Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Enhance your productivity with our advanced AI tools—YU AURA and Microsoft Copilot. These services streamline tasks, improve efficiency, and support your everyday activities.

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Featured Services

Overview

York University's Automated University Response Assistant (YU AURA) is a platform that empowers you to build custom AI solutions in minutes.

Easy Customization—YU AURA is a no-code, user-friendly platform that allows users to create and deploy AI agents in less than 5 minutes without technical knowledge or third-party vendors.
Comprehensive Support—YU AURA provides 24/7 support to York’s students, faculty, and staff.
Educational Innovation—Supports instructors with course design and delivery, merging AI innovation with education.
Advanced Technology—Combines pre-trained language models with advanced indexing technology to securely and efficiently access external information.
Enhanced Security—Utilizes multiple in-house servers to ensure robust data protection and maintain personal information privacy.

Current YU AURA Agents

AL Course Assistant—helps students navigate course logistics and resources.
Research GPT—accelerates literature review to support York researchers.
OUR Assistant—reduces administrative workload for advising staff using Generative AI-powered Tier-1 email support.
SAVY—Our award-winning bilingual GPT-powered AI student virtual assistant.
- Check out the latest news for SAVY!
Procurement Optimization—optimizes procurement processes and services with AI.
Leonie—supports recruitment and provides assistance for prospective students.
LMS Integration—integrates AI into our LMS to help instructors design courses.

How do I access it?

Click here for YU AURA FAQs

Overview

Experience the cutting-edge capabilities of Microsoft Copilot, an AI assistant powered by advanced language models. Copilot helps you get better answers, work more efficiently, and unlock your creativity.

Data Protection—Your personal and company data is not shared outside of York.
Content Generation—draft emails, documents, and other content directly within the Edge browser with AI-assisted writing tools.
Enhanced Browsing—navigate the web more efficiently with predictive search results and autofill capabilities.

The free version of Copilot is only available through your browser and does not include the Copilot for Microsoft 365 service that extends to your Microsoft 365 apps.

How do I Access it?

Visit copilot.microsoft.com. Sign in with your Passport York ID to get access and Enterprise data protection. Check for a green shield to know you're using copilot safely.

Learn more about Copilot >>

Click here for Copilot FAQs

Overview

Unlock the full potential of Microsoft Copilot with the premium version, integrated seamlessly across the entire Microsoft 365 suite. This enhanced Copilot goes beyond the browser, enabling richer functionality across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams to amplify productivity, streamline collaboration, and boost creativity.

Universal Access: Unlike the browser-only free version, the premium Copilot extends across all Microsoft 365 applications, bringing AI-assisted insights, content generation, and data analysis directly into your workspaces.
Advanced Content Generation: Draft emails, generate presentations, and build detailed reports with intelligent suggestions tailored to your content needs.
Data Protection & Compliance: Keep your data safeguarded within York’s ecosystem with M365's robust security measures.
Seamless Workflow Integration: Copilot enhances productivity with predictive task suggestions, workflow automation, and smart data summarization for deeper insights.

How do I access it?

Complete the form below to purchase a premium Copilot license.

The premium Microsoft 365 Copilot license costs $504 CAD per user per financial year (May 1 - April 30).

The total cost is charged to your cost centre upfront, as there’s no monthly payment option. However, if you purchase mid-year, the fee is prorated by month. For example, a license bought in November would cover six months (Nov - Apr), costing half the annual price, $252 CAD.

Frequently Asked Questions

YU AURA FAQs

Does YU AURA share our data with Microsoft?

No, YU AURA doesn’t share your information with Microsoft or any other third parties. While YU AURA uses Microsoft GPT to help generate responses, the data you provide stays with YU AURA.

Copilot FAQs

What are the differences between Copilot Free and Premium?

The biggest difference is that Copilot Free offers basic AI tools only within the browser, while Copilot Premium expands these features across all Microsoft 365 applications for deeper integration and enhanced functionality.

Feature	Copilot Free (Web)	Copilot Premium (M365)
Platform Access	Browser-only	Full Microsoft 365 Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.)
Conversational AI	Yes	Yes
Web Search	Yes	Yes
Image Understanding	Yes	Yes
Image Generation	Yes	Yes
Multilingual Support	Yes	Yes
Empathetic Responses	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Apps Integration	No	Yes
Content Creation	Basic drafting, summarizing, and editing	Advanced drafting, summarizing, and editing across M365 apps
Data Analysis & Visualization	No	Yes, with advanced tools in Excel
Meeting Assistance	No	Yes, with summaries and catch-up on missed meetings
Cross-Application Intelligence	No	Yes, with contextual responses across M365 apps
Workflow Automation	No	Yes, using Copilot Studio

Does Copilot work with my M365 applications?

YorkU's Free Copilot license only covers using the Copilot through your browser, not within M365 applications. However, our premium license works with M365 apps.

Does Copilot share information with OpenAI?

No, Microsoft handles all chat data. With commercial data protection enabled, your data isn’t retained or used to train the models.

What is Enterprise Data protection?

Enterprise Data protection is a security feature in Microsoft Copilot that ensures our organizational data stays safe. When enabled, it prevents chat data from being stored, shared, or used to train AI models. It’s designed to meet York's security and compliance needs and safeguard your personal data.

How does Enterprise Data protection work?

Enterprise Data protection is automatically enabled when you sign in to Copilot using your York account. This ensures that all data processed during your interaction remains secure and is not used for any purpose beyond your specific session. Your data isn’t saved, and no one outside your organization can access it.

Can IT admins monitor my activity or search history in Copilot?

No, IT admins can’t monitor or audit your activity or see your search history in Copilot. Microsoft doesn’t retain chat history when enterprise data protection is enabled.

Does Copilot share my data with Micorosft?

No, Copilot doesn’t share your information outside of York.

How does file upload work in Copilot?

You can upload files like documents, spreadsheets, and images into Copilot for analysis, summarization, and other tasks. Copilot supports many file types, and your data isn’t stored or used to train the model.

Can I use Copilot with any browser?

Yes, Copilot works with Microsoft Edge and other major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Can Copilot handle complex data analysis?

Yes, Copilot uses Python for data analysis, coding, visualization, and more tasks. It even lets you see the code it generates for these tasks.

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