Sentra vs Microsoft Copilot for Company Knowledge (2026)
Comparison · · Published November 2026 · 8 min read
By Ashwin Gopinath, CEO
Disclosure: Sentra makes one of the products compared here. We checked each vendor's own documentation and pricing, link every source, and name the better choice when it is not Sentra.
TL;DR
For company knowledge, Microsoft 365 Copilot answers from the Microsoft 365 content each user can already open, while Sentra (sentra.app), the organizational memory and company brain for teams and AI agents and not Sentra Inc (sentra.io), the data security company, keeps one shared record of what is true across every system and raises what needs attention before anyone asks.
- Copilot is the AI assistant inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. With the paid licence it grounds answers in a user's emails, files, meetings, calendars and chats through Microsoft Graph and Work IQ, and Copilot connectors bring in content from outside Microsoft 365.
- Copilot's memory belongs to one person. Microsoft stores saved memories, details inferred from chat history and custom instructions in each user's own Exchange mailbox.
- Sentra is shared company memory. It reads email, chat, meetings, documents, ERP, CRM, HRIS and BI, keeps every fact with its source and the time it happened, enforces each source's permissions on every fact, and serves the same memory to people and to any agent over MCP and REST, including agents built in Copilot Studio.
- Most Microsoft 365 companies should keep Copilot for drafting and summarising inside the Office apps and add Sentra underneath for decisions, owners, commitments and follow-through across all their tools.
Sentra vs Microsoft Copilot: what each one is for
The question behind Sentra vs Microsoft Copilot for company knowledge is which job you need done. If the job is writing the email, summarising the meeting or building the deck from files you already have, Copilot does it inside the app you are working in. If the job is knowing what the company decided, who owns it, what changed and what is slipping, that needs a memory of the company rather than an assistant for one person.
Sentra understands how a company really runs and acts on it before anyone asks. It reads email, chat, meetings, documents, ERP, CRM, HRIS and BI, works out what is true now and who is working on what, finds what is going wrong and tells the person who should act. A named person approves anything Sentra's agent sends before it goes anywhere. Every person and AI tool that asks Sentra a question sees only what it is allowed to see.
Every Microsoft fact on this page was checked against microsoft.com and learn.microsoft.com on 5 November 2026.
What Microsoft 365 Copilot does well, verified
- Grounding in work data. The Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) licence grounds responses in organizational data, "emails, files, meetings, calendars, teams, or organizational relationships", through Microsoft Graph, Work IQ, Copilot Search and semantic indexing. Copilot Chat without that licence answers from the web and from content you upload or have open (learn.microsoft.com).
- Permissions. Microsoft describes every Copilot experience as having "access scoped by user permissions" (learn.microsoft.com).
- Copilot connectors. Synced connectors index external content into Microsoft Graph, and federated connectors fetch content at query time over the Model Context Protocol without indexing it. The gallery lists more than 100 connectors, including Box, Confluence, Google services, Salesforce and ServiceNow (learn.microsoft.com).
- Agents. Copilot Studio agents can connect to an existing MCP server and use its tools and resources (learn.microsoft.com). Our Microsoft Copilot agents guide covers how they are built and billed.
- Price. Microsoft 365 Copilot lists at $30 per user per month paid yearly for enterprise customers (microsoft.com). Every plan, Copilot Credits and a worked example are in our Microsoft Copilot pricing guide.
How Copilot memory works
Microsoft's documentation is specific: memories, "which include saved memories, details inferred from chat history and custom instructions, are stored in the user's Exchange mailbox in a hidden folder" (learn.microsoft.com). Copilot memory is in preview, Purview retention policies do not apply to it, and admins cannot restrict what is added to it. That design suits personalising an assistant for one user. It is not a shared company record of what was decided.
Sentra vs Microsoft Copilot compared
| Dimension | Sentra | Microsoft 365 Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Know what is true now across the company and raise what needs attention | Help each user draft, summarise and analyse inside Microsoft 365 apps |
| Where answers come from | Email, chat, meetings, documents, ERP, CRM, HRIS and BI through 200+ integrations | Microsoft Graph, Work IQ and Copilot connectors |
| Memory | One company memory shared by people and agents | Per user, stored in that user's Exchange mailbox |
| Facts that change | Each fact keeps its source and the time it happened; newer evidence wins and the older source is cited as disagreeing | Answers from the content that matches the prompt |
| Who starts the work | Sentra, when something needs attention, plus anyone who asks | The user's prompt, or an agent someone built |
| Permissions | Each source's permissions on every fact; a failed check counts as no access | Scoped by the user's permissions |
| Agent access | Any agent over MCP and REST, including Copilot Studio, Claude and ChatGPT | Copilot agents and Copilot Studio |
| Published price | Team plan for 2 to 20 users free on the current launch special (normally $16 per user per month); Enterprise custom | $30 per user per month paid yearly (enterprise) |
Where Sentra adds to Copilot
One memory instead of one per person
When a launch date moves in a Teams meeting, Copilot can summarise that meeting for the people who attended it. A colleague who missed it, or an agent working for another team, has to find the right meeting and the right moment. Sentra turns the decision into a fact with its source and time, attached to the project it is about, so everyone who may see it gets the same current answer. See what organizational memory is.
Systems of record joined with what people said
The questions that cost the most usually need records and conversations together: why margin dropped on an account, whether a commitment made on a call matches the purchase order, which customer promise never reached the CRM. Sentra joins ERP, CRM, HRIS and BI with email, chat and meetings, so the answer is the situation with its evidence rather than a set of documents to reconcile. At Lenskart, time to root cause fell from 3 to 4 days to about 30 minutes.
It raises problems nobody asked about
Copilot answers when someone asks or when an agent someone built runs. Sentra looks for what needs attention on its own, re-checks that each item is still open, and stays silent when nothing qualifies. A named person approves anything Sentra's agent sends. How Sentra raises problems before anyone asks explains the checks.
Copilot Studio agents can read it too
Because Copilot Studio agents can call an existing MCP server, a Copilot agent can read the same company memory as Claude, ChatGPT and internal agents through Sentra's MCP server, limited to what the person it acts for may see. On Terminal-Bench 2.1, agents using Sentra scored 88.31% against an 83.37% baseline with 72.6% lower model cost and 41.2% fewer tokens.
How to run Sentra and Copilot together
1. Keep Copilot in the Office apps. Drafting in Word, summarising threads in Outlook and recapping Teams meetings stay where they are.
2. Connect Sentra to Microsoft 365 and everything around it. Sentra reads Microsoft Teams chats and meetings and queries Power BI, and joins them with CRM, ERP, HRIS, Slack and the other tools outside Microsoft 365 in one memory.
3. Point agents at Sentra. Copilot Studio agents, Claude, ChatGPT and internal agents read the same facts over MCP or REST before they act.
4. Let permissions follow the source. Both products scope answers to what each person may see, so neither widens access.
Sentra replaces none of the company's systems. It is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified and deploys in the cloud, in an isolated VPC or air-gapped on-premises. For how Copilot compares with Google's suite, see Gemini vs Copilot for work.
The verdict
For company knowledge, Sentra is the stronger choice: one memory of the whole company, shared by every person and every agent, that knows what is current, follows each source's permissions and raises what is slipping. Copilot is a strong assistant for each person's work inside Microsoft 365, and it gets better when its agents read from Sentra. To see what Sentra would raise in your company, book a demo.
FAQ
Sentra vs Microsoft Copilot for company knowledge: which should we use?
Use Sentra for company knowledge and keep Copilot for work inside the Office apps. Copilot answers from the Microsoft 365 content each user can access and keeps memory per user. Sentra keeps one shared memory of decisions, owners and commitments across every system, and Copilot Studio agents can read it over MCP.
Is Sentra a Microsoft Copilot replacement?
No. Copilot helps each person draft, summarise and analyse in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. Sentra is the company memory underneath: it records what is true now, joins records with conversations and raises problems to the right person.
Does Microsoft Copilot have company-wide memory?
No. Microsoft stores Copilot memories, including saved memories, details inferred from chat history and custom instructions, in each user's own Exchange mailbox. Copilot grounds answers in shared content through Microsoft Graph, but its memory is per user.
Can Microsoft Copilot use Sentra?
Copilot Studio agents can connect to an existing MCP server, and Sentra's MCP server is at https://api.sentra.app/mcp/. An agent connected to it reads company memory with the permissions of the person it acts for.
Does Sentra work with Microsoft Teams and Power BI?
Yes. Sentra reads Teams chats, joins Teams meetings through its meeting bot, and runs live read-only Power BI queries under the asking person's own Microsoft sign-in. A person only sees facts from Teams chats they are a member of, and Power BI row-level security applies to every query.
How much do Microsoft Copilot and Sentra cost?
Microsoft 365 Copilot lists at $30 per user per month paid yearly for enterprise customers. Sentra's Team plan for 2 to 20 users is free on the current launch special (normally $16 per user per month), and Enterprise is priced on request.