Microsoft Copilot or Piloti?
Piloti answers planning questions from the nine state building codes and the OIB guidelines and carries them in the project through to the approved file note. Copilot is already built into Microsoft 365 in many offices. Here is what each tool does for building law and planning.
This means Microsoft Copilot, formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot. Details as stated by Microsoft (microsoft.com, learn.microsoft.com), read in September 2026.
In short
For questions on Austrian building law, Piloti is the better choice: it brings the state building codes from RIS and the OIB guidelines, names the edition in force in the state, and carries the answer through to approval in the project. Copilot fits emails and files in Microsoft 365.
What Piloti takes on in a planning office
Piloti works with the building code and building-technology rules of the state your project is in, for Vienna also the Building Technology Ordinance 2023, the Vienna Garage Act 2008 and the MA 37 guidance sheets. It cites the way an official decision does and opens the RIS source at the marked passage.
A question becomes work in the project: “Do the submission check by Friday” runs as a task under your name and your permissions, in-depth research files its report with a findings matrix under “Reports”, and a file note goes to the inbox for approval.
In detail
| Piloti | Microsoft Copilot | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Planning questions on Austrian projects, with evidence, through to the file note and approval | Assistant in Microsoft 365, from Word and Outlook to Teams |
| Knowledge base | State law from RIS, OIB guidelines, register of standards, office archive, project documents, web | The organisation’s Microsoft 365 data via Microsoft Graph: documents, email, calendar, chats, meetings; web search via Bing |
| Permissions | Tasks run under your name and your permissions; no other office sees the office archive | According to Microsoft, shows only what the user has permission to see |
| Building law | State and OIB edition as part of the answer, citation down to section or clause | No body of Austrian building law of its own; answers from your documents and the web |
| Accuracy | Citations checked against the source text before they are shown | Microsoft itself says responses aren’t guaranteed to be 100 % factual |
| Project work | Projects with drawings, versions, project memory, tasks and approval in the inbox | Works in your files and apps; filing and approval stay in SharePoint and Teams as before |
| Training | No training on office data | According to Microsoft, prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren’t used to train foundation models |
Microsoft Copilot details as stated by Microsoft, read in September 2026. If something has changed, write to us and we will correct it.
Where Piloti is ahead
- Austrian building law as its own foundation: nine state building codes from RIS and the OIB guidelines.
- The edition in force in the state. Piloti names it when it changes the value, and asks when the state or building class is missing.
- Drawings as images: Piloti looks at plan and section and marks which drawing on the sheet it read.
- A workflow for planning questions: in-depth research with a report in the project, findings as open points, file notes with Approve, Request changes or Reject.
What Copilot is good for
- Your office’s knowledge where it already lives: minutes, emails, meetings and documents in Microsoft 365, without moving anything.
- Built into Word, Outlook and Teams: summarising emails, following up meetings, writing drafts.
Where Copilot’s building-law answers come from
Copilot answers from two sources: your organisation’s data and the web via Bing. If your SharePoint holds the current version of the building code, Copilot finds it. If it holds an old one, it finds the old one. Which OIB edition is binding in which state, Copilot takes from whatever it happens to find.
Piloti draws on each state’s laws from RIS and names the OIB edition in force there according to the OIB overview when it changes the value. The citation reads the way an official decision writes it: “Bauordnung für Wien, § …”.
How the two fit together
Copilot and Piloti do not exclude each other. For emails, meeting notes and your own Microsoft 365 files, Copilot is the closer tool; for what a project in Salzburg or Tyrol must meet, Piloti.
Documents from SharePoint or the file server come in by upload to the project or the office archive, including whole folders: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, CSV and images. Piloti draws on what is there alongside building law, and no other office sees the office archive.
Good to know
Responsibility for the design stays with the planning office. Piloti names the source of every answer so that you can check it, and asks when a deciding fact such as the state is missing.
Questions
Does Microsoft Copilot handle Austrian building law?
Copilot has no body of state building codes and OIB guidelines of its own. It answers from your files in Microsoft 365 and from the web via Bing, so it is as good as the versions it finds there. Piloti draws on the project’s state law from RIS and the OIB guidelines and checks every citation against the source text.
What does Microsoft Copilot cost?
On its US website, Microsoft lists $30 per user per month, paid yearly, for the Enterprise variant; the Business variant requires a Microsoft 365 Business licence, and Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost for eligible Microsoft 365 users. Pilot offices agree terms directly with us, the founders.
Does Microsoft train on Copilot data?
According to Microsoft, prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph are not used to train foundation models. Piloti does not train models on office data either, and drawings remain the office’s property.
Where does Copilot process data?
Microsoft says it processes Copilot data of European customers within its European data boundary, with exceptions for individual model providers. How Piloti handles data is set out in its privacy policy: no training on office data, drawings remain the office’s property, and no other office sees the office archive.
Read on
- ComparisonsChatGPT or Piloti for building law?
- ComparisonsNotebookLM or Piloti?
- Use casesAsking the office archive: knowledge management in an architecture office
- Building law by stateBuilding law in Vienna: Bauordnung für Wien, WBTV 2023 and OIB guidelines