At a Glance: What RIAs Should Know About E5 vs. E7
- Start with how you use AI. If employees are using Copilot primarily to draft, summarize, research and analyze information, E5 may still be the right fit.
- AI agents change the equation. Once AI can access sensitive information, connect to applications or take actions on behalf of your firm, you need more oversight.
- Look beyond Copilot. Identify AI features and agents in your CRM, financial planning software and other applications, particularly where they interact with Microsoft 365 or client data.
- Before moving to E7, review your AI use. Know which AI tools your firm uses, what data they can access and what actions they can take. If agents are becoming part of your workflows, E7 should be part of the conversation.
Microsoft’s new E7 licensing gives financial advisor firms another decision to make:
Do you stay with Microsoft 365 E5 and add Copilot, or does it make sense to move to E7?
The answer depends less on how much your firm wants to use AI and more on how you plan to use it.
There’s a big difference between an employee asking Copilot to summarize a document and an AI agent accessing files, connecting to other applications and completing work on behalf of the firm.
That difference is where the E5 versus E7 conversation gets interesting for RIAs.
Still Researching AI for Your Firm?
If you’re not ready to make decisions about AI tools, agents or licensing yet, start with the basics. Our AI Resource Center for RIAs brings together practical information to help financial advisor firms understand their options, the risks to consider and the questions to ask before moving forward.
From AI Assistants to AI Agents: What’s Changed?
Your employees may already be using AI to summarize meetings, draft emails, research topics or work with documents. These are assistant-style uses of AI: a person asks AI to do something and reviews the result.
AI agents go further. Instead of simply helping someone do their job, an agent can actually do work. It can search files, retrieve information from different systems, interact with applications or trigger a workflow. Depending on how it’s configured, it can work across files, systems and business processes with much less human involvement.
For an RIA, that distinction matters. Some of that work could involve client records and other sensitive information.
The question starts to change from:
“Can our employees use AI securely?”
to:
“Can we see and control what our AI is doing?”
For a regulated financial advisory firm, those are two very different questions.
Think of an AI Agent Like a Digital Employee
Imagine hiring a new employee. You wouldn’t give that person access to every client record, every SharePoint site and every application on their first day.
You would decide what they need access to. You’d put controls around that access. You’d have policies governing what they can do. And, depending on their role, you’d have some level of supervision and recordkeeping.
An AI agent deserves similar scrutiny.
In fact, the potential scale makes that oversight even more important. An agent can work across large amounts of information and multiple systems much faster than a person can.
Before you give an agent access to sensitive information, you should know what it can access, what it can do with that information and how its activity will be monitored.
E7 Adds More Oversight for all AI Agents
E5 plus Copilot can give a firm a very capable Microsoft environment. So the reason to consider E7 isn’t simply that you want AI. The bigger issue is AI governance.
As AI becomes more deeply connected to your firm’s data and applications, you need better visibility into what’s happening. For financial services, that can include questions such as:
- Which AI tools and agents are being used?
- What information can they access?
- What actions are they allowed to take?
- Can you review or audit that activity?
- Are your existing data protection policies also being applied to AI?
- Can your compliance team understand what happened if there’s a problem?
These aren’t theoretical questions if your firm is starting to deploy agents. They’re the same kinds of questions you already ask about people, applications and access to sensitive data.
Your AI Risk Isn’t Limited to Microsoft Copilot
Your firm uses more than Microsoft. You have a CRM, financial planning software, portfolio management systems, client portals, document management tools and other applications connected to your business.
Many of those applications are adding their own AI features. That means the AI governance question can get complicated quickly. You may have Microsoft Copilot in one part of the business while employees use AI features built into several other platforms.
Some of those AI tools may also connect back to information stored in Microsoft 365. So when you’re thinking about AI security, don’t just ask, “Are we using Copilot?” Ask, “Where is AI interacting with our data?”
So, Does Your RIA Need E7?
Not necessarily.
If your employees are primarily using Copilot as an assistant (drafting, summarizing, researching and helping them work more efficiently) E5 may still make sense. That changes when you move into agents and automation.
If you’re planning to build or deploy AI agents, connect AI to sensitive client information, automate business processes or allow AI to take actions across systems, then E7 is a must-have.
If AI is helping your employees do the work, E5 may be enough.
If AI is starting to do the work, it’s time to have a conversation about E7.
That doesn’t mean every firm using an agent automatically needs E7. Your licensing decision should reflect what you’re actually doing, what information is involved and what level of oversight you need. But it does mean that simply adding Copilot licenses and moving on isn’t much of an AI strategy.
The E5 vs. E7 Decision Comes Down to How You Use AI
E5 versus E7 isn’t really a question of whether your firm uses AI. It’s a question of what you’re going to let AI do. For many RIAs, E5 will continue to provide the right foundation, particularly while AI is being used primarily as an employee productivity tool.
But AI agents change the discussion. Once AI can access sensitive information, connect to business systems and take actions on behalf of your firm, visibility and governance become much more important. That’s the point where E7 deserves a closer look.
Not Sure Whether E5 or E7 Is Right for Your Firm?
The answer depends on how your firm is using AI, what information it can access and what you need to monitor. We can help you look at your current Microsoft environment, your plans for AI and whether E5 or E7 makes sense for your firm.