A school on Microsoft 365 should start with what its license already includes: Teach for teacher planning and Study and Learn for students 13 and older, neither of which needs the paid Copilot add-on according to Microsoft's own support pages. Then add Brisk Teaching, Diffit, Kami, Flint or ThingLink only for a job the built-in tools skip, and check how each one connects to Microsoft first, because "works with Microsoft" means sign-in for one tool, a file export for another and a paid Teams app for a third.
The timing matters. Microsoft says that beginning November 1, 2026 it will make the AI Safety and Privacy Standard it negotiated with the American Federation of Teachers available to every US school district (Microsoft fact sheet). That is this Sunday, and it is the reason many districts are asking which AI tools belong in their Microsoft environment.
Which AI tools work with Microsoft 365 and Teams?
Six tools fit the question, and they connect in different ways. Prices and terms below were checked at each vendor's own pages on October 30, 2026; anything I could not confirm is marked "not stated" or "unverified."
| Tool | Best use | How it connects to Microsoft | Price / free tier | Privacy considerations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot (Teach, Study and Learn) | Lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics; student study help | Built into Microsoft 365 Education and Teams | Teach: no paid Copilot license needed (Microsoft) | Data stays in your tenant, says Microsoft; admin controls student access |
| Brisk Teaching | Feedback and resources in the browser; accepts uploaded Word files | Edge add-on; exports .docx and .pptx to OneDrive | Free plan ($0); Premium is quote-based | Custom data agreements on paid plans only |
| Diffit | Leveling a text for different readers | Export only (paid plans) | Free Basic; $14.99/month or $149.99/year | No student logins; says it collects no student data |
| Kami | Annotating and grading documents | Teams app, OneDrive, Microsoft sign-in | Free Basic; Teams app is paid | Students use it directly; vendor cites FERPA and COPPA |
| Flint | Student-facing AI tutor the teacher can see | Students sign in with a Microsoft account | Free up to 80 users; paid from $3,000/year | Under 13 only with school or parent permission |
| ThingLink | Interactive images and 360 media | Lists PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint, OneNote sharing | Teacher License $9/month, billed annually | Children use it at a teacher's direction |
Directory ratings, where they exist: Brisk 4.77 from 35 reviews, Microsoft Copilot 4.67 from 12, ThingLink 4.75 from 8, Diffit 4.20 from 5, Kami 5.00 from 2, and Flint has none yet. Small review counts are a hint, not a verdict.
What the Microsoft and AFT standard changes on November 1
The standard makes vendor promises something a district can enforce. Microsoft's press release is dated September 9, 2026 and says districts can write the protections into their Microsoft customer agreements (Microsoft news). The fact sheet lists commitments including no use of student, educator or customer data to train or improve an AI model "apart from a narrow safety and security exception," no sale or advertising use, a ban on AI companions, and breach reports within 72 hours.
Three things the documents leave open, which is where a district's technology director should push:
- Products. Neither page names which Microsoft products are covered. Ask your Microsoft representative whether Teach, Study and Learn and Copilot Chat are in scope.
- The exception. The "narrow safety and security exception" is not defined on either page.
- Third-party tools. Nothing in the two pages extends the standard to apps such as Brisk or Kami. Treat each of those as needing its own data agreement.
One discrepancy is worth knowing. In my own report on the standard, Microsoft President Brad Smith said a district "doesn't need to do anything to benefit." The fact sheet says districts "can add them to new or existing agreements." Our view: confirm in writing whether your district is covered automatically or has to ask.
Four questions that pick the right tool
- Which account signs in? If teachers and students already have Microsoft accounts, favor tools that accept them (Kami's privacy policy says users can sign on with a Microsoft account; Flint says the same on its pricing page). Brisk's Microsoft page says teachers "will be able to" sign in with Microsoft accounts, which is future tense, so test it. Diffit does not state Microsoft sign-in.
- Where does the finished file go? Word, PowerPoint and OneDrive for Brisk and Diffit exports; a Teams assignment for Kami.
- Do students touch it? Study and Learn is for users 13 and older. Flint allows under 13 with permission. Diffit has no student logins at all.
- Is a data agreement in place for this tool? Microsoft's standard covers Microsoft. Everything else needs its own signature.
Our observation from this run: three tools say "Microsoft" and mean three different things. Diffit's Microsoft support is export only. Brisk's is an Edge add-on plus OneDrive export. Kami's is an app inside Teams, and the Teams integration needs a paid plan (Kami FAQ). Separately, only 7 of the 138 records in the AI Educator Tools directory mention a Microsoft product, against 26 that mention Google's. That counts mentions in listings, not integrations tested, but it explains why Microsoft schools find fewer ready answers.
Microsoft Copilot: the best fit for planning and student study inside your license
Microsoft Copilot is the best fit for teachers who want planning help without adding a vendor, because Teach is free of the paid add-on and sits where the files already live. Teach creates lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics and flashcards and can align text to standards; Microsoft says it is "only available to Faculty/Staff with a Microsoft 365 for Education license" and "does not require a paid Microsoft Copilot license" (Teach). Study and Learn is for "Education users aged 13+" with an A1, A3 or A5 license, at no extra cost, and an administrator must enable Copilot Chat with age controls for learners 13 to 17 (Study and Learn).
Watch out for: Study and Learn runs on web and Windows desktop only, and Teach is invisible until IT turns it on.
Pricing: Copilot Chat is free with an A1, A3 or A5 license (Microsoft FAQ). The full Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on is listed at $18 per user per month, but that page says "accurate as of October 2025," so confirm it (Microsoft).
Safety: Microsoft says data is isolated in your tenant and never used to train foundation models. Its general Copilot privacy page makes the same statement for commercial customers and has no education-specific wording (Microsoft Learn). Your district still decides who gets access.
Choose something else when: you need feedback on student writing in a form the free tools do not offer.
Brisk Teaching: the best fit for feedback on student work inside Edge
Brisk Teaching is the best fit for teachers who give feedback in the browser, because it works as an Edge add-on, accepts uploaded Word documents and exports .docx and .pptx files to OneDrive (Brisk for Microsoft). Its student-facing product, Brisk Boost, is separate from the teacher extension.
Watch out for: The Microsoft sign-in is described in future tense, and Teams and OneNote support are not stated.
Pricing: The free plan is $0; Premium and Intelligence are custom-priced, with no per-teacher figure (Brisk plans).
Safety: Brisk lists a 95% Common Sense Privacy Rating and says it does not sell student data. Custom data privacy agreements appear on Premium and Intelligence. Whether data trains AI models is not stated on the pages I read.
Choose something else when: your teachers work mainly inside Teams assignments; look at Kami.
Diffit: the best fit for leveling one text for a mixed class
Diffit is the best fit for teachers who need the same reading at several levels, because it is built for that single job and exports to Microsoft formats. The export is on paid plans: "Export to Google Docs, Slides, Forms, Classroom, or Microsoft" (Diffit pricing).
Watch out for: Microsoft sign-in, Teams and OneNote are not stated, and there is no browser extension.
Pricing: Free Basic lets you download, print and share, and keeps content from the last 90 days. Individual Premium is $14.99 a month or $149.99 a year in the US, undated on the page (Diffit). School pricing is tiered by enrollment with no figures shown.
Safety: The school page says "No student logins, no student AI." Diffit says it collects no student data and is a signatory to the National Data Privacy Agreement (Diffit privacy). Whether it uses data to train AI is not stated.
Choose something else when: students need to work inside the tool.
Kami: the best fit for annotating and grading documents in Teams
Kami is the best fit for teachers who live in Teams assignments, because Kami says teachers can "assign, grade, and give feedback on student work without leaving Teams" and its tools run inside Word and PowerPoint (Kami for Microsoft).
Watch out for: The Teams integration needs a paid plan. The free Basic plan includes OneDrive integration.
Pricing: The Teacher plan is listed at "USD$149" and the billing period is unclear on the page; new Teacher accounts get a 30-day trial (Kami pricing).
Safety: Students use Kami directly. The privacy policy (last updated March 2026) says Kami opted out of sharing data with Google for model training and sends no data to AI services without teacher or administrator consent (Kami privacy). A student data privacy agreement is not stated.
Choose something else when: you want text leveled or feedback drafted rather than annotation.
Flint: the best fit for a student-facing AI tutor with Microsoft sign-in
Flint is the best fit for a small pilot with students, because students sign in with the Microsoft or Google account the school already issued (Flint pricing). Flint says it can be used by students under 13, and that "schools typically rollout Flint in grades 3 and up."
Watch out for: Flint's school setup page and plain-language privacy page differ on analytics tools, so ask which applies to your service (Flint privacy).
Pricing: Free for up to 80 users; paid plans start at $3,000 a year for up to 150 users.
Safety: The plain-language policy (updated August 3, 2026) says a parent or school must give permission for under-13 use. Whether student data trains models is not stated. Flint does not yet have a page in our directory.
Choose something else when: you do not want students chatting with AI at all; see the teacher-only tools post.
ThingLink: the best fit for interactive images and 360 media in PowerPoint and Teams
ThingLink is the best fit for teachers building interactive visuals, and its K-12 comparison table lists "O365 Sharing integrations: Powerpoint, Teams, SharePoint & OneNote" (ThingLink plans).
Watch out for: The page's check marks did not load when I read it, so which plan includes the Microsoft integrations is unverified. Our directory record mentions Microsoft Immersive Reader support, which the vendor pages I read did not confirm.
Pricing: Teacher License $9 a month billed annually, with 5,000 embedded content views and 25 AI image generations.
Safety: Children may access it "only at the direction of their teacher or school district" (ThingLink privacy, updated June 1, 2026). AI training is not stated.
Choose something else when: the task is text, not visuals; look at the lesson planning and resource creation category.
A worked example: an eighth-grade science unit in a Teams class
This is a hypothetical plan, not a classroom result. A teacher in a district on Microsoft 365 plans a three-week unit on cells.
- In Teach, create the unit plan, then align it to the state standards and add a rubric.
- Use Diffit to level the lab reading, then export it to Word.
- Post the leveled reading as a Teams assignment in Kami so students annotate it, and give feedback there.
- Offer Study and Learn to students 13 and older, only if IT has enabled Copilot Chat for their age group.
- Keep Flint and ThingLink out until a data agreement exists.
What else you will be asked about
I did not verify Microsoft integration for ChatGPT, MagicSchool, Khanmigo or Gemini Notebook in this run, so none appears in the table. For the general-assistant question, see Is ChatGPT enough for teachers?. For a Google-based school, see AI tools that work with Google Classroom.
Before you approve any of the six, use the checklist in AI tools a school can approve and the district technology directors post. To compare more options, browse the collaboration and communication category or the full directory.
Dan Fitzpatrick is the founder of The AI Educator and a Forbes contributor on AI in education.
