Tool comparison
Which AI for salespeople: ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Claude
These are the four tools a sales team can realistically use today. We took the facts from the official documentation of all four vendors and laid them out to answer the questions people ask before deciding: who can build a shared assistant for the team, what works from a phone and what works by voice.
As of August 12, 2026
Two things to know before you choose
01
A tool's name tells you nothing about what you'll get
At each of the four companies, the feature set depends on the plan, the admin settings, the operating system and the region. Two people can both have “ChatGPT” or “Copilot” and work with completely different capabilities.
That is why every feature in the tables below comes with its hard requirement: the plan, the device or a setting controlled by IT.
02
In the default setup, none of the four tools sends an email on its own
The sensible workflow is the same everywhere: the tool prepares a draft, a person reads it and sends it. In ChatGPT, write actions in agents require approval by default. In Claude, the Gmail connector and the Outlook add-in only create drafts, and sending through the Microsoft 365 connector has to be turned on by an admin.
That is good news for a sales team, because working with drafts and approvals can be taught in a single day.
How we name Microsoft products
“Microsoft Copilot” covers several different products, so we stick to one convention throughout this comparison:
- Copilot Chat - included at no extra cost for users with a qualifying Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription, including Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium and Office 365 E1 through E5.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot - a paid add-on license that unlocks Copilot inside the Office apps, voice mode and building your own agents.
This distinction runs through every table below.
A custom assistant for the team
Sales directors most often ask whether they can capture the way the team writes proposals and follow-ups in one assistant and give it to everyone. All four tools can do that. The differences start with who can build the assistant and who it can be shared with.
| Custom assistant | ChatGPT | Gemini | Microsoft Copilot | Claude |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is called | custom GPT for yourself, Workspace Agent for the company | Gem | agent built in Agent Builder | project, plus skills as repeatable procedures |
| Where you build it | browser only | browser only | browser and desktop | browser and desktop app |
| Who can build it | using one: any plan; creating one: a paid plan; Workspace Agent on a business plan, off by default in the enterprise tier | personal account: including the free plan; Workspace account: higher business plans | Microsoft 365 Copilot license; a version grounded only in web knowledge costs nothing extra | projects on every plan, up to five on the free plan; skills on every plan |
| Sharing with the team | with specific people, by link or across the workspace, with permission levels | through Google Drive sharing, on by default in the admin console | within the organization; automatic SharePoint permissions only for security groups | Team and Enterprise plans only |
| Knowledge base | files uploaded to the assistant | local files or files from Drive, always read in their latest version | SharePoint and Microsoft 365 connectors | files uploaded to the project |
| Biggest limitation | a custom GPT remembers nothing between conversations; each one starts from zero | Gems do not work in Live mode; sharing disappears once the knowledge goes beyond local files and Drive | agents do not work in Teams chat; actions in external systems require Copilot Studio | no shared projects on individual plans |
The table scrolls sideways on narrow screens.
Three takeaways from this table
- You build a custom assistant at a computer. None of the four tools lets you do it from a phone.
- OpenAI and Microsoft separate an assistant for one person from an agent for the company. Google and Anthropic have one kind of assistant plus a layer of procedures. For a team, that means a different rollout path and a different owner inside the company.
- The promise most often broken is “the assistant will remember the client.” In ChatGPT, a custom GPT remembers nothing from previous conversations. Continuity comes from a project.
Voice mode
Voice mode is the feature vendors show off most and the one companies misunderstand most. Here is what the documentation says.
| Voice mode | ChatGPT | Gemini | Microsoft Copilot | Claude |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where it works | phone, browser, desktop, CarPlay, background conversations | mobile app only; no browser version | browser, phone, desktop | phone, browser, desktop |
| Plan | all plans, with very different limits | all personal and business plans | Microsoft 365 Copilot license only | all plans, feature in beta |
| Limit | hard time limits per day and per conversation, depending on the plan | usage-based limits, with no separate numbers for this feature | the vendor does not publish a limit | no limit in minutes; conversations count toward plan usage |
| Custom assistant in voice mode | no | no | no | no |
| Access to company data | no connected apps in voice mode | work account: Calendar, Keep and Tasks only | depends on the license | connected tools: email, calendar, documents, team chat |
The table scrolls sideways on narrow screens.
Across all four tools, voice mode is currently a tool for thinking out loud and for dictation. None of the four lets you run a custom assistant with company knowledge by voice.
For a long note after a meeting, dictation is often the safer choice: you see the text before sending it and can correct it. In ChatGPT and in Copilot, dictation is a separate feature from voice conversation, and Microsoft states that dictation audio and transcripts are not stored.
Working from a phone
A salesperson on the road works from a phone. This table shows what you can do there and what you cannot do at all.
| Mobile app | ChatGPT | Gemini | Microsoft Copilot | Claude |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What works | projects (shared ones too), using custom assistants, voice modes, dictation, scheduled tasks with notifications, search across chats and files, CarPlay | the full app, Live mode with camera and screen sharing | chat, search, Library, Agents, Notebooks, voice conversations with a paid license | chat, voice mode, connectors, integrations with the phone's built-in apps |
| What you cannot do | build or edit a custom assistant, call an assistant with “@” in an ongoing conversation, ask about company data, record meetings | create, edit or delete Gems | build an agent | build skills comfortably; local files and browser control require the desktop app |
| The catch | meeting recording works only on macOS, so you cannot get meeting notes from a phone or from Windows | Live mode is not available in the browser, and on a work account it reaches only Calendar, Keep and Tasks | voice mode requires a paid license | some phone features are in beta and not available on every plan |
The table scrolls sideways on narrow screens.
How to choose based on your company's setup
Choosing a tool rarely starts from a blank page. Usually the company already has something, and the decision is what to do with it.
Your company runs on Microsoft 365
Start by checking what you already have. If the company has a qualifying Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription, users get Copilot Chat at no extra cost, with enterprise-grade data protection. Copilot Chat in Outlook understands your mailbox, calendar, meetings and some files, even without a paid license.
Three things to check before paying for the add-on
- Since April 15, 2026, access to Copilot inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint for users without a paid license has been limited or removed, depending on the size of the organization. Outlook keeps Copilot regardless of the license.
- Voice mode and building your own agents require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
- A shared prompt set for the whole team is published by an admin, so a salesperson cannot roll it out alone.
Your company runs on Google Workspace
Gemini works inside Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive through side panels. A Gem can also use knowledge files linked from Drive: you update the price list in Drive and the team assistant has the new version right away.
Three things to check
- Creating your own Gems starts with the higher Workspace plans.
- Gem sharing is on by default in the admin console, so review that setting before you start.
- Starting September 21, 2026, automatic notes in Meet turn on by default on some plans, for meetings with three or more participants. Make that decision in the console before it gets made for you.
Your company has no single standard
Then the choice is wider, and the deciding factor becomes how you want to work as a team.
Two paths that make sense
- ChatGPT on business plans gives you an agent you call with a mention, with a schedule and with limits on write actions, for example restricting the email recipient domain. In the enterprise tier, agents are off by default and an admin turns them on.
- Claude on team plans gives you shared projects per client or segment, each with its own knowledge base and instructions, plus skills as repeatable team standards.
- Either way, a shared team standard requires a business license and a deliberate decision by an admin.
A single salesperson without company support
What counts here is what you can get running on your own in one evening.
What you can start on your own
- Gems are available on Gemini's free personal plan too.
- Projects in Claude work on every plan, with a limit of five on the free plan. Voice mode is available on all plans.
- Building your own GPT in ChatGPT requires a paid plan; you can use GPTs made by others on any plan.
- Copilot Chat requires a work account with a qualifying subscription, so without a company it is out.
- In all four tools, sharing an assistant with the rest of the team almost always requires a business plan.
Four pages with the details
All four pages follow the same section layout, so you can read them side by side and compare them point by point.
ChatGPT for salespeople
Projects as client dossiers, company agents, deep research with control over sources, meeting notes and their hard limits.
Gemini for salespeople
Gems with knowledge from Drive, working in Gmail and Sheets, and Live mode on the road.
Microsoft Copilot for salespeople
What Copilot Chat gives you at no extra cost, what a Microsoft 365 Copilot license adds and what building your own agent on your team's knowledge looks like.
Claude for salespeople
Shared team projects, skills as a working standard, follow-ups as drafts and the limits of the email integrations.
Frequently asked questions
Can I launch our company assistant by voice while driving to a client?
Not in any of the four tools. A custom assistant does not work in voice mode in ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Claude.
Today, voice is good for thinking out loud, for general questions and for dictating a note you read before sending.
Can I build an assistant for the team from my phone?
No. In all four tools, building and editing a custom assistant happens at a computer. The phone is for using one that is already built.
Will any of them send a follow-up automatically?
Not in the default setup. Everywhere, the tool prepares and a person approves: in ChatGPT, write actions in agents require approval, and in Claude the Gmail connector and the Outlook add-in only create drafts, while sending through the Microsoft 365 connector has to be turned on by an admin.
For a sales team, that is good news, because it keeps you in control of what goes out to the client.
Is it worth waiting until things settle down?
The last six months show there is nothing to wait for: features and plan limits have changed in every one of the four tools. That is why this page shows the date of its facts, and every feature comes with its hard requirement.
Habits your team builds in one tool carry over to the next.
How we teach this in the workshop
We don't try to talk anyone into switching tools. Workshop exercises run in whatever the company already has: ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Claude.
Choosing a tool is usually not the first decision. Most companies already have something: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or ChatGPT accounts that salespeople bought on their own. That is why we run the workshop exercises in the tools your team already has.
We agree on the module scope before the training, based on your salespeople's tasks. The team leaves with ready-to-use projects and assistants they work with from the first day after the workshop.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from the official documentation of the four vendors, opened and read on August 12, 2026. We leave prices out on purpose, because they change faster than anything else; check current rates in the vendors' pricing pages linked below.
- OpenAI: ChatGPT pricing
- OpenAI: creating a GPT
- OpenAI: voice mode
- OpenAI: Workspace Agents for Enterprise and Business
- Google: Gemini subscriptions
- Google: Workspace pricing
- Google: Gemini Live
- Google: meeting notes in Meet
- Google: change to default note-taking in Meet
- Google: creating Gems
- Microsoft: managing Copilot and entry points
- Microsoft: voice features
- Microsoft: Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing for enterprise
- Anthropic: pricing and plan comparison
- Anthropic: voice mode
- Anthropic: what projects are
- Anthropic: Microsoft 365 connector
All sources accessed on August 12, 2026. We update this page when features that matter for sales work change.