AI is being embedded into every major productivity platform. If your team uses Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or Notion, you already have access to powerful AI — but which platform’s AI is actually worth using? We tested all three across 15 real workplace scenarios.
Microsoft 365 Copilot: AI for the Enterprise
Microsoft’s AI integration is the most comprehensive and deeply embedded. Copilot appears throughout Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint. The Excel integration is particularly impressive — natural language data analysis, automatic chart creation, and formula generation make it genuinely transformative for spreadsheet-heavy work.
The Teams integration — which summarises meetings, extracts action items, and answers questions about what was discussed — is extraordinary for organisations with heavy meeting cultures. The main barrier: $30/user/month on top of existing Microsoft 365 licences is significant.
Google Workspace AI: Smart and Integrated
Google’s AI integration spans Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet. The Gmail Smart Compose and summarisation features are genuinely useful daily. Duet AI in Docs provides solid writing assistance, and the meeting summaries in Meet are comparable to Microsoft’s.
Google’s advantage is the seamless integration with Google Search — AI features can pull real-time information from the web in ways Microsoft’s cannot. The pricing ($30/user/month) is comparable to Microsoft Copilot.
Notion AI: Best for Modern, Flexible Teams
Notion AI stands out for teams that have already adopted Notion as their knowledge management system. The Q&A feature — which allows you to ask questions about anything in your entire Notion workspace — is uniquely valuable. The AI Autofill for databases is genuinely useful for project management.
At $10/user/month (or $8 if you have a Notion subscription), it’s significantly more affordable than Microsoft or Google options.
