UMass Amherst provides Microsoft Copilot Chat to all students, faculty, and staff through the university's existing Microsoft 365 agreement. When used through the university's license, Copilot is the only AI tool that UMass officially recommends for use in assignments that require students to submit AI-assisted work.

Copilot is built on large language model technology from Microsoft and OpenAI. Because UMass accesses it through an institutional enterprise agreement, user data is protected under FERPA (the federal student privacy law) and is not used to train Microsoft's models. UMass's Center for Teaching and Learning explicitly designates Copilot as "the only recommended option" when instructors require students to use an AI platform to complete coursework — reflecting data privacy requirements that limit which tools can be mandated for student use.