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Microsoft wowed everyone with its AI demos in early 2023, causing Google to make an unforced error when it tried to respond. The explosion of interest in AI has made Microsoft trendy again after years of looking like yesterday’s news, and it’s wasting no time monetizing the OpenAI partnership. The ChatGPT-powered Copilot features previously demoed for Microsoft 365 apps are almost ready for prime time, but they won’t be included with the base subscription. Businesses that want Copilot in Office apps, will have to pay an additional $30 per month for every user.
Office 365 Copilot is similar to the Copilot features coming to Windows itself, but it’s focused on generating and analyzing the content inside your documents. For example, you can open a spreadsheet in Excel and ask Copilot to summarize it or find trends in the data. If you have to write a document in Word, you can have Copilot generate a draft for you, and it can even take into account other documents or data connected to your account.
Currently, Microsoft has hundreds of enterprise partners testing Microsoft 365 Copilot for free. While the company has not decided on a launch date, it announced pricing to give businesses time to plan for the vastly increased costs if they choose to add Copilot to their plans. Microsoft says Copilot will cost $30 per month for each user, which is a significant premium over the base subscription. The per-user cost varies based on the plan, but the popular Microsoft 365 Business Standard subscription works out to $12.50 per user, less than half the cost of Copilot.
Microsoft probably doesn’t see a downside to cashing in with Copilot. This feature has the potential to cut down on busy work and make employees more efficient, and Microsoft 365 has a huge enterprise footprint. Microsoft is also probably anxious to earn some money with ChatGPT after it spent billions of dollars investing in GPUs and servers to support OpenAI’s work.
Microsoft will no doubt convince some businesses that are heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem to pay for Copilot, but there are other generative AI systems available. If Office integrations are not top of mind, companies could go with a cheaper option like Google Workspace. Google’s generative AI is evolving just like Microsoft’s, and it’s testing some Copilot-like features in the Workspace office apps. Google hasn’t mentioned an additional fee for AI in Workspace, but it might want help covering the server bills, too.
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