Microsoft has removed the seat minimum for Copilot for Microsoft 365, opening up its enterprise-targeting AI-powered productivity tool to businesses of any size.
When Copilot for 365 launched in November, it was restricted by a 300-seat user minimum, which alienated many SMBs. Priced at $30 per user per month, that was an extra minimum expense of $9000 a month.
Whereas a Microsoft 365 ME3 or M35 license was previously required, Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Business Premium subscribers can buy Copilot for Microsoft 365 at $30 per user per month, while commercial customers can purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365 through Microsoft’s network of Cloud Solution Provider partners.
Yusuf Mehdi, Executive Vice President, Consumer Chief Marketing Officer at Microsoft, said:
To help address those needs, today we’re delighted to announce more options for power users, creators and anyone looking to take their Copilot experience to the next level(…) We’re excited to bring Copilot for Microsoft 365 to more commercial customers by expanding the availability to businesses of all sizes, including small- and medium-sized businesses, starting today.”
Microsoft is pitching this almost as another soft launch for Copilot, given the idea that any organisation could leverage its feature set was something of the expectation before November’s news about the 300-seat minimum. Microsoft is suggesting this update means that 365 Copilot is now generally available for any and all organisations.
Copilot Pro
Microsoft also launched Copilot Pro, a new $20 per user per month subscription aimed at Microsoft 365 Personal and Family consumer users.
Copilot Pro entails a unified AI interface seamlessly operating across various devices, parsing a user’s online context, PC usage, and app interactions. Critically, it grants AI-powered features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote on PC, Mac and iPad for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers while offering priority access to OpenAI’s latest models, beginning with OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo. Copilot Pro allows users access to GPT-4 Turbo during peak times for faster performance.
The Image Creator from Designer, previously known as Bing Image Creator, now offers improved AI image generation capabilities. Users can enjoy enhanced speed with the ability to utilise 100 boosts per day. This update also introduces superior image quality and adds support for landscape image formats.
Users can soon craft their personalised Copilot GPT, fine-tuned for specific topics, using the upcoming Copilot GPT Builder. This process involves a straightforward set of prompts to create a customised Copilot experience.
“The introduction of Copilot Pro, a new premium subscription for individuals that provides a higher tier of service for AI capabilities, brings Copilot AI capabilities to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers, and new capabilities, such as the ability to create Copilot GPTs,” Mehdi added.
Microsoft Doubling Down on Copilot in 2024
Since 2024 kicked off, momentous Copilot news has kept breaking, underlining how serious Microsoft is about its centrality to the company’s long-term strategy.
As part of Microsoft’s campaign, in which it described its ambition for 2024 to be the “year of the AI PC”, a new Copilot key will ship on various new PCs and laptops designed by Microsoft’s partners. The key will grant instant access to Windows Copilot with a single button press.
The key will be located between the “Alt” and left arrow keys on the new keyboards and represents the first change to the PC keyboard since the Windows key was added in 1994.
In other major Copilot news, Microsoft launched Android and iOS apps for the service. The Copilot mobile app is functionally reminiscent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT mobile version, featuring a clean interface in which users can write prompts to ask questions, summarise text, draft emails, blogs and documents. Users can also create images by utilising its DALL-E 3 image creator technology.
The app also encompasses access to one of OpenAI’s latest LLMs, GPT-4, which users have to pay for access to via ChatGPT, and users can download the Android app from the Google Play Store and the iOS version from the Apple App Store now.
Microsoft also expanded its Intelligent Recap capability for Teams Premium to Copilot users. The feature means that Copilot users can request an AI-honed summary of a past video meeting, including timeline markers, screen sharing information, and when the user’s name was mentioned.
