Microsoft has announced that Microsoft 365 Copilot will launch on November 1st for enterprise customers. The announcement was accompanied by a slew of other generative AI updates made during the event, including numerous new AI enhancements for Bing.
The company has been testing Copilot for Microsoft 365 with thousands of enterprise customers through its Early Access Program (EAP) since its initial announcement in March of this year and is now prepared to make it generally available.
Customers interested in using Microsoft 365 Copilot will need to pay $30 per month per user. Currently, Microsoft 365 costs $36 per month with an annual commitment for the cheapest version, E3, that includes desktop and mobile apps. The company had earlier announced that copilot will be available for Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium customers.
The copilot will enable users to automate and speed up tasks across Microsoft 365 products, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. By using easy prompts in natural language, the customers will be able to create new documents, edit existing ones, manage meetings and emails, and receive with various other 365 Suite tasks.
As the Copilot operates within the Microsoft Graph and has access to a user’s or business’s data, including documents, emails, calendar, and chat, it is anticipated to provide considerably more utility compared to using a chatbot like ChatGPT for similar assistance. Perhaps this is why it is priced at $30 per month per user, which is higher than ChatGPT’s charge of $20 per month for Plus users. Duet AI, which is a similar product by Google for it Workspace customers, and was launched less than a month ago, is also priced at $30 per month per user.
Microsoft has also introduced a new component within Copilot: Microsoft 365 Chat. The company has stated that Microsoft 365 Chat extensively scans through the user’s entire work data, including emails, meetings, chats, documents, and web content. Much like a personal assistant, it possesses an in-depth understanding of the user’s role, job responsibilities, priorities, and organizational context.
Its capabilities go beyond simple question-and-answer interactions, providing a significant advantage in handling complex or time-consuming tasks such as drafting strategy documents, arranging business trips, or catching up on emails, said the company in a statement.
Earlier this month, Microsoft also announced the Copilot Copyright Commitment program, which provides legal protection to Copilot customers in cases of potential copyright infringements.
As previously reported, this initiative aims to alleviate customer concerns regarding the risk of intellectual property (IP) infringement claims arising from the use of output generated by the generative AI product. To address these concerns, the company has stated that if a customer faces copyright challenges, Microsoft will assume full responsibility for any potential legal risks involved.
It’s their way of saying they’re fully committed to Copilot and diving headfirst into the world of generative AI in their product lineup.
