Microsoft clearly envisions Copilot, the umbrella brand for its portfolio of AI-powered content generation technologies, becoming an important component of future revenue. Perhaps this is not far from the norm; According to the company, more than 40% of Fortune 100 companies have participated in its Copilot early access program.
But considering huge The Cost of Running GenAI Models in the Cloud Transforming Copilot from a spender into a reliable revenue generator will require sustained, widespread growth, ideally.
Microsoft certainly knows this, as today it is launching a paid, consumer-focused Copilot plan that relaxes eligibility requirements for Copilot’s enterprise-level offerings. The goal appears to be to expand the base of potential Copilot customers who pay to make existing Microsoft services — namely Word, Excel and other apps within the tech giant’s Microsoft 365 family — more attractive through artificial intelligence features.
Copilot Pro – New Consumer Plan, priced at $20 per user per month – gives customers access to Copilot GenAI features across Word, Excel (in preview, English only for now), PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote on PC, Mac, and iPad -If they have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family plan, that is. Copilot Pro does not come with a Microsoft 365 subscription. As with the Copilot Enterprise offering (Copilot for Microsoft 365), it is a premium add-on – bringing the total cost of a lower-tier Microsoft 365 subscription to $27 per month ($6.99 USD per month for Microsoft 365 Personal plus USD 20 for Copilot Pro).
The Microsoft 365 capabilities available with Copilot Pro are the same as enterprise customers have enjoyed for some time.
In Word and OneNote, Copilot writes, edits, summarizes, and creates text. Copilot in Excel and PowerPoint turns natural language commands into designed presentations and data visualizations. In Outlook, Copilot helps craft email responses by using toggles to adapt the length or tone.
In addition to Microsoft 365 upgrades, Copilot Pro subscribers get 100 daily “boosts” in Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator), Microsoft’s AI-powered image creation tool, to speed up the image creation process — plus improved generation quality and formatting options natural views. They have priority access to the latest GenAI models powered by Copilot, including OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo, for what Microsoft claims is better performance during peak times.
In the future, Copilot Pro subscribers will be able to switch between templates depending on their preferences, and if they need more customization, tap into Microsoft’s upcoming Copilot GPT Builder software to create topic-specific “copilots” from sets of prompts.
Copilot GPT Builder looks suspiciously like OpenAI’s recently released GPT Builder for creating custom chatbots powered by OpenAI GenAI models. But one assumes that Copilot GPT Builder will come with Microsoft service and application-specific integrations.
Business co-pilot
As Microsoft rolls out its premium Copilot software to consumers, it’s expanding the service’s availability as well.
Starting today, Copilot is generally available to organizations that subscribe to Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, or Office 365 E3 and Office E5. Previously, Copilot for Microsoft 365 had a minimum purchase of 300 users and required a Microsoft 365 license, but both requirements have been eliminated.
There are a few differences to note between Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Copilot Pro, the most important of which is Copilot in Teams. Enterprise Copilot customers — not consumers — get “Copilot” in Teams that provides real-time summaries and action items, and handles tasks like identifying people to follow up with and creating meeting agendas.
Additionally, Copilot for Microsoft 365 comes with what Microsoft describes as “enterprise-level data protection” and Semantic Index, a back-end system that creates a map of data and content across the organization to allow Copilot to deliver more outwardly personal information and relevant responses.
Copilot can for Microsoft 365 customers too You can access expanded customization options via Copilot Studio, an enhanced version of Copilot GPT Builder. unveil In November, Copilot Studio lets users build their own chatbots and plugins and fine-tune first-party company data.
New free features
Microsoft may be turning its attention to Copilot’s paid plans, but the company isn’t Completely Neglecting free users.
Today marks the launch of Copilot GPTs, which, like OpenAI’s GPTs, are designed specifically for topics of particular interest. A handful of Copilot GPTs were rolled out this morning on Web client For Copilot, it’s set to answer questions about things like fitness, travel, and cooking.
Free mobile app for Copilot – with access to GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 for image creation and the ability to use images on the phone while chatting with Copilot, as well as syncing chat history between mobile, PC and web. Available now for Android and iOS. Microsoft says it is adding Copilot to the Microsoft 365 mobile app for Android and iOS for users with a Microsoft account. Scheduled to roll out next month, Copilot’s integration of the Microsoft 365 mobile app will allow users to export content created with Copilot to a Word or PDF document.
Finally, Microsoft says it’s working to expand the number of languages supported by Copilot. In the first half of 2024, Copilot will expand to include Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian.