General AI assistant · Checked 9 November 2026
Ziva vs Microsoft 365 Copilot for tenders and RFPs
Microsoft 365 Copilot puts AI inside the apps where most bids are written: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. It sits in your tenant, sees what each person can already open, and many companies already pay for it. Ziva is built for one job: winning tenders. She finds the opportunity, qualifies it on the full package, answers from your approved knowledge with citations, runs review per answer, and returns the buyer’s own files finished. Many bid teams use both.
Choose Ziva if
Tenders and RFPs are a recurring revenue channel, several people review each bid, and the output has to be the buyer’s own Excel and Word files with every claim traceable to approved evidence, not to whatever happens to sit in SharePoint.
Keep Copilot alone if
Your team already lives in Microsoft 365, tender work is occasional, and people are happy to search portals, track review and fill questionnaires themselves with Copilot helping in Word and Excel.
What Ziva watches for you
Copilot starts with a tender someone already found. Ziva starts at the portal.
- Open tenders tracked
- 299,610
- Procurement portals
- 3,150
- Countries, plus EU institutions
- 74
Live count, 9 November 2026, 12:52 UTC, from 10,096 tender sources. Intelligence searches the countries in your plan every week. How we count
Capability by capability
A tender needs 14 capabilities. Copilot covers the general ones well.
For a bid team, “Copilot” means Microsoft’s Copilot in Microsoft 365: Copilot Chat, included at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 plans, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, the paid add-on that grounds answers in your work data and adds Researcher, Notebooks, Cowork and agents. We compare both. GitHub Copilot and the consumer Copilot app are not part of this page. Every Copilot cell links to Microsoft’s own page, and the coverage marks are our classification of those cells.
What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab)Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab)Built for tender work Possible, with manual work Not offered
| Capability | Ziva | Copilot Chat | Microsoft 365 Copilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Find and qualify | |||
| Tender discovery across portals | Ziva Intelligence searches connected procurement portals every week against your company profile and puts relevant tenders in one inbox. Measured 9 November 2026, 12:52 UTC: 299,610 open tenders from 3,150 portals. | Copilot Chat We found no built-in tender feed. Someone searches the portals and uploads the files. What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot No tender feed ships with it. Copilot connectors index your own systems, such as Salesforce or ServiceNow, not procurement portals. Copilot connectors overview(opens in a new tab) |
| Fit screening and a pursue decision | Ziva Each opportunity gets a dossier that cites the tender documents and ends in a pursue, hold, watch or pass recommendation. | Copilot Chat Copilot Chat can assess a tender you upload against what you tell it. It does not search your organization’s files by itself. What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Can weigh a tender against past bids and CRM records the user can access. No standing company profile or opportunity inbox. What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab)Copilot connectors overview(opens in a new tab) |
| Analysis of the complete tender package | Ziva Ziva reads the complete official package (notice, specifications, annexes, forms, price sheets) and returns requirements, risks and evidence gaps. | Copilot Chat Reads the files you upload with a prompt. Microsoft advises splitting long documents and notes that models favour the start and end of a file. A guide on the length of documents that you provide to Copilot(opens in a new tab)What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks gather up to 300 files for one topic. The same guidance on long documents applies, and annexes left out stay unread. How Microsoft Copilot Notebooks works(opens in a new tab)A guide on the length of documents that you provide to Copilot(opens in a new tab) |
| Answer and review | |||
| Answers from approved company knowledge, with citations | Ziva Every answer cites the documents it came from and shows a confidence score. Newer approved wording ranks first. | Copilot Chat Works from what you paste or upload. No library of approved answers and no confidence score per answer. What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Grounds answers in everything the user can open in Microsoft 365, with citations. We found no library of approved answers and no confidence score per answer. Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab)What is Researcher agent in Microsoft Copilot?(opens in a new tab) |
| Review and approval per answer | Ziva Assign one or more reviewers per answer. Answers move from draft to in review to approved or needs revision, with comments, mentions and a restorable history. | Copilot Chat Word comments and tracked changes work on the document. We found no review or approval state per answer. Copilot in Word: new capabilities for document workflows(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Same as Copilot Chat. Comments and tracked changes cover the document, not the approval of each answer. Copilot in Word: new capabilities for document workflows(opens in a new tab) |
| Produce the submission | |||
| The buyer’s own files, filled in place | Ziva Ziva fills the buyer’s Excel workbook cell by cell and writes inside their Word template, keeping tabs, layout and formatting. | Copilot Chat Without the add-on, Copilot in Word and Excel is standard access at most, and some users get chat only. What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Edits the open Word document or Excel workbook in place. Filling a questionnaire from approved answers, cell by cell, is prompt work file by file. Copilot’s agentic capabilities in Word, Excel and PowerPoint are generally available(opens in a new tab)Copilot in Word: new capabilities for document workflows(opens in a new tab)Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Excel(opens in a new tab) |
| Live editing of the submission documents | Ziva Open Word, spreadsheet and presentation files in the browser and edit them where Ziva works. Every accepted save becomes a version you can restore. | Copilot Chat Real-time co-authoring in Word and Excel comes with Microsoft 365 itself. Collaborate on Word documents with real-time co-authoring(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Same as Copilot Chat. Copilot’s saved changes are visible to every co-author. Collaborate on Word documents with real-time co-authoring(opens in a new tab)Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Excel(opens in a new tab) |
| Team, access and control | |||
| One shared workspace per bid | Ziva One Project per tender: files, answers, threads and documents in one place that the whole bid team shares. | Copilot Chat A SharePoint site or Teams channel per bid works, but Copilot Chat sees its files only when you upload them. What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot A SharePoint site or Teams channel per bid, with Copilot grounded in its files, and Notebooks that collect a bid’s references in one place. What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab)How Microsoft Copilot Notebooks works(opens in a new tab) |
| Roles and permissions | Ziva One role list for the organization and every Project. Sharing a Project assigns a role. Custom roles are included. | Copilot Chat SharePoint permission levels (Owners, Members, Visitors) and custom levels decide who sees which file. Understanding permission levels in SharePoint(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Same as Copilot Chat. Copilot shows each user only what they can already open. Understanding permission levels in SharePoint(opens in a new tab)Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab) |
| Single sign-on, provisioning and audit | Ziva SAML and OIDC single sign-on in every Projects plan, SCIM user provisioning, and an audit log with export. | Copilot Chat Microsoft Entra accounts, with Copilot interactions recorded in the Purview audit log. Audit logs for Copilot and AI applications(opens in a new tab)Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Same as Copilot Chat, with advanced admin controls and usage analytics. Audit logs for Copilot and AI applications(opens in a new tab)What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab) |
| Who you pay for | Ziva Priced per project. Unlimited users and unlimited company knowledge in every plan. | Copilot Chat Included at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 plans, which are priced per user. Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab)Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot An add-on per user: USD 30 per month billed annually for enterprises, from USD 21 for businesses. Cowork and other agent work bill by usage. Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab)Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab)What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab) |
| Where the work runs | |||
| Isolated workspace for the work | Ziva Each Project gets its own isolated virtual machine with document tools inside, shared by the team and never shared with another customer. | Copilot Chat Runs in Microsoft’s cloud under your tenant’s protections. Agents that use work data are pay-as-you-go. What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab)Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork carries out multi-step tasks across Microsoft 365 for one person and asks before important actions. Copilot Cowork overview(opens in a new tab) |
| Organization memory and skills | Ziva Organization memory (facts, tone, formatting rules) and organization skills load into every Project automatically. | Copilot Chat Agents grounded in instructions and public websites are included. Agents on work data cost extra. What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork supports custom skills and admin-deployed plugins, and Copilot Studio builds custom agents. Each has to be built and maintained. Copilot Cowork overview(opens in a new tab)Microsoft Copilot Studio overview(opens in a new tab) |
| Data location and model training | Ziva Cloud hosting in Switzerland, the EU or the US. Your data is never used to train models. | Copilot Chat Not used to train foundation models. Stored under Microsoft 365 residency commitments, and EU traffic stays within the EU Data Boundary. Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab) | Microsoft 365 Copilot As Copilot Chat. Some features rely on third-party models that Microsoft excludes from the EU Data Boundary and turns off by default in the EU, EFTA and UK. Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab)Third-party AI subprocessor models in Microsoft Online Services(opens in a new tab) |
One tender, start to finish
Where a general assistant hands the work back to your team.
The same tender, in seven stages. A dashed card marks the points where the work leaves Copilot: a portal search, a review tracker, a copy into the buyer’s template.
2 of 7 stages where the work leaves Copilot
3 of 7 stages your team carries alone with Copilot
1 of 7 stage your team carries alone with Ziva, plus 2 decisions you make with her
1Find the tender
With Copilot Your team Work leaves CopilotSomeone searches the portals or an alert service and saves the documents to SharePoint.
Copilot connectors overview(opens in a new tab)With Ziva ZivaThe notice arrives in your Intelligence inbox from the weekly run across connected portals.
2Decide to bid
With Copilot TogetherYou ask Copilot whether the tender fits. With the add-on it can draw on past bids you can open.
What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab)With Ziva TogetherZiva’s dossier cites the documents and recommends pursue, hold, watch or pass. You decide.
3Read the package
With Copilot CopilotCopilot reads the files you point it to. Microsoft advises splitting long documents, so someone decides what to feed it.
A guide on the length of documents that you provide to Copilot(opens in a new tab)How Microsoft Copilot Notebooks works(opens in a new tab)With Ziva ZivaZiva reads every document in the package and lists requirements, risks and missing evidence.
4Draft the answers
With Copilot CopilotCopilot drafts in Word from content the user can access. Each writer checks whether the source is approved or an old draft.
Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab)With Ziva ZivaAnswers come from your approved company knowledge, each with citations and a confidence score.
5Review and approve
With Copilot Your team Work leaves CopilotReview runs in Word comments and a tracker in Teams or Planner, because answers carry no approval state.
Copilot in Word: new capabilities for document workflows(opens in a new tab)With Ziva TogetherReviewers from sales, legal and delivery approve or send back each answer in the same Project.
6Produce the files
With Copilot TogetherCopilot edits the buyer’s Word and Excel files in place on request. Someone works through every form and cell and checks the layout.
Copilot’s agentic capabilities in Word, Excel and PowerPoint are generally available(opens in a new tab)Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Excel(opens in a new tab)With Ziva ZivaZiva fills the buyer’s workbook and Word templates and assembles the full package.
7Sign and submit
With Copilot Your teamYou sign and submit.
With Ziva Your teamYou check the finished files, sign and submit. Decisions on price and declarations stay with you.
Our bid experts can carry stages 2 to 6 for you in the same Project. You give the facts only you have, decide on price and sign.
Illustrative: one public services tender with a notice, specifications, annexes, a supplier questionnaire in Excel and a Word response template. Copilot steps follow its published features on the plans compared above.
Isolation
Every Project gets its own isolated virtual machine.
The machine belongs to the Project, not to a person. Everyone on the bid works in the same workspace with the same files, whoever opened it first. Customers never share a machine, and you choose where your organization is hosted.
Your organization
Single sign-on, one role list, audit log
- Company knowledge, unlimited
- Organization memory
- Organization skills
Project: hospital IT services tender
Isolated virtual machine
- Shared workspace with every Project file
- Document applications for live editing
- Ziva, with memory and skills loaded
ManagerEditorEditorReviewer
Project: framework for cloud hosting
Isolated virtual machine
- Shared workspace with every Project file
- Document applications for live editing
- Ziva, with memory and skills loaded
ManagerEditorGuest
Kept outside the machine. Files, versions, answers and every conversation are stored durably, so work survives when a machine is replaced.
Controlled access out. No passwords or cloud keys inside the machine. It reaches only approved services: your company knowledge, web research when you turn it on, and connected apps that ask before they change anything.
Another customer
Own organization, own Projects, own machines. Nothing is shared between customers.
Copilot
Copilot runs in Microsoft’s cloud under your tenant’s protections and sees whatever each person can open. Cowork carries out multi-step tasks for one person at a time. Microsoft’s own deployment guidance starts by remediating oversharing, because permissions decide what Copilot surfaces.
Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab)Copilot Cowork overview(opens in a new tab)Secure and governed data foundation for Copilot (oversharing blueprint)(opens in a new tab)Collaboration and access
One role list. Sharing a Project assigns a role.
The same roles apply across your organization and in every Project. Sharing only adds access, never removes it, and the audit log records who did what.
| Permission | Manager | Editor | Reviewer | Viewer | Guest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read and export | |||||
| Review and approve answers | |||||
| Edit files and answers | |||||
| Work with Ziva | |||||
| Share, invite and delete |
Guests see only what is shared with them. Admins can create custom roles with their own permissions.
One bid, one Project, five roles
- Bid manager (Project owner)Manager
- Two solution architectsEditor
- Legal counselReviewer
- Finance leadViewer
- External subcontractorGuest
Illustrative team. Every plan includes unlimited users.
Copilot
Copilot inherits SharePoint and Teams permissions: Owners, Members, Visitors and custom levels. These control who can open a file, not who approves an answer.
Understanding permission levels in SharePoint(opens in a new tab)Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab)What Ziva brings to every bid
Your company’s way of bidding, remembered.
Organization skills
Teach Ziva how your company writes a method statement or prices a lot once. She follows that skill in every Project, and can propose new skills when she spots a repeatable pattern.
Organization memory
Facts, tone, terminology and formatting rules are remembered across Projects, each with the date it was last updated, so Ziva can tell fresh knowledge from stale.
Connected apps
Notion, Atlassian and GitHub, and SharePoint where your admin sets it up. Each user connects them and turns them on per message, and Ziva asks before any change to an external system.
Web research when you want it
Off by default. Turn it on for one message when you need current outside facts, and the answer keeps its source links.
More than 100 languages
Search and answer across languages without a translation step, so a German tender can draw on English evidence.
Live awareness of the bid
Ziva sees which answers are approved, which reviewer still has to sign off and what they commented, as the team works.
Credit where it is due
What Copilot does well.
Copilot is a better choice than Ziva for most work that is not a tender. These are its real strengths.
It lives where bids are written
Copilot works inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, and edits documents and workbooks in place.
What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab)Copilot’s agentic capabilities in Word, Excel and PowerPoint are generally available(opens in a new tab)Already in many companies
Copilot Chat is included with eligible Microsoft 365 plans, and the add-on uses the accounts, files and admin you already run.
Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab)What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab)Inside your tenant
It respects Microsoft 365 permissions and sensitivity labels, logs to Purview and follows the EU Data Boundary. Your data does not train its models.
Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab)Audit logs for Copilot and AI applications(opens in a new tab)Agents and connectors
Researcher for cited reports, Cowork for multi-step tasks, over 100 prebuilt connectors and Copilot Studio for custom agents.
What is Researcher agent in Microsoft Copilot?(opens in a new tab)Copilot Cowork overview(opens in a new tab)Copilot connectors overview(opens in a new tab)Microsoft Copilot Studio overview(opens in a new tab)People, when you want them
Zelius bid experts can take the tender end to end.
A general assistant waits for your next prompt. Zelius, our bid team, works in the same Ziva Project and carries the preparation for you. You confirm once and sign.
How Zelius works →- 1
A fresh perspective and a sparring partner
Our bid experts look at the tender from outside and argue pursuit, positioning and bid strategy with you.
- 2
Buy-side and sell-side experience
People who have written and evaluated tenders. They know how much of a framework is realistically called off, so bid time goes where the budget is real.
- 3
Your effort falls with every tender
Zelius learns your company with each bid. You give only what only you can: missing facts, price decisions and the signature.
- 4
References and partners
Zelius takes the reference work off you, including drafting the requests to your clients, and can introduce co-bidders and subcontractors from its network.
When to use which
Most bid teams use both.
Use Copilot for
- Email, meetings and everyday documents across the company
- Analysis in Excel and decks in PowerPoint
- Searching your own Microsoft 365 content and connected systems
Use Ziva for
- Finding and qualifying tenders every week
- Answering a full tender from approved, cited company knowledge
- Review with named approvers and the buyer’s files returned finished
Use both like this
Keep writing emails, meeting notes and internal decks with Copilot. Run each tender in a Ziva Project, where answers are cited, reviewed and placed in the buyer’s template, and open the finished files in Word and Excel as usual.
Keep Copilot for everyone and give the bid team Ziva. Ziva supports single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID, and every plan includes unlimited users, so legal, finance and subject experts review without a seat budget.
Questions
Ziva vs Copilot: straight answers.
Which Copilot does this page compare?
Microsoft’s Copilot in Microsoft 365: Copilot Chat, included with eligible Microsoft 365 plans, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, the paid add-on with work-data grounding, Researcher, Notebooks, Cowork and agents. GitHub Copilot and the consumer Copilot app are not part of this comparison.
What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab)Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab)Can Microsoft 365 Copilot answer an RFP?
Yes, Copilot can draft answers in Word from files you can access and edit a buyer’s workbook in Excel. What it does not do on its own is find tenders, keep an approved answer library with citations and confidence, track review per answer, or work through a whole questionnaire from approved content. Ziva does those as part of the bid.
Copilot’s agentic capabilities in Word, Excel and PowerPoint are generally available(opens in a new tab)Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab)Does Copilot find public tenders?
We found no built-in tender discovery in Copilot. Its connectors index your own systems, and an agent for portals would have to be built and maintained in Copilot Studio. Ziva Intelligence searches connected procurement portals across many countries every week and qualifies what it finds.
Copilot connectors overview(opens in a new tab)Microsoft Copilot Studio overview(opens in a new tab)Is Copilot safe with our tender files?
Copilot shows each person only what they can already open, and Microsoft states that prompts, responses and work data do not train its foundation models. Because Copilot surfaces anything a user can open, Microsoft’s deployment guidance starts with fixing oversharing in SharePoint. In Ziva, each tender is its own Project, and people get access when it is shared with them in a role.
Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab)Secure and governed data foundation for Copilot (oversharing blueprint)(opens in a new tab)Where is our data processed?
Microsoft states that EU traffic stays within the EU Data Boundary and that customers outside the EU may have queries processed in the US, the EU or other regions. Some Copilot features rely on third-party models that are excluded from the EU Data Boundary and off by default in the EU, EFTA and UK. Ziva offers hosting in Switzerland, the EU or the US and never uses customer data to train models.
Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab)Third-party AI subprocessor models in Microsoft Online Services(opens in a new tab)What do independent evaluations say?
In the UK Department for Business and Trade pilot (late 2024, published August 2025), Copilot users summarised reports and wrote emails faster and better, but did Excel data analysis more slowly and less accurately, and participants reported hallucinations. The pilot predates the agentic Word and Excel features Microsoft made generally available in April 2026.
Evaluation of the M365 Copilot pilot, UK Department for Business and Trade(opens in a new tab)Copilot’s agentic capabilities in Word, Excel and PowerPoint are generally available(opens in a new tab)How do users and pricing compare?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is an add-on per user, USD 30 per month billed annually for enterprises and from USD 21 for businesses, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan. Agent work such as Cowork bills by usage. Ziva is priced per project with unlimited users, so reviewers and subject experts never need a seat.
Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab)Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab)What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab)Can we use Copilot and Ziva together?
Yes. Ziva supports single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID and returns standard Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, so the bid team runs the tender in Ziva while everyone keeps Copilot for everyday work.
Sources and method
We read Microsoft’s own plan, product and help pages on 9 November 2026 and compared Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot. Where we could not confirm a feature on an official page, we say that we did not find it rather than guess. Tender counts come from our live Tender Universe statistics and carry their own time. Zephior publishes this page and sells Ziva. If anything about Copilot has changed, tell us at hello@zephior.com and we will correct it. Product names belong to their owners.
- What is Microsoft Copilot? (licenses compared)(opens in a new tab)
- Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab)
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, plans and pricing(opens in a new tab)
- Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot(opens in a new tab)
- Secure and governed data foundation for Copilot (oversharing blueprint)(opens in a new tab)
- Third-party AI subprocessor models in Microsoft Online Services(opens in a new tab)
- A guide on the length of documents that you provide to Copilot(opens in a new tab)
- How Microsoft Copilot Notebooks works(opens in a new tab)
- Copilot’s agentic capabilities in Word, Excel and PowerPoint are generally available(opens in a new tab)
- Copilot in Word: new capabilities for document workflows(opens in a new tab)
- Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Excel(opens in a new tab)
- Collaborate on Word documents with real-time co-authoring(opens in a new tab)
- Understanding permission levels in SharePoint(opens in a new tab)
- Audit logs for Copilot and AI applications(opens in a new tab)
- What is Researcher agent in Microsoft Copilot?(opens in a new tab)
- Copilot Cowork overview(opens in a new tab)
- Copilot connectors overview(opens in a new tab)
- Microsoft Copilot Studio overview(opens in a new tab)
- Evaluation of the M365 Copilot pilot, UK Department for Business and Trade(opens in a new tab)
Try it on a real bid
Run one tender in Ziva.
Compare it with what you do today.
Use a live tender, or one you submitted before, in your first month. If Ziva does not convince you, you get your money back.