Smart search with Microsoft Copilot or Zenya AI Search: what’s the big difference?

New AI assistants and AI tools are flying around your ears. Chances are your healthcare organisation is already using Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft’s digital companion. At Zenya too, we have added new AI features to our software and continue to develop them. But how do Microsoft Copilot and Zenya AI Search complement each other? In this blog, we zoom in on the differences between smart search with Microsoft Copilot and Zenya AI Search, and how healthcare professionals find the right information faster with both tools.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft’s digital AI assistant designed to inform, inspire and entertain. Using AI, Microsoft Copilot understands requests, answers questions, helps create text and even images. Think of it a bit like an advanced version of well-known OpenAI tools.

Microsoft Copilot is a collection of digital assistants that can be used both privately and for business. And there are both free and paid subscriptions available. For example, you can use basic support in Microsoft 365 for document formatting, e-mail suggestions and task management for free. The goal of Microsoft Copilot is to support users at the right time and place.

What AI functionalities are available in Zenya?

As you may have heard somewhere, we also offer AI functionalities within our software. We have given our quality and risk management software a touch of ‘superpower’ by adding new AI features. In some modules (such as Zenya AUDIT and Zenya FLOW), this is automatically added to the software, other additional functionalities you need to purchase additionally.

Read more about the smart AI functionalities in Zenya.

Which AI assistant suits your organisation?

For us, developing AI features in Zenya is not an end in itself, but a means to make our software more accessible, efficient and user-friendly. It must really add value for end users. Now you may be thinking: which should I choose as a healthcare organisation: Microsoft Copilot or AI in Zenya?

Frank Stege, Innovation Lead at Zenya, answers that question: ‘For us, it is not a question of either Microsoft Copilot or AI in Zenya – the AI solutions can coexist perfectly well and even reinforce each other. Indeed, even within our own organisation, we use both AI solutions. It’s all about which interface and workflow works best for the end user.’

Microsoft Copilot focuses on broad productivity and collaboration within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, while AI in Zenya is specifically aimed at improving information management, compliance and process optimisation within healthcare organisations.

‘Together, they can create a more powerful work environment so that healthcare professionals and organisations can access the right information and support in the most efficient way,’ Frank explains.

What are the differences between smart search with Copilot and Zenya AI Search?

So while there is sometimes overlap between the functionalities of Microsoft Copilot and AI in Zenya, this does not mean that they replace each other. On the contrary, the functionalities of both AI solutions complement each other in most cases.

Let’s zoom in on smart search and how healthcare professionals find the right information faster.

• Zenya AI Search is specifically designed for smart searching within your own Zenya environment. Zenya AI Search searches documents in Zenya, as well as report forms and reports – the standard for healthcare protocols in the Netherlands.
• Microsoft Copilot searches broadly across Microsoft 365, including emails, Microsoft Teams conversations, SharePoint documents and other files.

Copilot is capable of generic searching, which makes the AI tool ideal for retrieving additional context, such as policies discussed in a meeting or action items that resulted from a consultation.

Zenya AI Search, on the other hand, is specifically designed to search within Zenya and healthcare protocols, allowing healthcare professionals to find the right information within Zenya faster, without having to browse through different documents.

Copilot thus offers generic search capabilities – including in information outside your organisation – while Zenya AI Search focuses instead on internal and care-specific knowledge. This is essential in an industry where protocols and guidelines are vital. Zenya AI Search only draws information from your own documents and thus does not ‘make up’ its own answer.

Our vision for AI and integration of Copilot and Zenya AI Search

We want to deploy AI where it really adds value for end users. Our long-term vision is therefore:

• That AI functionalities should make the work of healthcare professionals easier, not more complex;
• We continue to explore how AI can add value in Zenya, such as smart search features, automated analytics and multi-language support;
• We support open integrations so that end users can use Zenya through an interface they prefer.

We are also working on integrating Microsoft Copilot and Zenya AI Search. An end user can then, for example, ask Zenya a question via chat or in a channel in Microsoft Teams. Underwater, Zenya AI Search responds, and the answer is then displayed in Teams. End users thus ask a question in Teams to Zenya, which is then answered by Zenya AI.

‘You should not see AI in Zenya and Microsoft Copilot as competitors, but as two solutions that reinforce each other. By combining both tools, you can make information even more accessible, speed up processes and reduce administrative burdens,’ Frank concludes.

Thus, the right AI tool at the right time ensures more efficient care processes and better patient safety. However, it is important that employees are trained in the proper use of AI applications.

Curious about how other functionalities in Microsoft Copilot and Zenya AI reinforce each other? You can read about that here.