Microsoft makes Copilot available to secure cloud customers
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The General Services Administration previously reached an agreement with Microsoft to offer its services to agencies at discounted rates. The latest announcement makes Copilot available to government customers in GCC-High.
Federal agencies operating in Microsoft’s secure cloud environment will now be able to access Copilot, the tech giant’s artificial intelligence-based chat assistant.
The company announced the news in a Monday blog post, saying that Microsoft 365 Copilot is now available for federal customers in GCC-High. Since last December, Microsoft has also launched Copilot in the GCC and Pentagon cloud environments.
“With Microsoft 365 Copilot, agencies can streamline citizen services by drafting responses and summarizing case files in minutes,” the blog post said. “They can empower staff to manage budgets effectively by analyzing spending trends and generating compliance-ready reports, all within the Microsoft 365 apps where they already work today.”
GCC-High agencies, Microsoft said, will now be able to access a host of features that “are available or have begun rolling out.” These include integrated AI capabilities within other Microsoft products, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams.
“These capabilities are designed to meet the strict compliance and data residency requirements of GCC-High, with all data stored in U.S.-based data centers and managed by screened U.S. personnel,” Microsoft said in its post.
A series of additional features, the company added, “are expected to ship to GCC-High in the first half of 2026.” These include access to ChatGPT-5 and enhanced search and integration services, as well as image generation, a code interpreter and research and analyst agent tools.
Microsoft said all of the soon-to-be deployed capabilities “will be tailored to meet the strict security, compliance, and data residency requirements of GCC-High.”
Monday’s announcement comes after the General Services Administration said in September that it reached an agreement with Microsoft to offer the company’s cloud services suites and cybersecurity tools at discounted rates to federal customers, including for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
In its latest blog post, Microsoft said “for federal agencies in GCC-High who purchase through the GSA, significant discounts are currently available under the OneGov agreement announced in September, including the opportunity to use Microsoft 365 Copilot at no additional cost for up to 12 months with Microsoft 365 G5.”