on the product to see if Polyant's features answer the customer's needs.